Vuelta a España stage 3: Remco Evenepoel sprints to victory on first summit finish

Defending Vuelta a España champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) made his intentions and abilities clear on stage 3 of the race by winning the first mountain day with an uphill sprint in Arinsal.

However, it was disaster right after the line for Belgian who crashed into the crowd of soigneurs and team staff, coming off his bike and sustaining a cut to his eyebrow, though he was up and standing quickly.

Read more: Remco Evenepoel crashes after taking Vuelta a España stage win

Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard took second on the stage behind the imperious Evenepoel, with Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) finishing third. A reduced group of around 15 riders came into the final kilometre together, and it was an uphill sprint to the line with Evenepoel hitting out early but holding off his competitors to win comfortably.

The favourites caught the final member of the early breakaway, Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), inside the final 2km, opening up the finale for a GC battle to the line.

A nine-man group went up the road in the first 40km of the stage, and were away altogether until the penultimate climb, the Coll d’Ordino, when the group splintered and Kämna, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny) pushed on to be the last men standing.

Red jersey wearer Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) dropped from the bunch on the penultimate climb to let go of the race lead and hand red over to Evenpoel, who leads by five seconds over Enric Mas (Movistar).

“It’s nice,” a frustrated Evenepoel said of his win before turning to the more pressing issue at the finish. “Some things with safety, it was only 50 metres after the finish line, it’s already the third day in the row [with safety concerns], it’s a bit breaking my balls now.

“I think it was perfect tactics from us to just be patient and wait. We took the descent off Ordino on the front, which was a good decision, and then I felt super good on the final climb with a long but very strong sprint. So I’m super happy with this victory.”

An early visit to the Pyrenees

The peloton set out from Súria weather under much sunnier and drier conditions than the opening two stages, ready for a 158.8km traverse north into Andorra and the foothills of the Pyrenees. The road started rising gently as soon as the flag was dropped, before getting steeper with the first uncategorised climb coming after 20km. There were a lot of attempts to get away and the peloton was strung out for the first hour of racing, but none of the moves stuck in the first 35km.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

The peloton enjoyed the warmer weather, but some would fare better than others on the final climb

After 38km, nine riders attacked and got a gap, in a group including Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Damian Caruso (Bahrain Victorious). The peloton finally seemed happy to let this move go, and the gap went out very quickly, up to four and a half minutes after 60km of racing. The situation remained stable for a long period, with the likes of Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step keeping things under control on the front of the peloton.

With 70km to go, the pace started to ramp up in the peloton, with Ineos Grenadiers joining the chase as the bunch looked to bring the leaders back before the first climb, the Coll d’Ordino. It wasn’t an easy task to bring the strong front group back, though, and the gap only came down very slowly as the race headed towards the intermediate sprint at Andorra La Vella.

Breakaway rider Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën) won the intermediate sprint in a largely uncontested push to the line, grabbing maximum points and pushing him above stage 2 winner Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) in the green jersey standings.

Hitting the base of the categorised length of the Coll d’Ordino, the gap started coming down below three minutes, with the bunch climbing stronger and faster than the leaders. Getting into the climb proper, the leaders started to attack each other, and the break suffered its first casualties, with Jasha Sütterlin (Bahrain Victorious) and Pierre Latour some of the first to drop away, whilst Caruso, Kämna and Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny) pushed on at the front.

Stage 1 winners dsm-firmenich took up the chase into the second half of the climb, with Chris Hamilton seemingly trying to set something up for their leader Romain Bardet. Two kilometres from the top, the Frenchman attacked the peloton, drawing out Jumbo-Visma’s Wilco Kelderman to follow him. This increase in speed brought the break’s gap down to 1:20 with 22km to go. Bardet and Kelderman were caught before the top but succeeded in forcing UAE Team Emirates and Soudal Quick-Step to work hard in the chase. Meanwhile, red jersey Andrea Piccolo had dropped from the peloton, letting go of the race lead.

Heading onto the descent before the final climb, the three leaders had just a minute’s advantage with the peloton pushing hard. Sepúlveda was the first to be distanced on the descent, leaving just two up ahead. The final climb to Arinsal started essentially as soon as the descent ended, with no respite for the leaders. Caruso started refusing to work with Kämna early on in the climb, which was a bad sign for their survival, though their lead had gone back up to 1:30 with 6km to go.

The impetus seemed to have gone out of the chase behind, with the GC teams and riders hesitant to show their cards early.

UAE Team Emirates finally started to chase properly with 4km to go, stringing out the peloton and eating into the gap, though it looked like they may have left it too late. Kämna decisively dropped Caruso with a move at 3km to go. In the peloton, the attacks started with around 2km to go, ignited by Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and then followed by a big move from Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) who soon had Kämna in his sights. The steeper part of the climb had put Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in trouble, who didn’t make the elite selection.

Kämna was absorbed by the favourites group as everything came back together in the final 1,500m, which spurred on the counterattacks into the final kilometre of racing, but no one would quite get away from the high pace being set, setting things up for a reduced gallop to the line. Remco Evenepoel started his sprint first with around 200m to go, but it proved to be perfect timing with the Belgian able to get a jump on Jonas Vingegaard and hold off the rest of the favourites to the line and win the stage.

© Sprint Cycling Agency

A day of mixed emotions for Remco Evenepoel

Evenepoel had time to sit up and celebrate, but was carrying too much speed into the slight downhill after the line, and careered into the assembled soigneurs and team staff and came off his bike, suffering a cut to his eyebrow and standing up with blood on his face.

Read more: Remco Evenepoel Crashes After Taking Vuelta A España Stage Win

His victory moved him into the race lead, now five seconds clear of Enric Mas in second, whilst Groupama-FDJ’s young rider Lenny Martinez moved into third after finishing strongly in the favourites group. The day’s main loser was Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who finished 47 seconds down and sits 1:11 adrift of Evenepoel after only three stages.

If you head to our Vuelta a España landing page, you will find everything you need to know about the race, including our race preview, the route, start list and individual stage previews. Check it out for all that and more.