Extended Highlights - Stage 3 - La Vuelta 2024

La Vuelta
La Vuelta
  • hace 2 semanas
Discover the Stage 3 highlights

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Transcript
00:00Round one of the sprint battle at this Vuelta went the way of Caden Groves.
00:19The Australian outpacing Wout van Aert to take his first win since the final stage of
00:23last year's race.
00:25The Belgian came away with the leader's red jersey though and he has another opportunity
00:29today.
00:30The sprint itself I think is quite similar, it's a slight uphill towards the end.
00:36Stage has a few longer climbs but overall I would say I expected a similar scenario.
00:44Groves who narrowly leads the points classification is expecting things to be slightly more relaxed
00:49in the peloton today.
00:52I really like today more so than yesterday, yesterday was a bit more stressful and I think
00:56the final of yesterday made the racing quite a lot harder and today I suspect it should
01:02be a little bit more relaxed.
01:04Because it's a flatter finish there's hopefully less GC teams getting involved.
01:11That duo will also have to keep an eye on Corbin Strong who was third fastest yesterday.
01:16I think today is another good opportunity for myself and the other sprinters in the
01:20race and I'm hoping I can try to upset the two favourites.
01:26This is the race's third and final day in Portugal and the country has certainly given
01:30La Vuelta a very warm welcome.
01:36Honestly the past few days have been spectacular with all of the crowds.
01:41Yesterday was incredible with so many fans out on the road and lots of people supporting
01:45us.
01:46It's been a very happy and joyful moment here in Portugal, everyone's had a lot of fun.
01:51It's really special to be close to my friends and family, also big fans of me that always
01:58support me along all my career so it's really special to be here.
02:05Just over 190km to cover between Lusa and Castelo Branco, once again with two climbs.
02:11Unlike yesterday though, the final difficulty comes a long way from the finish.
02:15With Vismalisa Baik and Alpecin de Koenig expected to control for Van Aert and Groves,
02:19it will almost certainly come down to a bunch sprint.
02:28Well the stage unfolded in a very similar way to yesterday's, with a small and easy
02:32to control breakaway of just four riders from the wildcard teams.
02:39Luis Angel Mate and Ibon Ruiz both on the attack for the second dead running and they
02:43were both joined by a team-mate, Xavier Isassa with Mate in the orange of Euskatel Ascari
02:49and Unai Iribar with Ruiz in the dark green of Kern Pharma.
02:55They had a maximum gap of nearly five minutes with the sprint teams in control and Van Aert
02:59enjoying his first day in red having already worn yellow at the Tour de France in 2022.
03:07The first climb of the Alto de Teixeira was over 17km but it was a nice prize waiting
03:12at the top, five King of the Mountains points and a chance to take the polka dot jersey.
03:34Mate moving on to seven points and guaranteed to take the polka dot as long as he finished
03:39the stage.
03:40With the gap coming down as they continued to wind their way towards Castello Branco,
03:45it would only be a matter of time before the four leaders reeled back in.
03:52Next up was the intermediate sprint, just over 50km from the finish line, no interest
03:57from the breakaway but Van Aert was keen to pocket some valuable points in the fight for
04:01green.
04:02It's the red jersey of Wout Van Aert who starts to launch and go early for these ten remaining
04:07points.
04:08That puts him three points ahead of Caden Groves.
04:14The four leaders approaching the second climb of the day, the Alto de Alpadrinia, with around
04:18a minute in hand.
04:20Apparently the peloton didn't want to make the catch too early.
04:22There were two more mountains points available at the summit and 40-year-old Mate helped
04:27himself narrowly increasing his lead in that classification.
04:33On the long descent towards the finish line, Isassa decided to try his luck for Escatella
04:38Scardi going solo but the peloton were closing fast.
04:45You could sense the increasing urgency in the bunch as they swallowed up the escapees
04:49one by one.
04:50Isassa was caught with 20km to go as the sprint trains began to get themselves organised.
04:59The speed and the stress increasing as they set themselves for another bunch sprint.
05:07The sprint starts to open up and the lead out riders are doing their last jobs.
05:11It's Wout Van Aert who wants to take the wheel of Caden Groves into this sprint finish.
05:16He tries to start to open up his sprint.
05:18The two riders shoulder to shoulder and it's Wout Van Aert who's got one bike length.
05:23He's coming in as the leader of this race but Intermarché trying to come through.
05:27It's going to be close on the line, Wout Van Aert takes the victory in the red jersey.
05:33Van Aert has been chasing this moment since February, having racked up eight second or
05:37third places since he won Kerner Brussels-Kerner.
05:40Like at the Tour in 2022, he first took the leader's jersey and then won a stage.
05:46The team was so strong, we had the whole race in control.
05:50They brought me in perfect position in the end so this gave me the confidence to finish
05:55it off.
05:56It's been quite a while since I could raise my hands and this feels so good.
06:04Van Aert taking his 47th career win with Groves forced to settle for second.
06:09A fine effort from Jan Aberasturi to come third ahead of Arne Marit and Pavel Bitner.
06:14Van Aert has increased his overall lead to 13 seconds, although the general classification
06:19is going to be totally shaken up in the mountains tomorrow.
06:24The Belgian has also taken the green jersey, leading Groves by eight points.
06:28Maté is next best on a distant 35.
06:33The veteran Spaniard is our new king of the mountains.
06:36After his efforts in the breakaway today, he leads Isassa and Ruiz by six points.
06:45And finally, Matthias Vacek still leads the youth classification by 14 seconds from Mauro
06:50Schmidt.
06:54The road will start to rise on stage four as we return to Spain for a first summit finish.
06:59Do join us for that tomorrow and thanks for watching.