photo credits @ La Vuelta
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) took a convincing victory in stage 3 of the Vuelta a España today, after the Belgian rider out-sprinted Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard along the high-summit finish in Andorra.
However, Evenepoel’s victory was not without calamity, as the race favorite collided with a spectator just after the finish, leaving him with a bloody face. Meanwhile, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium in third.
Evenepoel now dons the red jersey as the new leader of the Vuelta, with Enric Mas (Movistar) five seconds back in second place, followed Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) in third at 31 seconds in arrears.
Race Highlights
Today’s 158.5 kilometer route from Suria to Arinsal, Andorra, saw a series of early attacks that eventually culminated into a 11-rider breakaway group after about 45 kilometers of racing. However, Jumbo Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates made certain that the escapees never opened up an advantage of more than a five minutes.
The group’s lead would later dwindle considerably, ultimately leaving only Lennard Kamna (Bora–Hansgrohe) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) out front during the final 10 kilometers.
Once the duo was reined in, a fierce acceleration from Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) on behalf of his team leader, Vingegaard, during the final kilometer, prompted a quick reaction from Evenepoel, who later sprinted away from his Dutch rival during the closing 100 meters to seize the victory.
Evenepoel expressed his frustration at the organisers for “an issue with safety for the third day in a row, now – it’s a bit breaking my balls now.” Despite the head injury he was satisfied with the result, “it was the perfect tactics from us to just be patient, to wait,” he said. “I felt good on the final climb and then went for a long final sprint. I’m super happy with this victory. For us it would have been good if the breakaway had stayed away, but when we caught them it was important to be focussed, and I knew I had a big punch left in my legs, so we decided to go for it. It shows that my preparation was good and that I’m ready for the next three weeks.”
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