Volta a Catalunya stage 3: Tadej Pogačar sails to back-to-back mountain victories

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) fired another warning shot at all his Grand Tour rivals on stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya as he powered to a second consecutive stage victory atop Port Ainé.

The race leader, who started the day over a minute and a half ahead of nearest challenger Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), was in the driving seat again today after his barnstorming victory on stage 2 and anyone who thought he would relax after that had to think again.

Landa was active throughout the stage and sped off the front with around 7.5km of climbing still to go before the snow-capped summit finish, but Pogačar was straight on his wheel and counterattacked, riding immediately out of sight.

With the gap increasing with every pedal stroke it was another inevitable victory for the Slovenian, who raised his arms in celebration as he crossed the line 48 seconds before second-placed Landa and extended his race lead to 2 minutes 27 seconds.

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) crossed the line third, a minute down on Pogačar, followed by teammate Wout Poels, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), who remains third on GC but 2:55 down on the race lead.

"It definitely wasn’t easy!" Pogačar said at the finish. "It’s a really hard climb, I definitely felt the cold air at the top and not enough oxygen. Once again a super good stage from us, from the team, and I’m happy to take the win because my teammates worked super hard for this.

"It was Mikel Landa who attacked first, so I just went over him because I saw that he already made the gap. I was thinking it was too early [to attack] but I found a good rhythm and until the last two kilometres, I could still push good. The last two kilometres it was a bit tough but I still managed to finish well."

Another difficult day of climbing in Catalunya

The 176km route from Sant Joan de les Abadesses to Port Ainé was another brutal one, featuring three categorised climbs, another summit finish, and just under 4,000m of elevation gain overall.

After yesterday’s downpour which saw a sodden Pogačar shivering through his outdoor post-race interview, the sun came out for stage 3 and much stiller, warmer weather saw several riders racing unzipped on the punishing late climbs. Despite the spiky outline of the stage profile, the peloton tackled it like a sprint stage, setting an average pace of 40.2kph.

Possibly anticipating another Pogačar whitewash, several riders made a move in the early kilometres, kicked off by Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) attacking from the flag drop. He was caught fairly swiftly but attacks continued up the day’s first categorised climb, the 9.1%, 4km Port de Toses, with an 11-man breakaway forming the day’s decisive move.

That breakaway consisted of 11 riders with some big hitters among them: Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny), Iván Ramiro Sosa (Movistar), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility).

Carthy, Hayter and Vansevenant took the bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Montferrer i Castellbò and Tejada the maximum 10 KoM points at the summit.

The breakaway’s advantage hovered at around a minute, with UAE Team Emirates keeping them within touching distance and setting a driving pace on the front of the bunch.

Speaking after the race, Pogačar said "the valley was really easy, Domen [Novak] was our Lamborghini driver!"

It took some time to reel the break back in but on the slopes of the Port de Cantó, the UAE machine went into a higher gear, bringing everyone back together for the 25.5km slog to the summit.

Visma-Lease a Bike set the pace for much of the Port de Cantó, a cagey, tentative ascent with the majority of the riders saving their energy for the major final climb. Tejada again took maximum KoM points at the summit with the strung-out peloton regrouping in the valley below, where Vlasov claimed the points at the second intermediate sprint in Rialp, briefly moving level on time with Landa on GC.

Landa, sporting the KoM jersey, appeared to have missed a chance to shave off some of his deficit there but it soon became clear that the 18km, 6.7% Port Ainé was going to be his chosen battleground.

The final climb

With about 17km to go, Victor de la Parte (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made a move on the lower slopes of Port Ainé. The Spaniard started the day more than 18 minutes down on the race leader so the peloton were content to let a gap string out, but kept him within sight on the long, grinding climb.

Soudal Quick-Step were prominent in the bunch all day and once de la Parte was absorbed they set up another Spaniard, Landa. William Junior Lecerf and Jan Hirt set the pace and split the peloton in two, opening up a 40-second gap to a second group of chasers including Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) with about 10km to go.

Landa made his move with 7.5km to go, but Pogačar swung into action immediately to get on his wheel. And not content with that, he sped off to the finish without looking back, as if annoyed that someone else had the audacity to try to win a mountain stage.

Kuss powered up the field to join Landa and the chasers were soon joined by Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), already half a minute down on Pogačar with 4km to go.

Landa – looking by far the best of the rest – kicked on again to ride solo to second place on the day and consolidate his second place on GC, while the others were reabsorbed by the approaching chase group and crossed the line over a minute down.

Landa and Vlasov remain on the podium, the latter with a 26-second advantage over best young rider Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) and Harper one second behind, having moved up to fifth. Enric Mas (Movistar), Kuss, Poels, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) round out the top 10, all inside four minutes behind the all-conquering Pogačar.