After a bunch sprint, Bartłomiej Matysiak took 5th on stage 3 of Settimana Coppi e Bartali. Francesco Chicchi claimed the victory.

“The finale of today’s flat stage consisted of 10 laps. We agreed that I will be the one to sprint since Grega Bole was not feeling very well. I was well positioned for the finish and Grega gave me a very good lead out. I fell short of the podium and took 5th, which is the third time this year I’ve finished in this place. It was a fast sprint, for typical sprinters. I prefer those were the road goes slightly uphill. We rode very well as a team and everyone gave 100%,” Bartłomiej Matysiak said after the stage to the CCC Sprandi website.

There were no CCC Sprandi Polkowice representatives in the 11-man break that pulled away early in the stage. Dylan Girdlestone (Drapac), Carlos Galviz (Androni-Sidermec), Giorgio Cecchinel (Southeast), Johann Van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka), Silvan Dietrich, Giacomo Tomio (both Roth – Skoda), Matteo Malucelli (Team Idea), Gian Marco Di Francesco (MG.Kvis – Vega), Enea Cambianica (Meridiana – Kamen), Omar Mendoza (Movistar CT) and Frantisek Sisr (Dukla Praha) were riding in the front, at one point building a 2:30 gap.

The Sky-led peloton was making sure that no GC changes were being made on the stage and wanted to bring the escape back to the field. They made it happen with 15km to go.

As expected the stage was decided in a bunch sprint. In the final 1km there was a crash in the peloton but it didn’t have a big impact on the results of the sprint. Bartłomiej Matysiak managed to cross the line in 5th place, while Francesco Chicchi took the win ahead of Manuele Belletti and Daniele Colli.