With Richie Porte out of both the Giro and the Giro del Trentino, Kanstantsin Siutsou gets a rare chance to ride for himself in both races and he seems to be ready to be one of the Sky protagonists in the Italian grand tour. Today he defended himself well on a Trentino stage that didn't suit him at all and is now close to a top 10 finish.

Kanstantsin Siutsou sits just 11 seconds off the top 10 after a tough third stage at the Giro del Trentino. The Belarusian finished 15th on the Roncone summit finish with team-mate Philip Deignan two places further back.

Despite the short, steep nature of the climb not suiting Siutsou, the Team Sky rider has put himself in position to target a top-10 finish on Friday, heading into the deciding stage with a view to moving up the general classification.

As the race departed Mori Team Sky were keen to ensure a rider got in the break, controlling the early going. That vigilance paid off as Dario Cataldo made his way up the road in a sizeable group of 12 riders on the hour mark.

Cadel Evans solidified his race lead and continued his momentum in the build-up to the Giro d'Italia with an impressive stage win, fending off his rivals on the steep final climb.

Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) came home three seconds behind Evans after the pair had formed part of a five-man group which stole clear late on. Astana team-mates Mikel Landa and Michele Scarponi were nine and 18 seconds back respectively after the 184.4-kilometre test.

With the day's break swept up it was Team Sky who hit the front heading onto the final second-category climb. Attacks had arrived on the drag up to Breguzzo but it was left to the pink jersey of Evans to light up the race on the second summit finish in succession.

The result sees Evans take a lead of 45 seconds over Pozzovivo into a selective fourth and final stage on Friday. The battle for the final podium spot is much tighter, with seven riders separated by the same amount of seconds.

"We had Kosta (Siutsou) looking at GC but Cataldo, Ian (Boswell), (Salvatore) Puccio and also Philip were free to go up the road," explained Sports Director Dario Cioni.

"We said in the team meeting that we wanted to put someone in the break because you never know what will happen. The bunch only caught the guys really late today and sometimes a group can stay away on a stage like this.

"Cadel is riding really well and it was a good finish for him. But sometimes the peloton is happy to let a break go away. We took a chance and got Dario into the break. He was driving it on the first-cat climb but then the group basically split in two. He was in the second split so at that point we switched to the GC and got behind Kosta.

"The plan was for Brad (Wiggins) to make sure Kosta and Philip were positioned well at the bottom of the last climb. But with it being quite short and steep it’s not Kosta’s speciality. Today was a bit more a case of defending, ahead of the longer climb which will suit him a lot better."