Race leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) soared across the slight uphill finish to win stage 3 of the Vuelta a España. He had room to spare to second-placed Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who could not close the gap in the final 100 metres.
Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) sailed past Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) to grab third place.
In the final 1.5km, two pitches of 4% made the sprinters do a little extra work, and that is where Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) launched an attack. He opened a small gap in the final kilometre that was closed down by Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL and Visma-Lease a Bike.
Alpecin-Deceuninck quickly went to the front for Groves, with Van Aert on his back wheel. The green jersey and the red jersey then surged to the front and were shoulder to shoulder for about a dozen pedal strokes, until Van Aert took flight with 200 metres to go.
“The confidence was good. I felt I had good legs. That was also the case yesterday. I was beaten by Groves, so I knew I had to start a bit earlier today. A long sprint remains one of my strengths," Van Aert said after the victory in a team press release.
“I race to win. I came to this Vuelta with enormous motivation. I was keen to win a stage and today is the day. I am happy I could finish it for the boys. The team rode a fantastic race.”
Van Aert held his acceleration to earn the stage victory, going one spot better than Sunday when he was second to Groves. The Belgian also took the green jersey away from Groves, having finished fifth on the only intermediate sprint of the day with 50km to race and swiping 10 points to give him eight more than the Australian.
"The emotional release after the finish was great. I missed the taste of victory," Van Aert said. It was his first victory since Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in February, and in March his spring season came to an end with a crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen.
With the victory Van Aert padded his advantage in the GC to 13 seconds over Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and 15 seconds over Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek). There were no changes in the top 10 as all the contenders finished in the main field, leaving the bonus seconds at the end to just widen the margins slightly.
How it unfolded
The third and final stage in Portugal set off from the central part of the country in the Lousã Mountain range and from the watchful sight of the Arouce Castle. Ahead were 191.5km with 2,471 metres of elevation gain, sunshine and warm temperatures on tap for the conclusion at another castle, Castelo Branco.
Just minutes from the blastoff in Lousã, four riders moved away across the opening 60km of rolling terrain - Kern Pharma teammates Unai Iribar and Ibon Ruiz with Euskaltel-Euskadi duo Luis Angel Maté and Xabier Isasa. No surprise for the peloton, as Ruiz and Maté were in the breakaway on stage 2, and they allowed the foursome to stretch the gap to about 2 minutes in the opening 10km.
The peloton did react, however, with a trio of attackers, so when Kasper Asgreen (T Rex Quick-Step), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) tried to get away they were pulled back quickly.
Closing on the first of two categorised climbs with 60km covered, the quartet's lead had fluctuated over 3 minutes and then began to grow on the second half of the 17.5km ascent of the category 2 Alto de Teixeira (average gradient 3.2%). Once on the climb, with one false flat area, the gap widened to 4:40, but Visma-Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck paced the peloton and slowly began to trim away at the lead.
Across the steepest part of the climb at the crest, three sections reaching 6%, Maté attacked for the top five points on offer at the KOM banner. The gap went down to 2:15 with 95km to go, but surged to the three-minute mark as the four Spaniards took turns pulling across the next 58km, a long descent from the high mountain plateau, sprinkled with three uncategorised risers en route to the intermediate sprint at Fundão.
A streak of orange accelerated to the front of the four as Isasa took the 20 points up for grabs and six bonus seconds as the first rider at the sprint line, which also marked the start of the final categorised climb.
In the chase behind, now down to 1:20, Van Aert sailed over the intermediate sprint in the red leader's jersey to scoop the fifth and final position and earn the final 10 points on offer, taking the provisional lead for the green jersey away from Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Across the top of the 6.4km category 4 Alto de Alpedrinha, Maté made a move to snatch two more KOM points, then his Euskaltel-Euskadi teammate Isasa attacked on the descent and went away solo.
With 30 km to go, Isasa quickly opened a 30-second advantage to his former co-leaders, who seemed to lose interest in any chase and allowed the peloton to make the catch two kilometres later. He stayed away for 10km before the hard-charging progress of the peloton took over, Visma's Robert Gesink at the front for Van Aert,
Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL moved up with EF Education-EasyPost, Bahrain Victorious and Alpecin-Deceuninck as the flat roads hit the 15km to go banner, the speed increasing to 53 kph from the 38 kph average posted on the stage up to this point.
A series of roundabouts and road furniture began to appear in the final 8km as the peloton launched into the municipality of Castelo Branco. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took position at the front joining Alpecin-Deceuninck.
The sprint teams had plenty of room on the wide road of the finale, but the punchy uphill finish gave Van Aert the edge at the end over Groves to not only take the stage win but extend his margin in the red jersey.
Results
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