Michael Matthews takes win as Domenico Pozzovivo crashes out

Matthews, the pink jersey, beat Italy's Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing) and Belgium's Philippe Gilbert (BMC) to win a tight bunch sprint at the end of an undulating 136km stage through the hills of Liguria.

Victory for Matthews saw the 24-year-old from Canberra extend his race lead to six seconds over team-mate Simon Clarke after Orica-GreenEdge continued to build on their near-perfect start to the race.

But the stage was marred by a high-speed crash involving Italian climber Pozzovivo, whose front wheel appeared to slide beneath him on a descent around 40km from the finish. The Ag2R-La Mondiale rider lay bloody and motionless on the road for quite some time before he was attended to by medics and taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Pozzovivo's team confirmed that the rider was "lucid and breathing" en route to hospital. Race doctor Giovanni Tredici later described the 32-year-old's condition as "serious but under control".

Matthews said he was shocked by Pozzovivo’s crash and dedicated his win to the pint-sized Italian climber. The race leader also praised his team-mates for writing another flowery chapter in their fairy tale Giro.

"It’s been a dream come true so far for this Giro d’Italia,” said an ecstatic Matthews. "We planned to get the team time trial win [on Saturday] and this was another big goal for us. We reconned it last we knew what was coming.”

With two men placed in the day’s decisive break, Orica-GreenEdge could take a back seat in the peloton as the Tinkoff-Saxo team of race favourite Alberto Contador led the chase alongside Team Sky and Astana.

One of those escapees, Simon Clarke, picked up enough bonus seconds in the two intermediate sprints to give himself the virtual race lead and another security blanket for his team.

Even better, Clarke countered every attack from the break – including a last-ditch attempt inside the final kilometres by Russian Pavel Kochetkov, the Katusha rider who had earlier attacked near the summit of the second categorised climb of the day.

Those last two escapees were swept up inside the final 3km on the outskirts of Sestri Levante before Simon Gerrans led out Matthews for a textbook win, rounding Felline inside the final 50m to take the second Giro stage win of his career.

"We went for it right from the very start. Having two riders in the break took a lot of the pressure off us and I was able to save my legs on the climb,” said Matthews.

"I recovered on the descent and then kept out of the wind on the flat. I had a really good rider in Simon Gerrans for the lead out and I had enough for the sprint win.”

BIG BREAK: Around 25 riders managed to break clear of the pack shortly after the start of the stage at Rapallo, including birthday boy Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), Orica-GreenEdge pair Clarke and Esteban Chaves, and Belgians Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) and Gilbert.

Italy’s Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF) attacked near the summit of the first categorised climb after 22km to take maximum points before opening up a little gap on the descent.

With Tinkoff-Saxo setting a fast tempo back in the peloton, the advantage of the break never stretched out much more than a minute, with riders coming and going before things started to settle.

Once Zardiani was reeled in, Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Garmin) both tried their luck before a leading group of 21 riders eventually formed on the series of uphill drags leading to the main test of the day, the Cat.2 ascent to Barbagelata.

KOCHETKOV ATTACK: The Russian rouleur put in his decisive dig one kilometre from the summit of the climb before picking up KOM maximum points to ensure the blue mountains jersey.

With Kochetkov riding with around 15 seconds to play with, a ten-man chasing group formed featuring CCC Sprandi Polkowice pair Branislau Samoilau and Maciej Paterski, Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), as well as Ulissi, Hansen, Gilbert, Villella and Clarke.

The peloton crested the summit just 45 seconds behind with Boaro’s Tinkoff-Saxo team-mates still driving the pace on the front. By the time Pozzovivo crashed heavily on a sweeping right-hand bend, most of the top sprinters – including German national champion Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Sunday’s stage two winner Elia Viviani, the red jersey from Team Sky – had been distanced.

Kochetkov’s lead over the pack had stretched out to over one minute by the time he completed the descent – but with 20km still left to ride it was always going to be a big ask for the rangy 29-year-old.

Hansen took advantage of a moment of indecision among the chasing group to launch a counter attack with 14km remaining, the Australian sniffing an opportunity for a win on his 34th birthday. Clarke latched onto his compatriot’s wheel and – along with Paterski – they were able to reel in Kochetkov inside the final 10km.

But with peloton riding at a fast tempo on the approach to the finish, the four leaders were soon caught – not before Kochetkov rolled the die for a final time with a last-ditch attack inside the last 3km.

ORICA MASTERCLASS: Having neutralised the Russian’s attack, Clarke joined the Orica-GreenEdge train before passing on the reins to Gerrans, the race’s first maglia rosa.

Gerrans used his experience to propel Matthews to the line and the Australian team ensured that stage 3 kept very much to script. Matthews leads Clarke by six seconds at the top of the standings, with Gerrans and Chaves a further four seconds back.

Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) is fifth at 17 seconds just ahead of Spanish team-mate and race favourite Contador.

Tuesday’s 150km fourth stage from Chiavari to La Spezia is another undulating affair with a series of peaks and two categorised climbs ahead of a flat finish.