Movistar rider escapes the break on the final climb and solos to the stage win and red jersey
Pablo Lastras (Movistar) won the third stage of the Vuelta a España between Petrer and Totana after escaping a four man breakaway group and soloing to the finish. The 35-year-old Spaniard, who had promised at the start to make it into the escape of the day, attacked over the final climb of the day to finish 15 seconds ahead of his previous companions, taking the red leader’s jersey to go with his stage win.
French champion Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), who had been the strongest rider on the day and the one who seemed most likely to take the jersey, outsprinted the other two riders to take second place, with Markel Irizar (RadioShack) third and Ruslan Pidgornyy (Vacansoleil-DCM) fourth.
Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) led the front half of the shattered peloton over the line 1’43” behind, outsprinting Matti Breschel (Rabobank) and Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Cannondale).
The four riders, originally in the company of Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) attacked after just 6km of the 163km and, while it looked as though they might be caught as the peloton began to close them down in the middle of the stage, they managed to stay away as no one team wanted to chase too hard.
A far from flat stage with a sprinter’s finale
Stage three was to feature an ideal finishing straight for the sprinters, but with the two third category climbs of the Alto del Berro, after 116.6km, and the Alto de la Santa, with just 12.4km to go, the fast men of the peloton would have a tough job getting to the finish in the front.
The course continued the race’s journey south, moving inland into the region of Murcia, as it headed towards its date with Sierra Nevada on stage four. The far from flat course would cross the finishing line with 22km to go to take in a circuit based on the de la Santa climb; something that local rider Luis León Sanchez (Rabobank) knew would create a lot of problems.
“The Alto de la Santa has 1.5km of a steep gradient almost at the top,” Sanchez said at the start of the stage. “The pure sprinters will not make it today.”
Sanchez’ teammate Oscar Freire, who has been suffering a little with illness at the beginning of the race, concurred. “The Alto de la Santa can eliminate the pure sprinters… and me too!” he joked.
An immediate break once more as Leopard Trek lets five get away
After a frenetic beginning to the stage, Chavanel, Pydgornyy and Edet got away after just six kilometres. The three riders were quickly joined by Lastras and Irizar, making a group of five out front.
The Leopard Trek team of race leader Daniele Bennati deemed this group to be acceptable and its advantage began to grow rapidly.
Of the five riders Lastras was the best place overall, 14 seconds behind Bennati in 23rd place, and so it wasn’t long before he took the virtual race lead. He declared at the start that he would try to get into the breakaway, and was being true to his word. “Everyday is like a classic for me at the exception of the stages to Farrapona and Angliru,” he said. “I’ll try everyday.”
Chavanel was just a second behind the Spanish veteran though, and, with bonus seconds available at the two intermediate sprints on the course, the French champion could overtake him.
After 68km the quintet’s lead reached a maximum of 7’53”, only for Rabobank and Liquigas-Cannondale to move to the front to start to bring it down.
Five become four as the virtual lead changes hands
Pydgornyy took the first sprint, in Pliego after 97.8km, ahead of Chavanel and Lastras. Four seconds taken by Chavanel for second meant that he leapfrogged Lastras – who only took two – in the overall classification, making the French champion the virtual leader on the road.
Meanwhile, Edet was consulting with the race doctor, meaning the group was down to four. As the others pressed on up the slopes of the Alto del Berro the 23-year-old Frenchman was unable to rejoin and began to drift back towards the peloton.
With 60km to go the lead was down to almost exactly six minutes. Edet was now 1’42” behind his former companions but still more than four minutes ahead of the peloton. Omega Pharma-Lotto and Katusha joined Liquigas-Cannondale at the front but the speed in the peloton dropped completely as no team was keen on spending too much energy on what would likely be another complicated finish.
Leopard Trek took over with Team Sky right behind and the pace began to increase a little once more.
The sprinters find the climbing tough but the peloton is not catching the break
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) was having trouble holding the pace of the peloton and teammate Leigh Howard dropped back to help. Irizar outsprinted Pydgornyy for the points at the top of the climb, just as Edet was being taken back by the Stuart O’Grady-led peloton.
As the peloton hit the steepest section of the climb, close to the top, Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) was also beginning to lose contact. The German sprinter had Albert Timmer for company though, and so should have no trouble rejoining on the descent.
