Gran Camiño: Alejandro Valverde wins stage 3

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won stage 3 at Gran Camiño in Luintra. The Spaniard took the win ahead of overall race leader Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), while  Ivan Sosa (also Movistar) finished third after leading out his teammate for the stage win.

"So happy with this nice success. We kept the race under control at all times. Third on Thursday, second yesterday, and the win today - and we're close up there in the GC, so we must feel really proud," Valverde said following the stage.

"We really went for the stage today; you can get it or not, because the opposition was strong, but things turned out well. I didn't know those final climbs and it was a steep series! Roads were difficult, downhills were technical... and we really needed to keep a good position. 

"We had a really strong Sosa, an excellent team all-around in all phases of the race, and then it was down to that final. I knew I was faster than Woods, and Sosa led me out perfectly to claim that win. We've done really well so far this week, and let's hope we can crown it tomorrow. It will be a tough ITT, not flat at all. Let's see how we did recover, and we'll give everything that's left to take yellow."

Woods leads the overall classification by 10 seconds ahead of Valverde and 50 seconds ahead of Sosa as the race heads into the finale stage 4 15.8km time trial held in Sarria on Sunday.

How it unfolded

The third stage offered the field a 148km between Maceda and Luintra that included three categorised climbs over Alto de Noqueira (102km), Alto de Seragude (124km) and lastly Alto de Moura (139km) before a descent to the finish line.

Sosa, Valverde and Woods opened a gap up the Alto de Seragude with less than 30km to go, with a select group that included Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Mark Padun (EF Education-EasyPost), Ion Izagirre and Rubén Fernández (both Cofidis), Igor Arrieta (Equipo Kern Pharma), Jefferson Alexander Cepeda (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), José Gonçalves (W52 / FC Porto).

Jefferson Alexander Cepeda (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) attacked on the climb and gained 10 seconds but Sosa and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) set the pace from the select group behind, which grew as riders caught back up, to keep him at a manageable distance before bringing him back near the top.

Movistar, with four riders, led the front group down the descent and into the final climb Alto de Moura. On the steep slopes, Movistar set a pace that caused riders, one-by-one, to fall off pace. Woods, sitting on the Movistar wheels had only one Isreal-Premier teammate, Jakob Fuglsang, to help on the climb.

Woods attacked with 4.6km to the top (6.9km our from the finish), midway up the ascent, with Sosa and Valverde the only two riders able to follow. Woods tried several efforts but could not shake the Movistar duo. Sosa then set the pace to stop Woods from attacking.

Sosa led the three through the KOM over the top of Alto de Moura with 1.5km to go, and all the way down the descent and onto the finish streets of Luintra. As he swung off, Valverde came through to take the stage win, leaving Woods to settle for second.