The summit finish to Stage 3 atop the Picon Blanco was steep by any reckoning, 7.6 kilometres at 9.1 per cent makes it one of the harder climbs around in raw numbers.
However, it was a muted approach to the climb by the contenders for the red leader's jersey with a headwind on the final ascent dissuading riders from attacking and trying to gain major time on their rivals. That said, there was still significant action as a few contenders conceded time to their general classification foes.
Enric Mas (Movistar) was the only rider to gain any time on the rest of the elite group, attacking clear off the hot pace set by teammate Alejandro Valverde in the final few hundred metres and opening up a small advantage on the line. Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) finished with his own small surge to try and gain a few seconds as well, but ultimately only ended up limiting the time gain for Mas to three seconds.
“This climb has proved that the team can perform really well on ascents like this,” Mas said afterwards, “and that those of us who are going to fight for the overall for the team are in good shape. It’s a boost to our confidence.
“Valverde never stops surprising us, you could see that from how he performed today at the end and in my own case I could gain a few seconds. Not many, but they’re valuable.”
Adam Yates (INEOS Grenadiers) was one of the most active attackers during the stage, looking the strongest of the INEOS Grenadier cadre of general classification hopes, though he denied that he was the outright leader, already having lost a chunk of time after being held up behind a crash on the previous stage.
“Not really,” Yates said when asked if he was now Ineos’ leader. “Like we said from the beginning, we’ve got cards to play. I lost some time yesterday but I’m still in the game, so we’ll just keep plugging away and hopefully we can do something.”
Yates made two accelerations in the final kilometres, but he was unable to distance the other favourites like Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious). His efforts did, however, eventually help to burn off Romain Bardet (DSM), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech), who each conceded over 20 seconds to the other elite climbers on the day.
The first attack also distanced Yates' teammate Carapaz, who had just about fought his way back on after being dropped earlier on the climb.
“I was pretty disappointed after yesterday at losing time due to the crash, so today I tried,” Yates said. “I really wanted to do something. I tried one or two times but it was a block headwind up here, so no matter what you did you weren’t going to get very far. It is what it is.”
“I wouldn’t say I was comfortable, but in the end, I’ve trained well, I’ve prepared well. I really struggled at the Olympics with the jet lag, and it took me a week or two to get back into the routine. And yeah, here we are, I hope it continues.”
Meanwhile, overnight race leader Roglič surrendered his overall lead to stage winner Rein Taaramäe (Intermarche), but the winner of the past two Vueltas was far from displeased at the end of the race, with a number of flatter stages coming up.
“It went fine on the road and I am satisfied”, Roglič said. “There was a lot of wind on the climb, which even made it a bit cold. Especially after the heat of the last days it took some getting used to.
"The fact that we have lost the jersey is actually good for us. It was a steep and tough climb, but the result does not say much. There are still many tough stages to come.”
The Vuelta a España continues tonight with Stage 4, a 163.9km mostly flat stage with an uphill kick to the finish line from El Burgo de Osma to Molina de Aragón. Watch the race on SBS VICELAND and SBS OnDemand from 2300 AEST live and free, with the coverage on the SKODA Tour Tracker starting from the slightly earlier time of 2250 AEST.
