Thomas takes Tirreno lead, Roglic soars to stage win

Rome - Former ski jumper Primoz Roglic of Lotto NL won the third stage of cycling's Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday after a 239km rolling run from Follonica ended with a steep climb to Trevi.

On the final ascent the Slovene Roglic edged Briton Adam Yates by 3sec and Belgian Tiesj Benoot by 6sec, while Team Sky's Geraint Thomas was fourth at 7sec.

Thomas however took the overall lead from overnight blue jersey, the New Zealander Patrick Bevin of BMC.

Breathing down Thomas' neck is the powerful roller and Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet while Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana champion Chris Froome is only three seconds off the pace.

World Champion Tom Dumoulin is in ninth place at 33sec.

Saturday's stage is also a rolling run culminating in a challenging summit finish. The race finishes next Tuesday with a 10km individual time trial where Dumoulin and Froome could feature in a mouthwatering showdown.

Stage results:

1. Primoz Roglic (SLO/LNL) 6hrs 17min 23sec, 2. Adam Yates (GBR/MIT) at 3sec, 3. Tiesj Benoot (BEL/LOT) 6, 4. Geraint Thomas (GBR/SKY) 7, 5. Rigoberto Uran (COL/EFD) 10, 6. Mikel Landa (ESP/MOV) 10, 7. Gianni Moscon (ITA/SKY) 10, 8. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) 10, 9. Wilco Kelderman (NED/SUN) 10, 10. Bob Jungels (LUX/QST) 10.

Overall standings:

1. Geraint Thomas (GBR/SKY) 10hrs 52min 22sec, 2. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL/BMC) same time, 3. Chris Froome (GBR/SKY) 3, 4. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BMC) 8, 5. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/SKY) 9, 6. Bob Jungels (LUX/QST) 9, 7. Wilco Kelderman (NED/SUN) 19, 8. Davide Formolo (ITA/BOR) 30, 9. Tom Dumoulin (NED/SUN) 33, 10. Rigoberto Uran (COL/EFD) 39.