2026 Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Paul Magnier (SOQ) bagged his second stage victory in the Giro's opening three days when he outsprinted Jonathan Milan (LTK) and Dylan Groenewegen (URR) in an extremely tight finish in the center of Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia. The young Frenchman was an aero rim's width clear of the Italian on his right, while the Dutchman to his left was only an inch or two further back.
The stage followed the pattern of the first two days, as a small breakaway group attacked right from the start in Plovdiv. As on the previous two days, mountains leader Diego Sevilla (PTV) was in it, along with teammate Alessandro Tonelli (PTV) and Manuele Tarozzi (BCS), who'd been in the break with Sevilla on day one.
Their lead quickly rose to 3'45", although they were then kept on a tigther leash, with the peloton holding the gap below 3 minutes.
The trio divided the spoils as they advanced on Sofia. Tarozzi won the intermediate sprint, Sevilla then led over the 2nd-category Borovets Pass to increase his lead in the mountains competition. The pair finally went head to head at the Red Bull KM sprint, 13km from Sofia, where Tarozzi was the narrow victor.
At that point, their lead had been reduced to around 30 seconds. The catch by the peloton looked imminent. Amazingly, though, the trio held on until they were in the heart of Sofia. They led by 19" with 3km to go and still had a lead of 9 seconds going into the final kilometer.
The bunch was motoring flat out by that point and caught them 500m from the line, with Unibet Rose Rockets well set to lead out Groenewegen for the finish. It was Milan, though, who moved first, his thighs pumping furiously, his upper body bobbing frantically. He got a gap, but then lost some of his momentum on the cobbles in the final 200m.
As Milan faltered, Magnier surged, the Frenchman timing his sprint to perfection to take his second victory and extend his lead in the points competition. There was no significant change in the GC standings, where Thomas Silva (XAT) retained his overall lead ahead of the first stage in Italy on Tuesday.
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