2018 Vuelta a España Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Viviani wins stage 3 of the Vuelta\nBy Clara Beard
Italian national champion Elia Viviani put pressure behind him as the pre-race favorite, winning stage 3of the Vuelta a Espana in dominating fashion for his Quick Step Floors team. The Italian beat out countryman Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the bunch sprint into Caminito del Rey.
“It was beautiful,” Viviani said. “I have no words for the team. Being the strongest is always difficult. Nobody had cards to pull. Only Sky worked until the long climb and we had just Serry and Asgreen to pull all day. It’s difficult to control stages like that, but we really wanted it. Every time, we commit like that. That’s my team, the 'Wolfpack.' All day we went for one goal, to win a stage in La Vuelta. We didn’t know if we could win or not, because there were three thousand meters of ascent. It’s not an easy sprint. I’m happy for this wonderful season continuing. It’s my first stage in La Vuelta after finishing two times second and I’m really happy with that.”
Initially, polka dot jersey leader Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) escaped in the opening kilometres with KOM challenger Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac) and Hector Saez (Euskadi-Murias) Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jordi Simon (Burgos-BH) and Antonio Molina (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). The seven drew out a maximum lead of a little more than four minutes over the two classified climbs where Mate beat out Rolland twice to pad his lead in the mountains classification.
Back in the peloton, Sky led for the majority of the start, and later helped by Bora-Hansgrohe and Quick-Step Floors. They got close to the breakaway with about 45km, under a minute, which prompted Victor Campenaerts and Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale) to attack out of the peloton to bridge. The majority of the original breakaway went back into the peloton after a while, and Pöstlberger was the last threat on the road, gaining 25 seconds with 15km to go.
“When we line up we always think about winning, obviously,” Pöstlberger said. “I knew I had little chances but if you don’t try you’ll never know. I was at the front so I was able to go away from a large group. To be able to break was already a big part of the work. But you never when you can win. If the peloton doesn’t work well together and you get some margin, you might get it. It wasn’t like that today. Peter (Sagan) is improving and we’ll give everything to put him in a situation to win a stage."
Too many teams were interested in a sprint finish, however, and Pöstlberger was scooped back up with six kilometres left.
Get our full coverage of the Vuelta a España and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
