Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) won the third stage of the Vuelta a España between the Mediterranean resorts of Marbella and Málaga after attacking on the short steep climb to the finish at the Castillo de Gibralfaro. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) tried to catch Gilbert on, but the lone Belgian just managed to hang on to win by 3 seconds. Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) came in to take third after passing Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo), who’d initiated the final attacks.
Although the stage started and finished close to sea level in two of the most popular resorts of the Costa del Sol, the course was far from flat. The 157.3km stage immediately began with the 8.7km climb to the 2nd category Puerto de Ojén and after 104km it climbed the 15.8km 1st category Puerto de León. With 37km to go the course returned to sea level, before the classics-style 1.5km ascent to the finish line at the Castillo de Gibralfaro.
There were a number of attacks on the climb to the Puerto de Ojén, but the peloton was unwilling to allow anyone to escape. The resulting pace saw red jersey Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) found himself dropped in the first few kilometres. Netherlands champion Niki Terpstra (Milram) managed to get a handful of seconds clear and led the race over the top.
On the descent, and the rolling terrain that followed, a group of seven riders got together, consisting of: Terpstra, Biel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-Cajasur), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Mikael Cherel (FDJ), Jelle Vanendert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) and Serafin Martinez (Xacobeo-Galicia). At the 50km point the group had an advantage of 4’02” and the gap continued to open; it had risen to 9’17” by the 67km mark, when the HTC-Columbia and Saxo Bank teams began to work on the front.
As the group of seven passed through the intermediate sprint in Málaga at 102km, just before the climb to the Puerto de León began, the gap was down to 4 minutes. Vanendert set the pace at the front, which was too strong for both Kadri and Ramirez; both riders were dropped leaving five riders in the lead.
The chase was now controlled by the Saxo Bank and Liquigas-Doimo teams and the lead was beginning to tumble. With the sprinters losing contact with the rear of the peloton, the gap fell to 2’20”.
Terpstra was the next rider in the front group to lose contact; then, with 8km to go to the top of the climb Serafin Martinez attacked the others and set off alone. Soon afterwards David Moncutié (Cofidis) attacked the peloton and overtook the remains of the breakaway group in pursuit of Serafin Martinez. The Xacobeo-Galicia rider reached to top and started the descent alone, and with 25km to go had a lead of 50 seconds over the Moncutié, Cherel and Egoi Martinez and 1’36” over the peloton.
With 15km to go, on the flat run towards the finish, Serafin Martinez still held a 1’27” lead over the Caisse d’Epargne led peloton, which had almost caught up with the Moncutié group. Liquigas-Doimo, Katusha and Saxo Bank moved forward though and this advantage fell rapidly.
With the lead at under a minute, and with less than 10km to go, Astana and OmegaPharma-Lotto took control of the peloton, which quickly swept up the chasing threesome. Martinez was determined to stay clear though and with just 3km to go he still had 35 seconds.
As the tough climb to the finish began though, Martinez was unable to resist the speeding peloton; he was caught just as he reached the final kilometre. The first rider to attack from the peloton was Nibali, whose attack was countered by Gilbert and the Belgian managed to get himself a clear gap. Joaquin Rodriguez followed Gilbert and was steadily reeling him in; the finish line came too soon for the Spanish rider though and Gilbert took the win alone.
With race leader Mark Cavendish losing more than 25 minutes by the end of the stage, Gilbert takes the red jersey ahead of Rodriguez and Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia teammate Kanstantsin Sivtsov.
More details to follow.
Result stage 3
1. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
2. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 3s
3. Igor Antón (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 13s
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 15s
5. Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini
6. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale
7. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank @ 18s
8. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 19s
9. David Arroyo (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
10. Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ
Standings after stage 3
1. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
2. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 14s
3. Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Columbia @ 22s
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 26s
5. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 28s
6. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia
7. Igor Antón (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 35s
8. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam
9. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 36s
10. Xavier Florencio (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 41s