TERRIBLE luck one day, better fortune the next - the third stage of the Giro d'Italia brought with it promising signs for Bathurst rider Mark Renshaw and his Dimension Data team-mates.
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It also gives them encouragement for what lies ahead in the 21-stage GrandTour event.
The second stage was one Renshaw would rather forget as not only did Dimension Data's lead sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo puncture in the concluding kilometres and miss out on contesting the bunch sprint finish, but he personally endured a string of bad luck.
"Hit the deck, slid into a grass bank after they went down in front of me. Also first flat tyre for the season and to top it off, my feed bag split open before I could grab anything out," Renshaw tweeted.
Riders were greeted by blustery conditions for that third stage - a 220 kilometre leg from Vinci to Orbetello - yet it still came down to a bunch sprint.
This time Renshaw and team-mate Ryan Gibbons were good in position to lead out Nizzolo and found a nice spot just before a chicane at 500 metres.
While Nizzolo did not execute his final sprint as he would have liked, he still crossed the line in sixth then was promoted to fifth after rival Elia Viviani was relegated for deviating off his sprinting line.
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"It's a pity because I wanted to show that power, at least I would have liked to sprint all in, but I waited too long," Nizzolo said.
"But let's move forward, today the feeling was better."
Fernando Gaviria was declared the winner in a time of five hours, 23 minutes and 19 seconds, with Renshaw rolling across the line 46 seconds later.
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Still, Gaviria felt the judges got it wrong in relegating Viviani.
"In my opinion Elia won the stage today," Gaviria said. "He was looking around to check who was coming up and his error was not intentional. For me, the winner on the road is the winner.
"I lost to Elia today, he's a great rider and I'm very sorry for him."