For the third and final stage on Portuguese soil, the Vuelta a España, like the day before, ended with a bunch sprint on Monday in Castelo Branco. At the end of a suspenseless day, Wout Van Aert claimed victory while Stefan Küng got involved in the final to grab fourteenth place on the line. A completely different race will begin on Tuesday with a first summit finish and some crazy slopes.
Like the day before, the third stage’s profile of the Vuelta featured more than 2,500 meters of elevation gain on Monday. But like the day before, it looked very difficult to avoid a bunch finish considering the lack of proper difficulties. “We just had to be vigilant at the start in case a large breakaway would go, but we quickly understood that it was going to be a day for the sprinters,” confirmed Thierry Bricaud. As early as kilometre 0, four riders took off and the pack let them go away. Ibon Ruiz, Unai Iribar (Equipo Kern Pharma), Luis Angel Maté and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) formed the day’s break, which was able to compete for the two KOM on the program for this stage. Luis Angel Maté took advantage of this to collect a few more points and took the polka dots jersey away from Stefan Küng, the official leader of the classification since the day before.
“A hard day awaits everyone tomorrow”, Thierry Bricaud
However, the attempt to upset the peloton failed, as expected, and the last man from the break surrendered with twenty kilometres to go. “The goal was to be careful in the final to have a fairly quiet day, even if it was very hot,” added Thierry. Groupama-FDJ nevertheless showed themselves at the front of the peloton in the last five kilometres, in particular to bring up Stefan Küng, who tried to slip into the final sprint. Behind the pure finishers, the Swiss rider still got a decent top-15 (14th) while Wout Van Aert won the stage. Rémy Rochas, David Gaudu, Quentin Pacher and Lorenzo Germani finished in the same time as their teammate. “The guys had a pretty good day,” concluded Thierry. “A hard one awaits everyone tomorrow. This will be a first battle, which will provide some early answers for the rest of the Vuelta.” In a stage with more than 3,500 metres of elevation gain, the peloton will finish with the Pico Villuercas, which includes three kilometres averaging more than 13%.
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