Volta a Catalunya: Ben O'Connor takes solo win, race lead atop La Molina

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Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) powered to a solo victory on stage 3 atop La Molina at the Volta a Catalunya, taking the overall race lead in the process.

The Australian made his bid for victory inside the last eight kilometres on the decisive final ascent and narrowly held off the select chase group. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line in second and Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic) in third.

"It's been hard the last month because I got very sick, so to come out here and win again is amazing. Every year I set myself a goal to win and it's nice to get it done early in the year," O'Connor said of his first win of the season.

"I've been very confident this week because I know that my form is there. I didn't expect to be solo. I was hoping some guys would come with me, but in the end I just had to go myself. I was lucky to hang on."

O'Connor's efforts have pushed him up into the overall lead by 10 seconds ahead of Ayuso and 12 seconds ahead of Quintana, while Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) sits 16 seconds back in fourth. The peloton will tackle another mountaintop finish at Boí Taüll during stage 4 on Thursday where O'Connor said he will give it his best effort to defend the leader's jersey.

"It is another climb that suits me and I can hold my own on the big mountains. I just have to be smart tomorrow to follow who attacks. I don't know what was happening behind me, but it's up to other teams to make the race hard. It's a tricky race and always super hard but I will do my best and I'm confident that I can hold the lead."

How it unfolded

Stage 3 offered the peloton the first of two back-to-back mountain-top finishes at La Molina, with the second held on stage 4 to Boí Taüll on Thursday.

The 161.1km race started in Perpignan and travelled gradually uphill toward the first-category climb at Mont-Louis (9.2km at 5.6 per cent) located 77km into the stage.

The route then descended toward two intermediate sprints at Llivia (97km) and Puigcerda (103km) before embarking on the last two ascents of the day at Collada de Toses, a lengthy 20km at 3.1 per cent that peaked at the 128km mark, followed by the climb to the finish line atop La Molina.

An early breakaway set off that included Simone Petilli (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), Casper Pedersen (Team DSM). At 50km into the stage, the quartet had pushed their lead out to a sizeable eight minutes ahead of the main field that was primarily led by Movistar.

Over the first climb of the day, Mont-Louis, Okamika took the full 10 mountain classification points ahead of Bizkarra, Pedersen and Petilli.

The pace behind the four escapees caused some riders to struggle and fall off the back including overall race leader Jonas Hvideberg (Team DSM), stage 1 winner Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) and Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma). Dumoulin and Matthews later abandoned the race, while Hvideberg managed to claw his way back up to the group only to be dropped again on the final ascent.

Okamika took the full points at the first intermediate sprint in Llivia while Petilli grabbed the points at the second and final sprint in Puigcerda.

The second climb of the day, Collada de Toses, proved a bit more of a challenge, and as Okamika, again, took the mountain points over the top and solidified his place as the mountain classification leader, but the gap to the field behind fell to three minutes as Jumbo-Visma led the chase into the base of the decisive final climb La Molina.

La Molina

As the four breakaway riders reached the final and decisive ascent of La Molina, Bizkarra surged along the lower slopes and the increased pace caused Pedersen to fall off pace first followed by Okamika and then Petilli.

In the main field behind, overnight race leader Hvideberg struggled to stay in contact with the fast-forming selection of climbers and GC contenders and he appeared to know that his time in the leader's jersey would be short-lived.

The Norwegian rider, who took over the race lead after stage 2, smiled at the TV cameras and signalled to fans watching the race that he was done for the day, unable to hang on to the blistering pace of the main field as the roads began to steepen.

Team DSM's Henri Vandenabeele was the first to attack out of the field and bridged across to the last breakaway rider standing, Bizkarra. He then surged passed the Spaniard and built his lead out to 20 seconds as BikeExchange set a pace that quickly thinned out the field.

The second attack came from O'Connor, who crossed the slim gap to Vandenabeele inside the final 8km of the ascent. The Australian dropped his companion over the next few hundred metres of road, and extended his lead to 25 seconds.

Ineos Grenadiers moved to the front with Jonathan Castroviejo holding the gap to O'Connor at, what initially seemed, a manageable 18 seconds. Castroviejo's pace was also fast enough to rid the likes of Simon Yates (BikeExchange) from the fast-dwindling group. EF Education-EasyPost launched two successive attacks first with Esteban Chaves and then Hugh Carthy, but neither managed to gain any real ground.

Attacks also came from Ilan van Wilder (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) followed by Attia Valter (Groupama-FDJ), Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), but with 3km to go, O'Connor gritted his teeth and pushed onward with a small but hopeful margin.

Inside the final kilometre Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) jumped from the field in a last-ditch bid to catch O'Connor but the Australian, mouth hung open from the massive effort, made another desperate push to stay out front. The small group swept up Soler, but O'Connor sprinted out of his saddle, rounded the final bend, and took the victory atop La Molina.