Viviani takes stage 3 sprint as Kwiatkowski retains red – La Vuelta

2018 Vuelta a Espana

Stage 3

Italian champion Elia Viviani lived up to his billing as the fastest man on La Vuelta with victory in the first bunch sprint of the race in Stage 3 as Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski retained the leader’s red jersey.

Quick-Step Floors sprinter Viviani out-kicked compatriot Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and the world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a messy bunch gallop at the conclusion of the hilly 178.2km stage from Mijas to Alhaurin de la Torre in southern Spain.

Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni (Codifis) and Italy’s Simoni Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) completed the top five on a tricky ‘sprint’ day that nevertheless included 2,520 metres of climbing – including the race’s first Cat.1 climb.

With Slovakian sensation Sagan on his wheel, Viviani zipped clear on the home straight after an expert lead-out from his Danish team-mate Michael Morkov as another textbook day for the Belgian Quick-Step team came to a winning climax.

Viviani’s first ever stage win on the Vuelta came in the 1,500th stage in the history of the Spanish race and was Quick-Step’s 58th victory of an incomparably stellar season.

“It was beautiful,” said 29-year-old Viviani, winner of four stages in the Giro d’Italia in May. “I have no words for the team. No one else worked all day – just Sky who pulled on the first long climb. We put Pieter Serry and young Kasper Asgreen to pull all day but it was really difficult to control this kind of stage.

“All the day we go for one goal. Yesterday we were close to winning with [Laurens] De Plus and today we are really focused on winning. But we didn’t know if it was possible because there was three-thousand metres of climbing. So, it wasn’t an easy sprint but we know in the Vuelta it’s like that. This wonderful season is continuing – and also it’s my first stage win in the Vuelta. I finished second in 2012 so I’m really happy with that.”

In the general classification battle, Polish champion Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) finished safely in the pack to retain his 14-second lead over Stage 2 winner Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, with Dutchman Wilco Keldeman (Team Sunweb) still third place a further 11 seconds back.

A break of six riders – Nans Peters (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac), Jordi Simon (Burgos-BH), Antonio Molina (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) and Hector Saez (Euskadi-Murias) – broke clear shortly after the start.

Featuring three riders from the previous day’s break – Rolland, Saez and the polka dot jersey Mate – the group built up a maximum lead of four minutes before the Cat.1 Puerto del Madrono.

Spaniard Mate out-sprinted Rolland to pick up maximum points over the summit – and then repeated the feat on the Cat.3 Puerto del Viento to consolidate his lead in the blue polka dot jersey competition.

Michal Kwiatkowski pictured in the red jersey at the start of today’s stage.

Blustery winds and some heavy policing from the Quick-Step Floors team of Viviani ensured that the break was given little leeway, which resulted in Frenchman Rolland sitting up with 50km remaining once the gap had come down to one minute.

The five leaders were joined by four counter-attackers in Belgian duo Victor Campenaerts and Jelle Wallays (both Lotto Soudal), Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale). A quick foray off the front by the Spaniard Simon came to nothing and the break – despite the injection of fresh blood – could never stretch its lead north of a minute.

One by one, riders in the break faltered – with Wallays and Peters being dropped before Campanaerts crashed on a bend with 23km remaining. Austrian champion Postlberger rode clear with 20km to go as the Movistar-led peloton came within 20 seconds of the break – at which point the likes of Richie Porte (BMC) and the European champion Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) had been shelled out the back.

If Trentin was able to fight back to contest the final sprint, the same could not be said of the beleaguered Porte who would come home the best part of nine minutes in arrears as his troubled start to the race continued.

Postlberger was the last man from the break caught, the Austrian rider sitting up with 7km remaining as the peloton zipped along towards the finish.

Once Movistar and Team Sky gave way to the teams of the sprinters, it was the Spanish minnows Caja Rural who combined with the LottoNL-Jumbo team of Dutch sprinter Danny Van Poppel setting the tempo under the flamme rouge one kilometre from the finish.

But Viviani showed his class with a fast finish from the wheel of team-mate Morkov, winning by a bike length over Nizzolo and a sub-par Sagan still looking for form and fitness following his big crash in the final week of July’s Tour de France.

Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders 161.4km from Velez to Alfacar. The race’s second uphill finish comes atop the Cat.1 Puerto de Alfacar in the Sierra de la Alfaguara mountains on a tough day that also includes the Cat.1 Alto de la Cabra Montes. With the ever-green Valverde lurking, a first full day in the mountains will be an early test for the red-jersey credentials of Sky’s Kwiatkowski.

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