2026 Vuelta España Femenina Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2026 Vuelta España Femenina is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Kerbaol outsmarts sprinters to win Stage 3 in A Coruña
Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) timed her move to perfection to take victory on Stage 3 of La Vuelta Femenina, attacking late and holding off the sprinters on a punchy run-in to A Coruña.
Kerbaol surged clear inside the final kilometers of an aggressive, fragmented finale and carried her advantage through the last right-hand bend and under the flamme rouge, holding off a fast-closing peloton to seal the win.
Behind her, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx–Protime) had to settle for second, four seconds down, while Sarah Van Dam (Visma–Lease a Bike) rounded out the podium in third. Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) completed the top five with the same time.
The 121.2-kilometer stage from Padrón to A Coruña featured more than 2,000 meters of climbing, making for a selective day despite the absence of categorized ascents. Early on, 20-year-old Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Lidl-Trek) and Sterre Vervloet (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) animated the race, forming the break of the day and gaining a maximum advantage of about two minutes.
After Vervloet lost contact and headed back to the bunch, the Australian time trial champion held that gap of more than two minutes at times, but sustained pressure from the peloton led by Visma–Lease a Bike, FDJ-Suez and EF Education-Oatly gradually brought her advantage down as the race approached the coast.
Wilson-Haffenden pressed on to take maximum points and bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Arteixo, but her effort would ultimately be reeled in inside the final 20 kilometers as the favorites started to move up in the peloton.
From there, the race exploded. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) launched multiple attacks on the rolling terrain, while Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) made a strong move with 12 kilometers to go, briefly splitting the field.
The peloton repeatedly fractured and regrouped over the closing climbs and technical sections, with SD Worx working to control the chaos as teams jostled for position ahead of the cobbled finishing stretch.
But in the end, it was Kerbaol who found the decisive moment. Attacking as the race came back together inside the final three kilometers, she opened a small but crucial gap and never looked back.
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