Dane Pedersen wins in sprint and takes back the pink jersey. The Giro returns to Italy

On the first rest day, we return home. The Giro d'Italia caravan, after the Albanian triptych that ended yesterday in Valona with the second sprint victory of the Danish Mark Pedersen (again in the pink jersey), returns to the peninsula in view of the fourth stage that from Alberobello after 183 km will end in Lecce.

A fraction for sprinters, tomorrow's one, almost an advertisement for the beauties of Puglia, which should not add much else to the ranking and to the first responses of a race that is obviously still open given that at the end (June 1st in Rome) there are still 18 stages and about 48 thousand meters of altitude difference to go.

They say that the Giro is won in the last week, but that it starts to be lost already in the first. In the sense that it is clear almost immediately who will struggle to emerge and who instead is a candidate for the podium and the pink jersey

Well, giving Pedersen what is Pedersen's, amazing both in the sprint and in easily managing the almost 3 thousand meters of altitude difference of a very demanding stage, the first candidate for the final success is, you know, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, second on Saturday in the Tirana time trial and above all the natural leader both for his excellent curriculum (1 Giro d'Italia, 4 Vuelta,) and because in these three days he has shown, in the absence of Pogacar, that he wants to repeat the previous success of 2023.

Some say that Primoz is too old (35 years and seven months) to do it since he would also beat the record of Fiorenzo Magni, pink jersey at 34 years old in 1954. Times have changed a lot since that post-war cycling and this was seen from the way Roglic lined up all his direct opponents in the time trial.