2023 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2023 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
The Italian rider of the Astana Qazaqstan Team won the breakaway sprint ahead of Bob Jungels and Jonas Gregaard in front of a peloton that was just a few metres away from catching the breakaway formed before the climb to l'Oronet.
Italian rider Simone Velasco (AST) won stage 3 of the VCV - Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana Gran Premi Banc Sabadell 2023 with start in Bétera and finish in Sagunto. The rider from Bologna surprised in a stage in which the breakaway seemed to be doomed to not reach the finish line, but it has been helped by a last kilometre in which the peloton has not decided to change the pace until the last minute. Giulio Ciccone (TSF) remains the leader of the general classification before facing this Saturday the queen stage between Burriana and the Santuario de la Cueva Santa, in Altura.
Stage 3 of this VCV started shortly before 2PM from the Alameda Escultor Ramón Inglés in Bétera. The usual ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by the Mayoress of Bétera, Elia Verdevío; Fernando Canós, deputy general manager of Banco Sabadell; Mireia Miravet, regional director of Banco Sabadell Castellón and Valencia North; Ángel Casero, general manager of the VCV; the Government Subdelegate in Valencia, Raquel Ibañez Sánchez; the General Director of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Antonio Quintana; and the CEO of Global Omnium, Dionisio García Comín.
In a stage suitable for a breakaway to reach the finish line, as soon as the neutralised route finished, the attacks began. Five riders managed to consolidate a breakaway. Bob Jungels, Simone Velasco, Jonas Gregaard, Lawson Craddock and Sander de Pestel had an advantage of up to four minutes, which was reduced as the climbs came.
L'Oronet was the first of them and Marc Soler tried an attack that would revolutionise the general classification. He even managed to get a 30-second lead, but the peloton knew that they could not let him escape and on the descent they chased him down again. Once over the Garbí, the breakaway had been reduced to three riders, Jungels, Gregaard and Velasco, who fought fiercely until the end to reach the finish line in the breakaway.
However, there were many roosters in the peloton who saw themselves with options in the Sagunto sprint, and with 2 kilometres to go, it seemed that the group was compacting again. Everything was heading for another mass sprint, but doubts in the peloton in the last kilometre gave hope to the escapees who, at the final whistle, reached the finish line in the lead, with the same time as the group. In the sprint, Velasco surprised Bob Jungels, who seemed to be the favourite, and took the victory in Sagunto.
With the general classification unchanged, the queen stage arrives this Saturday. A total of 181 kilometres between Burriana and the Santuario de la Cueva Santa de Altura, with four mountain passes and an unprecedented high finish.
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