Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) completed his hat-trick with a third win in as many days at the CRO Race, narrowly pipping Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) to the line in Rijeka after a hard-fought sprint on stage 3.
Turner was guided well into the final kilometre and opened up his sprint first, launching out of his teammates' slipstreams, but Magnier still had enough in the tank to sprint alongside the Brit and beat him with a perfectly timed bike throw.
With both men finishing at full stretch, they were unsure who had taken the victory, but the slo-mo replays showed that Magnier took it by half a wheel. Oded Kogut (Israel-Premier Tech) finished third as he did on stage 1.
"It was close today, but I’m happy I had that something extra needed to clinch the win," said Magnier. "It’s another success that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the whole team, as they reeled in all the attacks that came on the descent and once again put me in a perfect position for the sprint.
"Friday’s stage should be too hard for me, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try to get a good result, as we have some really strong guys in the squad. It’s great to have three wins under the belt and I hope to get another chance to go for a victory by Sunday, when the race concludes."
Having won the opener and the wind-shortened stage yesterday, Magnier extended his lead and time in the red jersey. He'll face the hardest test so far on Friday, with a 190km stage from Krk to Labin, which concludes with an uphill kick to the line.
Thursday's victory marked Magnier's eighth from his past nine race days, and his 18th professional win.
The early breakaway of five led for much of the day on stage 3 of the CRO Race, as action headed 150km northwest from Gospić back to Rijeka on the coast, and they did make it over the two categorised climbs of the day. But the undulating final 20km saw their lead decrease significantly.
Soudal-QuickStep did the lion's share of the work, looking for a hat-trick with sprinter Paul Magnier, though Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Bahrain-Victorious did begin to offer up riders in the chase as well, with a minute still to make up on those in front with 16km to go.
Martin Voltr (ATT Investments) was the final survivor from the break, but his day in front ended in the last 11.8km. While the roads to the finish were far from completely flat, Magnier was still in pole position to take another victory.
An attack from an Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider forced Soudal-QuickStep to burn resources marking them, but as the race descended towards the Kvarner Bay, it became clear it was going to be another bunch sprint.
Ineos Grenadiers led into the final kilometre for Ben Turner, but Magnier moved up perfectly around the last corner, ready to launch his sprint. Turner went first after letting his lead-out riders build up a lead, trying to slingshot out of their wheels. It was late, leaving the Frenchman little time to react, but Magnier was able to pass him just in time to take the win.
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