Volta a Catalunya: Glory for Juan Ayuso on stage 3 as Spaniard tops Primož Roglič at La Molina

A long day in the saddle ended in glory for Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), as he took his sixth victory of the season following an explosive finale on the first summit finish of La Volta Catalunya. Ayuso battled head-to-head against Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) over the final 200 metres, with the two crossing the line shoulder-to-shoulder, Ayuso taking the win by a fraction following a day in which his teammates controlled the race.

The bunch closed in on a leading trio of riders with just a few hundred metres remaining, among them Ayuso's teammate Marc Soler, who animated the final climb to La Molina, before leading out Ayuso. It was Roglič who launched first, but a searing turn of pace from Ayuso drew him level with the Slovenian as they crossed the line, with the Spaniard just edging ahead. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) finished third. Ayuso takes the lead in the general classification with Roglič in second, and Landa third.

Speaking after the stage, Ayuso agreed that staking his claim on the general classification was part of the aim for the day. "Of course, that's the main goal, but here it's very important to win stages, because they always also come with bonus seconds, and in this race, many years have been decided for less than ten seconds. So it's important to get these wins.

He responded to a question over whether Pogačar's 2024 GC win placed extra pressure on him, or was in fact a blessing. "No, it's nice, it's a blessing," Ayuso said. "We have number one in our team, which is Soler, thanks to Tadej last year, and I hope next year, they also have number one."

How it unfolded

Stage 3 of the Volta Catalunya was the longest of the week at 218.6 kilometres and featured 4,700 metres in altitude gain. An early category 2 climb was followed by three late ascents of varying difficulty, and a summit finish which was expected to draw out the GC riders who would contest the overall victory.

Beginning in Viladecans, the peloton rolled out in bright, sunny conditions, and after an early skirmish, a four-man breakaway with Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Mats Wenzel (Kern Pharma), Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Lorenzo Germani (Groupama-FDJ establishing the move 30 kilometres into the stage.

 They were allowed around five minutes early in proceedings, but their advantage had plummeted to 2:30 by the time the race reached the summit of the category 3 Coll de la Battalola, which saw an acceleration at the front of the bunch.

On the short, sharp descent that followed, the peloton stretched out into a long line, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the head, as they prepared for the main test of the day, the hors category Coll de la Crueta. A lengthy ascent at 21 kilometres, though not overly challenging at an average gradient of 5%, UAE used the climb to begin the process of whittling down the bunch, setting a steady but brisk pace that began to see riders losing touch at the back.

Meanwhile, at the front of the race, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) pushed clear of the breakaway group to go into the solo lead. As Lotto took up the chase on behalf of Lennert van Eetvelt, Armirail slowly improved his advantage, building a cushion of three minutes as he neared the summit, which offered a stunning vista in the snow as the race reached almost 2,000 metres above sea level.

UAE exerted their authority once more and began to reel him in on the long descent that followed, with the gap dropping to just over a minute as Armirail reached the foot of the final climb up to La Molina. 

Former race leader Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) lost touch as the final climb began in earnest, and a slimmed-down bunch of around 50 riders caught and passed Armirail and pushed on.

Brennan's teammate Sepp Kuss was the first to really open up a gap on the climb, with Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale), who won in La Molina back in 2022, on his wheel. Adam Yates quickly closed the pair down for UAE and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe stepped in to take over the pace-setting after that.

The action began with 6.5 kilometres remaining, George Bennett (Israel-Premier Tech) instigated an attack, taking Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) with him, and tempting UAE's Marc Soler to bridge across and join them to form a trio. 

They opened a modest gap, but Soler attacked shortly afterwards, dropping Bennett and pursued instead by Kuss, who joined Soler and Fortunato and led down the short descent that separated the main part of the climb from the steep climb to the finish line.

The trio were subsumed just over 500 metres from the finish line however, and the final uphill sprint was led out by Soler before Roglič stole a march on Ayuso 200 metres from the line. A moment's hesitation allowed Ayuso to power through on the inside however, and though Roglič appeared to be coming back to the Spaniard as the line approached, his recovery came a fraction too late.

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