Having been out of the front of the race for over 50km, Moolman Pasio beat her breakaway companions Spratt and Van Vleuten into second and third to take her first win for her new team.
Despite it clearly being a day for the climbers, the hilliest day of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana came down to a sprint for the line in Altea.
After escaping the peloton on the long Alto Tudons climb, the penultimate ascent of the day, the Van Vleuten, Moolman-Pasio and Spratt were unable to shake one another on the climb to Confrides and contested the flat finale between themselves.
Van Vleuten hit out first, but it was Moolman Pasio who was able to sustain her sprint for the longest and cross the line with one arm raised in victory.
How it unfolded
After two rolling, sprinter-friendly days in Valencia – both won by Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) – stage 3 saw the climbing ramp up over the 1000m mark, with three categorised climbs along the 132km route from Agost to Altea. The key climbs, the Alto Tudons (15.4km at 4.9%) and the ascent to Confrides (6.5km at 4.8%) came back to back in the last 50km before a downhill run-in to the finish.
Opening with an uncategorised 10km rise, the start of the stage was the perfect opportunity for a break to form, and it was four riders that got away: the Team DSM duo of Becky Storrie and Elise Uijen pushed on, joined by Morgane Coston (Cofidis) and Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep). They pulled out a lead of over a minute in the first 20km, with Coston taking maximum points on the first categorised climb.
After the climb, the gap continued to grow to a maximum of four minutes. Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT) and Catalina Soto (Bizkaia Durango) attempted to bridge to the leaders but failed to make the catch.
In the peloton, it was Trek-Segafredo who were policing things at the front for most of the day, their natural role as holders of the leader’s jersey, but they seemed happy to give the breakaway a decent gap. Passing the halfway mark and with the Alto Tudons looming, however, it was Annemiek van Vleuten’s Movistar who made themselves known on the front of the peloton, upping the pace and consequently cutting into the leader's advantage.
Though Van Vleuten was poised behind the Movistar train, no moves went for the first half of the climb as Trek-Segafredo also took some control with Gaia Realini and Amanda Spratt. Up front, it was Becky Storrie who was the first to be dropped from the breakaway as four became three.
The first attacks in the peloton came a few kilometres from the top of the Alto Tudons, as Van Vleuten went on the move with Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step) and Amanda Spratt, with Kim Cadzow (Jumbo Visma) also bridging across.
Due to this acceleration, the leaders were now less than 20 seconds ahead of the chase. The two groups came together just before the top of the climb, with Coston again taking maximum points. What remained of the peloton - around 20 riders - was a minute back on the descent.
Cadzow was the first to be distanced from the group, along with Coston. Benito and Uijen held on for longer, initially both being distanced but then rejoining the leaders at the base of the second big climb. Surprisingly, Benito and Uijen then attacked, finding themselves alone in the lead once again. An acceleration from Van Vleuten caught them again and saw both distanced, seemingly definitively, but in fact, they rejoined the leaders yet again just 10km later.
With just one more ramp and then a descent to go, Van Vleuten, Spratt and Moolman-Pasio were running out of opportunities to accelerate and test one another. Going into the final 20km, it was still the five riders out front, though Benito and Uijen drifted again as the other three accelerated up a steep ramp. Behind, the chase was holding steady at around a minute behind, but there was little cohesion to really organise an effort.
Van Vleuten began to put in some small accelerations but struggled to shake her companions, and they were all together going into the final 10km with no more significant climbing. In the finale, the reduced bunch behind were closing in, but the trio entered the final kilometre ready to sprint it out between themselves.
Going round a roundabout in the final few hundred metres, Van Vleuten started her sprint on one side of the roundabout, but it was Moolman Pasio on the other side who proved fastest and strongest, holding off both Van Vleuten and Spratt all the way to the line to take the victory.
In the end, the fast-approaching bunch finished only a few seconds behind the winner, with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) leading the group home for fourth after missing the winning move. With Balsamo dropped from the peloton, Moolman Pasio now leads the general classification with one stage remaining.
Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported from many of the biggest events on the calendar, including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France Femmes, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.
