Jay McCarthy took the biggest result of his young career when he finished third in today's stage of the Giro d'Italia. The Tinkoff-Saxo team was full of praise for their young Australian who handled the finale excellently.

Today’s 17th stage of Giro d’Italia was a precious opportunity for the sprinters or a big break as the 208 kilometer long stretch from Sarnonico to Vittorio Veneto was slightly hilly with a flat run-in to the finish line. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Evgeny Petrov and Jay McCarthy didn’t hesitate and took part of the long-lasting breakaway.
 
It soon became clear to everyone that today’s stage winner was riding in the breakaway as Movistar moved in a steady pace and no one was interested in closing the gap. With 30 kilometers to go, Thomas de Gendt (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) launched in the first attack in the breakaway and on the final category-4 climb, Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) bridged the gap to Gendt.
 
But Tinkoff-Saxo’s Jay McCarthy made it to the front group again with 10 kilometers to go and along with Gendt, Pirazzi, Matteo Montaguti (AG2R) and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol), they were to decide the stage. Pirazzi leaped off with one kilometer to go and he kept the pace all the way in and took the stage win and the third for his team in the Giro.
 
The young Jay McCarthy did a great sprint to the line and finished third.
 
“It took a while for the right breakaway to go but when it finally did, they soon disappeared in the distance and we were in a great position with both Evgeny and Jay up front. After De Gendt had launched his attack, we knew we had to bridge and Jay made it perfectly to the front and he did a splendid finale. He’s still very young and this is absolutely a great result for him. In the pack, we gathered around Rafal to protect him on the slippery surface as it began to rain towards the end of the stage. Now, it’s to do the mountain time trial and there’s not much else to do but to ride as hard as we can and hope for the best,” said DS, Lars Michaelsen after the stage.