As O’Grady led the peloton over the top, it was 4’36” behind the four leaders. With just 46km to go it would be a tall order for the peloton to pull them back unless it could organise itself well. Sure enough, with 35km to go it was 4’20”, and with 30km still to race it was still almost four minutes.
With the relatively low speed in the peloton there was a crash in the middle of the peloton involving Yury Trofimov (Katusha) and Christophe Le Mével (Garmin-Cervélo).
Cavendish and Howard were still behind the peloton though, with teammates Tony Martin and Martin Velits having dropped back. They were now part of a group of around twenty riders that included Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank-SunGard) – who was still feeling the effects of his crash in the stage one team time trial – and Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing).
The break looks likely to make it as the peloton breaks up on the climb
At the 25km banner the foursome’s lead was still 3’49” as the speed completely dropped off the front of the peloton once more. Thankfully for Le Mével, this allowed him to make his way through the team cars and rejoin the back of the bunch.
At intermediate sprint number two, as they crossed the finish line for the first time, Lastras opened his sprint up early, but Chavanel was able to cruise past to take the maximum points and the all important six second bonus. The French champion was now three seconds ahead of Lastras overall and, should they be caught by the peloton, just five behind Bennati.
With twenty seconds on the line for the winner of the stage, the red jersey would be decided on the line if Chavanel and Lastras managed to stay away, and the Frenchman would surely be the favourite.
The peloton crossed the line 3’46” behind though, meaning it would be very tough indeed to catch the four leaders in the 22 remaining kilometres. Kurt Asle Arvesen (Team Sky) hit the front of the peloton and the gap began to fall though, and with the third category climb still to go, there was still a chance.
The Cavendish/Nuyens group crossed the line several minutes back, ending any slim chance that the Manx Missile would be taking his fourth stage of the Vuelta today.
As the peloton hit the base of the climb to the Alto de la Santa the gap was down to less than three minutes. Team Sky was keeping the pace high, with British champion Bradley Wiggins in second wheel, tucked in behind Thomas Löfkvist. More sprinters were being shelled out of the back, but with only a short run to the finish after the summit, they were allowing the peloton to go.
Local rider Luis León Sanchez put in a small attack as the peloton hit the steepest section, but he was soon pulled back. A more decisive attack came in from David de la Fuente (Geox-TMC) – another rider who had crashed on stage one – and he managed to get a few seconds ahead.
Bennati watches his lead slip away as Lastras attacks
As the leaders neared the top the gap was down to less than two minutes. With the steep part of the climb beginning to set in, Bennati lost contact. Even if the peloton was to pull back the four leaders, the Italian might well be about to lose his jersey.
With a few hundred metres to go to the top Lastras launched his attack; as he took the summit he was a few seconds ahead of the others. The peloton followed over 1’54” behind, now under the control of the Liquigas-Cannondale team.
As Lastras hit the bottom of the descent and passed under the 7km to go banner, he led the three chasers by 23 seconds. At 6km it was 21 seconds though, and at 5km it was down to just 16 as Chavanel was chasing hard.
With 4km to go Chavanel had brought it down to 14 seconds; the French champion was doing the lion’s share of the work, which could cost him the power that he would need to sprint for the stage. Lastras was the only one that could take the jersey form the French champion though, so catching the Spaniard was the priority.
Some two minutes behind Lastras, Sanchez attacked the peloton again
At the 3km banner Chavanel had cut Lastras’ lead to 10 seconds but, with 2km to go it had crept out to 12 seconds, as Irizar and Pidgornyy made it clear to Chavanel that this was a one on one battle between him and Lastras.
Into the final kilometre Lastras’ advantage was back out to 17 seconds, as Chavanel appeared to have given up. The Spaniard sat up as he crossed the line making a number of hand signals, including a point to the heavens in memory of teammate Xavier Tondo, who died back in May.
Even though he had done almost all of the chasing to try to pull back Lastras, Chavanel easily outsprinted the other two. Roche managed to break clear of the front of the main peloton into the finishing area, but was pulled back in as he crossed the line; the group numbered just 44 riders, with the final climb having done so much damage.
Splintered groups were crossing the line several minutes after Lastras, with Cavendish’s group eventually coming in after 12’50”.