Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana: Groenewegen comes back from crash to win stage 3

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Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) came back from a late crash to claim his second victory of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, winning stage 3 on a bike that was still damaged as Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) took the overall lead from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

The Dutch sprinter, who won on the opening day, hit the deck with around 30km to go and was forced into chasing back on with his teammates to take part in the bunch gallop.

Despite not being happy with his bike, he produced a powerful sprint on what was a messy finish to once again get the better of Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), with Matej Mohorič (Bahrain McLaren) claiming the final podium spot.

On a scrappy run towards the finish, Deceuninck-QuickStep took to the front of the peloton but it was far from a controlled lead-out. Whereas the opening day had seen Jakobsen overhauled by Groenewegen at the very last, this time Jakobsen took the wheel of his compatriot and looked to come around late on. He nearly did, but Groenewegen, who had jumped from the wheel of Matteo Trentin (CCC Team) to that of Mohorič, held on.

"It was an easy day but in the finale I crashed at around 30km from the finish. The team was waiting for me and I was in a good position to sprint. I had some mechanical problems but it was ok." Groenewegen said.

"In the final there was some corners but we stayed in a good position and we stayed together really well. I was really good in the sprint, in a good position. I had some problems with my bike after the crash but it was OK. It feels really good."

Despite the bunch finish, and despite Pogačar being present and correct, the stage saw the leader's jersey change hands. With no bonus seconds in this edition of the race, stage placings are used to order riders who are tied on time, as Pogaćar, Haig, and seven others were after stage 2.

Haig placed 12th on the stage, the best of the overall contenders and five places above Pogačar in 17th, and so moved above the Slovenian to the top of the standings. Despite finishing one place behind Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Pogačar held onto second place by virtue of beating him by two places on the opening stage and one place on stage 2.

The movements, however, will be rendered largely irrelevant as the general classification is set to take its own definitive shape on Saturday's stage 4, which finishes at the top of the five-kilometre climb to Altea. Nevertheless, there are now just seven riders tied for time after Dan Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) lost two seconds and Gianni Moscon (Team Ineos) lost more.

How it unfolded

After the punchy uphill finish on stage 2, it was back to the sprinters on stage 3, with a 176km route from Orihuela to Torrevieja. There was a heft second-category climb at Hondon de los Frailes but, topping out 70km from the line, it was never likely to inflict any lasting damage.

Six riders formed the early breakaway: Héctor Sáez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Manuel Peñalver (Burgos-BH), Julen Irizar (Fundación-Orbea), Petr Rikunov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Daniel Viegas (Kometa Xstra Cycling Team, and Iván Moreno (Equipo Kern Pharma).

They built a lead of three minutes after 50km but that was as good as it got, with the peloton unwilling to give them much rope. Rikunov was the first to the top of the climb, followed by Penalver and Irizar, and those three pressed on and went clear for several kilometres. Meanwhile, in the peloton, the bunch stretched out but none of the sprinters were placed in any real difficulty.

The break reformed but split up again after the descent, with Irizar going clear again, this time with Saez and Moreno. They were steadily reeled in by the peloton and, after being allowed to dangle out front for a while, were swiftly snuffed out with 10km to go.

CCC Team, Mitchelton-Scott, and Astana were all prominent on the run-in, along with Jumbo-Visma and Deceuninck-QuickStep, but there was a small spanner thrown into the works. With 3km to go, Michal Kiwatkowski (Team Ineos) took a flyer and was joined by Julien Duval (AG2R La Mondiale).

QuickStep were on the front but Mitchelton-Scott soon took over to eliminate the threat, and they went on to tee up Luka Mezgec for an early sprint. Mohoric also went early on the left but it was Groenewegen who was still feeling strong enough to take his second victory of the week.

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