BMC Racing Team's Taylor Phinney sprinted to third place Sunday at Giro di Toscana, matching his best result of the season.

Mattia Gavazzi (Androni-Venezuela) won the 199.8 km race, with Ivan Rovny (Flaminia Fondriest) just pipping Phinney at the line for the runner-up spot. Phinney said he knew the finishing circuit well from helping teammate Alessandro Ballan win this race last year.

"I started thinking about the sprint and going for the win in the last couple of km," he said. "I closed a bit of a gap to a guy who went early, with about 300 meters to go. I came around him with about 100 meters to go, but unfortunately I didn't quite have enough gas to hold off Gavazzi and Rovny. It's a really nice feeling to be back at the front of a race like that, though, especially since it was full gas all day, up and down."

The result in the race that was run close to Phinney's European home matched his previous season-best performances: third-place on Stage 6 of the Tour of Oman and third place overall at the Tour of Qatar, both in the month of February. It was also the third straight season the BMC Racing Team has placed a rider on the podium at Toscana, following last year's win by Ballan and a runner-up finish by Mauro Santambrogio in 2011.