Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) delivered another exhibition on stage 3 of O Gran Camiño, soloing to an emphatic victory in Castelo de Ribadavia to extend his overall lead.
The Dane attacked on the final climb of the Alto de Couso, bridging up to earlier escapee Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and then dropping the Spaniard on the descent to claim his second win in as many days.
Carlos Canal (Movistar) won the sprint for second place, 31 seconds down, ahead of Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) and a sizeable group that included Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
"It was a good day for us. Actually we didn’t expect to win this stage today but we sensed the moment and then I took the chance," said Vingegaard. This year, like last, he has been in a league of his own in this race.
"I wasn’t sure it was possible to keep the gap until the finish but when I was out there, I had to try. I was happy I was able to take the win."
In the overall standings, Vingegaard is now 1:13 clear of Bernal, with Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) a further two seconds back in third.
The race concludes on Sunday with a summit finish at Tui, where, in a mirror of last year’s display in these parts, Vingegaard will look to complete a hat-trick of stage wins as well as overall victory.
"Tomorrow is a super hard day, we have to be focused and do everything we can," he said. "For sure there will be a lot of attacks."
It's hard to imagine that Vingegaard won't be among the attackers.
How it unfolded
On a cold day with temperatures of around 6 degrees and snow visible in the hills surrounding Xinzo de Limia – home to Movistar pro Carlos Canal, who was greeted with huge cheers at the sign-on podium – the peloton took their time to unfreeze a little.
The warm-up ramped up in intensity just 14km into the race near the summit of the opening category 3 climb, the Alto de Estivadas, when Vingegaard himself took off, claiming the maximum points ahead of teammate Wilco Kelderman, Ineos Grenadiers leader Egan Bernal and Josh Tarling, Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural-Seguros RGS), Neilson Powless and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and Joan Bou (Euskatel-Euskadi).
However, a full-scale chase by Movistar – the only WorldTour team not represented – and a first hour of racing run off at average speed of nearly 50kph meant that the extremely dangerous break was pulled back in.
The toughest climb of the day, the category 2 Alto Alberguería, saw a more predictable move take shape, sparked by former Vuelta a España leader David de la Cruz (Q36.5) and with another six non-GC threats quickly bridging across. The highest ranked of these, Pablo Castrillo (Kern-Pharma) was 2:02 down on race leader Vingegaard, so the pace slowed notably on the long descent towards the regional capital, Ourense, allowing their advantage to yawn to nearly seven minutes with 100 kilometres to go.
For the next hour there was little change, but as soon as Visma-Lease A Bike began the chase in earnest, the seven’s collaboration began to crumble. Of the break, De la Cruz and Andrea Piccolo (EF EducationFirst-EasyPost) proved to be the two strongest on the next ascent, the Alto O Castro de Beiro and the duo sped through Ourense with a four-minute advantage on the main pack. But their joint effort did not fully succeed, as Castrillo, Asier Etxebarria (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Joaquim Silva (Efapel) bridged across with around 40km to go.
When Visma-Lease A Bike garnered support from Movistar in their pursuit through the vineyards that lined the River Minho, the gap shrank even more rapidly. The break was down to four on the rolling approach to the day’s final climb, the Alto de Couso, with Silva shaking his head as he lost contact, returned to the break then fell behind again when the road steepened more definitively.
On the upper slopes of the Alto de Couso, Castrillo made a lone drive to stay away, but behind another attack by Vingegaard set the cat among the pigeons once again. EF tried their best to respond as the Dane swept past the stragglers, and Castrillo was able to reach the summit alone at the head of the race.
But Vingegaard was clearly on a mission, blasting down the sweeping descent at full speed and the Dane reached the Spaniard with 17km to go. Castrillo visibly stretched himself to the limit to keep in contact with Vingegaard and as the race leader pounded on ahead of him, not even asking for a turn and seemingly oblivious to whoever was on his wheel.
Aided by Ineos, EF managed to limit the damage to around 20 seconds while Vingegaard, definitively dropped the Kern Pharm racer on a series of broad downhill curves, with 10km still left to race
Results
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