The 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia showed Diego Ulissi in the front end of the race.

The Tuscan rider joined a 25-rider breakaway which took off 3km intp the race (136 km from Rapallo to Sestri Levante). Manuele Mori was the other LAMPRE-MERIDA rider and he supported Ulissi in the breakaway.

Considering the high number of the attackers, the peloton did not give them much advantage, controlling the gap. However Ulissi had the opportunity to demonstrate that his form is improving and that his legs were competitive on the two climbs of the stage (Colle Caprile and Barbagelata).

The breakaway was finally neutralized in the run-in to Sestri Levante and Matthews beat 73 riders in the final sprint. In the front group there were 4 blue-fuchsia-green riders: Polanc (22nd), Grmay (58th), Ulissi (68th) and Niemiec (69th).

Matthews is the leader of the overall classification, Polanc is 62nd at 2'18".

"My aim for today's  stage was to check my feelings and to evaluate how my legs would react in a breakaway," Diego Ulissi explained. "I had good feedbacks, I succeeded in approaching the climbs without too much effort, but the breakaway did not receive the necessary freedom from the bunch: 25 riders was too large a number.

"I thank Mori who supported me in the breakaway. My form is improving, my legs supported me in a good way on the climbs and I noticed that the team is strong enpugh to chase a good result."

Sports director Orlando Maini pointed out how "important it is for LAMPRE-MERIDA to have seen the improvements of Diego Ulissi: he's motivated and he will be competitive in the next stages. We received also good feedbacks from Grmay, Polanc and Niemiec.

"We also appreciated the feeling between Xu Gang and the rest of the team: he succeeded in being important for his team mates and he'll have his chances soon."