The third date of the Volta a Catalunya reserved a world-class duel between Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, won by the former; while the general classification had few movements with the best news for America in the legs of the Canadian Michael Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) and the Colombian Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), seventh and eighth, respectively.
Wednesday’s day had a new mountainous segment. The day’s journey, 180 kilometers between Olost and La Molina, included two uncategorized initial ascents, then a first-category one, another out of category, and a first-category final one, with 4,000 meters to go, while the finish line was located at the end of a slope.
Taking advantage of the two initial ascents, the long escape of the day was formed, which had a total of seven members, including Richard Carapaz and Guillaume Martin, who in the company of Filippo Zanna, Maxim de Gils, Jefferson Cepeda, Simone Petilli and Niklas Eg distanced themselves of the peloton, achieving up to 7 minutes of advantage.
The batch began to work hard after overcoming the first port of first category and the results were seen on the clock; the difference between the leading group and the peloton began to drop noticeably. In the second climb, this one out of category, the breakaways passed the top a minute and a half behind what was left of the peloton: the Soudal Quick Step had hurried the others and generated several cuts, creating a great selection that left a great group cut. number of riders
Soon the breakaway lost members and only Martin, Carapaz and Zanna remained ahead, who ended up being caught up by the pursuit group 6000 meters from the finish line. Soon Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic emerged, attacked and went ahead on the steep finish.
The duo remained ahead and in the final kilometer they defined the winner; Evenepoel, who did not give Roglic any relief, gave the whiplash 400 meters from the end and left the Slovenian without a chance; The Belgian, arms raised, celebrated the stage victory, while Jumbo’s second passed, who retained the overall lead. The podium of the day was completed by the Italian Giulio Ciccone.
Esteban Chaves had another good day and was seventh at the finish line, thus remaining eighth overall, while another Colombian Rigoberto Urán was 14th on the stage and moved up to 12th place in the standings after three stages. The stars Egan Bernal and Richard Carapaz are still very far from the first places after having lost an important difference in the second stage.
Classification Stage 3
1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick Step) – 4h:40m:43s
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) at 2s
3. Giulio Ciccone (Trek – Segafredo) at 13s
General ranking
1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) at 12h:42m:17s
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick Step) to m.t.
3. Giulio Ciccone (Trek – Segafredo) at 19s