Valverde rides his first race in Sicily after he got off the Vuelta a España with a broken collarbone. He sustained that injury when he drove over a pothole, lost control of the wheel and drove into the ravine between the crash barriers.
The first two stages in the Italian four-day stage race ended in a sprint and were won by Colombian Juan Sebastián Molano. The third stage from Termini Imerese to Caronia was hilly with a tough final climb of 3.6 kilometers.
Movistar was fully committed to the 41-year-old leader and Valverde captured three bonus seconds for the classification in the intermediate sprint. The Spanish team then kept up the pace on the way to the final climb, after which Valverde beat Alessandro Covi (UAE) and Jhonatan Restrepo (Androni) in the uphill sprint.
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