Diego Ulissi obtained his 47th career victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Austria, Schladming-St Johann Alpendorf (153,1 km).
On the short but pretty steep final hill (2,5 km at 6,5%), the UAE Team Emirates rider displayed his skills that allowed him to precede Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and teammate Felix Grossschartner (3rd) after a two-rider breakaway had been neutralised at 2 km to the arrival.
Thanks to the victory, Ulissi became the new leader of the GC with 1” on Sheffield: he will wear the leader jersey in stage 4, St. Johann Alpendorf-Kals, 151,7 km with the HC climb of Fuscher Torl (17,5 km at 8,8%) in in the middle of the course.
Ulissi said: “I’m very happy with this win. It wasn’t originally even on my program to be here in Austria, but I’ve been training really well these past weeks and knew my condition was good. Today was a finish that suited my characteristics, and thanks to the help of my teammates, in particular Felix and Jan, we managed to pull off the win. We’ll aim to take the yellow jersey home in the team over the remaining stages.”