After yesterday’s turbulent day of racing that saw half the team hit the deck,ORICA-GreenEDGE has fought on in a day of recovery on stage three of Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy.

Dane Magnus Cort was the team’s top performer, as the 22-year-old neo-pro continued to test the waters in the WorldTour, good enough for 28th. 

BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet won the stage that was characterised by a kilometre uphill kick to the line and moved into the race lead whilst ORICA-GreenEDGE’s general classification rider Adam Yates was safely in the bunch and given same time.

“All of the injured boys got through unscathed and live to fight another day tomorrow,” sport director Matt White said.

“Adam is still where he needs to be for general classification and the good news is that he is not injured other than the skin off his face.”

The 203km stage made its way over two categorised climbs before finishing with five laps of an 11km finishing circuit.

A break of five had just over five minutes advantage heading into the second half of the race, but a motivated Tinkoff – Saxo outfit kept the pace of the peloton moving in support of Peter Sagan, who eventually finished third.

BMC Racing, Team Sky and IAM cycling also showed their colours at the front of the peloton as the break was swept up with 18km remaining and teams prepared to launch their punchy climbers up the decisive final kilometre climb.

Tomorrow’s 226km stage four is the longest of the Tour and features four climbs. The biggest challenge presents itself mid-race before two late climbs in the last 15km threaten to start shaking up the general classification leader board.