MARINA DI ASCEA, Italy — Luca Paolini won the third stage of the Giro d'Italia to take the overall leader's pink jersey following the 222km ride from Sorrento to Marina di Ascea Monday. In a bunch sprint for second place former Tour de France winner Cadel Evans edged out reigning Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal as the overall favorites finished in a small group 16sec back. Paolini took over the leader's jersey from countryman Salvatore Puccio of Team Sky, who was distanced on the final climb. The Katusha rider now leads from reigning Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins by 17sec with the latter's Sky teammate Rigoberto Uran Uran third on the same time as his team leader. The big winners were Evans and Hesjedal who needed to make up time after losing chunks on Sunday's team time-trial. Australian Evans took a 12sec time bonus for finishing second with Canada's Hesjedal picking up 8sec. Hesjedal is now seventh overall, 34sec back with Evans another 8sec behind that. Vincenzo Nibali is fifth at 31sec. The Canadian was the main protagonist in an exciting end to the stage. Around 20km from home Hesjedal's Garmin team upped the pace on a tough gradient before their team leader sprung a surprise attack on that final climb. Nibali's Astana team took up the chase and reeled in Hesjedal but the reigning champion kept the pressure up on the descent before Paolini burst clear. Hesjedal's initial attack had momentarily dropped Evans but the BMC rider recovered and by the end he was the main winner amongst the overall contenders. Wiggins finished comfortably in eighth place in the reduced bunch. Froome to lead Sky Chris Froome is set to lead Team Sky's bid to win this year's Tour de France, principal Dave Brailsford said Monday. Ever since Froome played a key role last year in helping teammate Bradley Wiggins become the first Briton to win cycling's most prestigious road race there has been intense speculation as to which one of the riders would be in the ‘number one' position for the 2013 edition. Sky had previously said their challenge for this year's tour would be built around Froome, a position Olympic champion Wiggins — whose main aim for 2013 was to win the Giro d'Italia that started Saturday — appeared happy to accept. However, Wiggins indicated recently he was keen to have a crack at both winning the Giro and defending his Tour de France title. But in a bid to defuse the simmering row, Brailsford, in a statement posted on Sky's website Monday, said Froome would be his team's Tour de France leader. — Agencies
