Volta a Catalunya: Adam Yates wins stage 3

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Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won a small group sprint between the world’s best climbers to take the summit victory at Vallter 2000, which marked the queen stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya. Yates capitalised off of the efforts of Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), who, after a tactical battle up the 11km ascent, started the final sprint with roughly 200 metres to go.

Yates powered around the Irishman to take the stage win ahead of Egan Bernal (Team Sky), while Martin mustered up enough strength to hang on for third place. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) placed fourth, and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) was fifth.

"Last week I showed I was in good condition, I came up short then, and I wanted to make up for it," said Yates, referring to performance at Tirreno-Adriatico, where he lost by one-second to Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma). "I wanted to win today to sort of make up for it.

Stage 1 winner Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) started the day with a healthy 2:47 minutes over the main GC contenders. As expected, he lost contact partway up the final climb to Vallter 2000 but maintained his overall lead. He now has 27 seconds over Adam Yates in the overall classification and an additional three seconds over Egan Bernal (Team Sky).

The climbing isn't over, however, with stage 4's 150km race taking the riders from Llandars to the summit of La Molina, where Adam Yates hopes for another stage win and an opportunity to take the overall lead.

"Tomorrow we've got another tough stage, another possibility for a stage win," Yates said. "We'll wait and see but so far, so good. The team did a brilliant job today looking after me, but yeah, more of the same tomorrow hopefully."

How it unfolded

Stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya was the toughest of the seven stages; 179km from Sant Feliu de Guíxols and included a category 3 climb, two category 1 climbs, and a hors category summit finish to Vallter 2000 at Setcases. Organisers were forced to alter the route last year due to a threat of avalanches.

A breakaway of 11 riders cleared the field in the opening kilometres and passed the category 3 Alt de la Ganga, located 15km into the stage. Álvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) led them over the top taking full KOM points, with Pieter Weening (Roompot-Charles) and Óscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH) in second and third.

The move also included Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias), Bart De Clercq (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Maurits Lammertink (Roompot-Charles), Lennard Kämna (Team Sunweb), Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Francois Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale), Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa-Samsic) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (Jumbo-Visma).

The next ascent was some 115km later, and so the 11 men pushed on through the valley roads with only the intermediate sprint to contest in Banyoles, where Lammertink picked up full points. And since the bulk of the climbing was in the last third of the stage, the peloton led by teams Jumbo-Visma, Movistar and Lotto Soudal, seemed more than content to let the breakaway gain upwards of five minutes.

There wasn't much of a contest for points at the top of the first category 1 climb of the Port d'Oix (130km) with Cuadros rolling over the top first. After a brief descent, they climbed over the second category 1 climb of the Port de Rocabruna (145km) and the gap reduced to three minutes because of Movistar's chase.

Several riders lost touch with the breakaway, and only seven remained out front; Weening, Cuadros, Samitier, Bidard, De Clercq, Devenyns and Lindeman. Their gap widened again to over four minutes as they descended toward the second intermediate sprint in Llanars.

Movistar continued the pace-setting down into Llanars, where a crash took down Andrey Amador, and although he got back up, the team was forced to push on without his domestique services ahead of the final climb. Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) was also involved in the crash.

As the breakaway approached the base of the climb, the gap tumbled to under three minutes for the first time during the race and then slashed to under two minutes as they started climbing with 12km to go.

Tactics play out on the Vallter 2000

The climb to Vallter 2000 was 11.4km long with an average of 7.7 per cent, and so it marked a decisive point in the race for the overall contenders.

Mitchelton-Scott moved one rider to the front of the field, to help Movistar in the chase, for their contenders Simon and Adam Yates. Also hovering near the front were Egan Bernal (Team Sky), who utilized Chris Froome's support on the climb after the Briton lost 14 minutes after a crash during stage 2.

De Gendt held steady among the likes Michael Woods (EF Educations First), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ), who all stayed hidden among the front end of the main field, attentive to any threatening attacks at the start of the ascent.

Up in the breakaway, Weening attacked with nine kilometres to go, and Lindeman couldn't entirely close the gap. The Roompot-Charles rider held onto 1:30, pushing on to try and reach the finish line with a stage win, but the gap continued to drop quickly as Team Sky moved to the fore of the peloton behind.

The blue and black colours of Team Sky, followed by Movistar, amassed ahead of the field to set a pace that was just enough to deter any major attacks, but also to reduce the time to Weening. De Gendt lost contact at this point but fought to stay as close as he could to the leaders.

Sebastian Henao (Team Sky) took the reins followed by Bernal, but they were carefully watched by Quintana with his last support rider Richard Carapaz. They drove the speeds on the steeper slopes of the climb, dropping world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and catching Weening in the process.

Bernal was the first to make a significant attack, but he was quickly followed by a calm and collected Quintana, who refused to move forward to take a pull. Their speeds lulled briefly through a steep switchback which allowed Adam Yates to successful bridge across. As Miguel Angel Lopez and Dan Martin were about to make contact, too, Bernal attacked again, but he was, again, followed by Quintana and then Adam Yates with 2km to go.

Lopez was the next to attack and this time it was Bernal who chased his compatriot with Quintana and Adam Yates holding on tight. Martin struggled to hang on, but as soon as he regained contact, he surged ahead. The move seemed almost futile with Adam Yates, Quintana, Lopez and Bernal shutting it down.

Another lull in the attacks in the closing kilometre allowed the Irishman to stay in the mix for what turned into a sprint to the line. He was the first to attack with 200 metres to go, and through three quick switchbacks, but Adam Yates waited patiently for the winning opportunity to power around Martin in the final 100 metres and take the stage win. Bernal picked up second place, leaving Martin in third, while Quintana settled for fourth and Lopez fifth.

Kruijswijk led in a chase group for sixth place that also included Zakarin, Carapaz, Kelderman, Woods, Pinot and Bardet.

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