Tour Colombia 2.1: Second stage win for Molano

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Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) powered to his second consecutive stage win in the Tour Colombia 2.1, holding off Edwin Avila (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in Sogamoso.

It was a hard-fought stage and sprinters had to survive three climbs in the first half of the 177.7km route. The race came back together in the final 15km, with Deceuninck-Quickstep leading into the final 250m for Hodeg, but Molano had superior punch when it came to the final surge. Avila was coming on fast but the UAE rider threw his bike across the line to ensure back-to-back stage wins.

"I don’t have words. I have taken advantage of this opportunity, and to be honest, these stages have been a very difficult, complicated level, but my team did a spectacular job," Molano said. 

"Cristian [Muñoz], Andres [Ardila] and Fabio [Aru] were impressive. I think that helped me a lot to have the help from riders with that much experience that delivered me. That gives me a lot of motivation. 

"With the stage yesterday, the win came to me, but today it was very difficult. But I had a lot of confidence, and in the end I think I expected a lot. But the confidence that I gained yesterday was the most important thing for me today."

With the bonus for his two stage wins, Molano moved into fifth overall behind EF Pro Cycling's race leader Jonathan Caicedo, Sergio Higuita, Dani Martinez and Tejay van Garderen.

How it unfolded

The 177.7km third stage took the peloton from Paipa once again to the small town of Sogamoso, where the enthusiastic local fans packed the finish area well before the riders were expected.

The stage featured three intermediate sprints and the first two KOMs of the race. The sprints came at 36.2km, 106.2km and 156.3km, and the KOMs were contested at 47.2km and at 95.6k, leaving 82km to race before the finish.

Although the altitude was once again nearing 3,000 metres of elevation on the climbs, they came in the first half of the stage and led to a long, flat run to the finish, giving the fit sprinters something to anticipate and suffer over the mountains for.

The race got off to an interesting start, with the breakaway of the day taking a while to form. Tour de France champion Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) joined Oscar Sevilla (Team Medellin) and several others in an early move about 22km into the stage, but the peloton reacted quickly to shut down the dangerous move.

That left a wide-open sprint at 36.2km, where Brayan Sanchez (Team Medellin) continued to collect points and time bonuses by taking the win ahead of Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Kristian Yustre (Team Illuminate).

Pellaud stayed out front to claim maximum points at the first KOM, a category 4 climb at 47.2km. Team Ineos’ efforts at the race took a hit on the climb, when Leonardo Basso, a last-minute replacement for the injured Ivan Sosa, climbed off and abandoned the race.

The climb finally launched a breakaway that would stick. In the move were Pellaud, Sevilla, Sebastian Henao (Team Ineos) and Felix Baron (Team Illuminate). The quartet immediately started building their gap, and the four riders had 2:35 on the peloton 76km into the day while Movistar led the chase back in the peloton.

Pellaud continued his run of success in the mountains classification, taking maximum points at the final KOM of the day at 96.5km to seal his lead for that jersey. Sevilla claimed top points at the second intermediate sprint of the day at 106.2km, beating Baron and Henao and grabbing a three-second time bonus as well.

With just 60km remaining, the leaders still had a 2:30 gap on the bunch, and the EF Pro Cycling team of overall race leader Jonathan Caicedo soon converged on the front to bring the gap down. And just 10km later they had carved a minute out of the escapees’ advantage.

Movistar came to the front next, and with 25km to go the gap was down to just over a minute. Perhaps not happy with the progress, EF came to the front again in full force to drive the chase.

Sevilla took maximum points and collected another three-second time bonus at the final sprint with 21.4km to go beating Henao and Pellaud. That brought an end to the escapees’ time off the front, however, as the bunch was quickly upon them, and a sprint finish looked assured.

Stage Results

Overall Classifications