Jonas Vingegaard secured his second win in a row at O Gran Camiño, this time taking a solo victory on a shortened stage 3 atop Alto do Castelo, to extend his lead in the overall classification ahead of the finale time trial on Sunday.
Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar Team) finished second on the summit finish, with Attila Valter (Jumbo-Visma) in third and Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) fourth on the day.
"I am thrilled with this win. The guys worked hard for me, and luckily, I could finish it off. On the last climb, I told the guys I wanted to go for it. Rohan [Dennis] did a great lead-out on the climb, and Attila pulled hard. Everything went perfectly," Vingegaard said.
Vingegaard now leads the overall classification by 53 seconds ahead of Guerreiro and 1:25 ahead of Herrada, with Valter at 1:29 back.
"I am looking forward to tomorrow's stage as it seems to be a nice course. I hope I can keep the lead. It would be nice to see Attila on the podium. He is currently fourth and has a small gap to the number three. We will do our best to make that happen."
The third stage at Gran Camiño was another opportunity for the climbers and general classification contenders as the 127km stage from Esgos to Rubiá finished at the top of Alto do Castelo.
There were two other climbs along the route at Alto do Rodicio (30km) and Alto da Hermida (90km), making for a decisive day of racing.
Due to the cold and snowy weather conditions, organisers made the decision to shorten the route removing Alto de Santa Mariña, which was impassable, and relocating the finish three kilometres lower on the final ascent.
Early attacks didn't get far, and as the peloton hit the first climb of the day, it was Igor Arrieta (Equipo Kern Pharma) who crested over the top of the Alto do Rodicio first.
A group of 12 riders separated from the field at that point that included Arrieta, Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Andrés Camilo Ardila (Burgos-BH), Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Alex Martín (EOLO-Kometa), German Nicolás Tivani (Team Corratec), Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis), Jorge Arcas (Movistar Team), Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma), Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health), Tiago Antunes (Efapel Cycling) and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA took up the chase behind, pulling in the peloton into the second ascent, Alto da Hermida. Up front, Schönberger led the breakaway over the top while also picking up full intermediate sprint points to extend his lead in the sprint competition.
The breakaway riders were caught with 10km to the finish as Jumbo-Visma, with Rohan Dennis and Attila Valter, led the field into the final ascent of the Alto do Castelo (3.7km at 6.4%) with Vingegaard on their wheels.
A select group stole away on the ascent that included the overall race leader, Vingegaard, who again proved the strongest of the group to take another solo win.
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