Ruta del Sol: Magnus Sheffield wins stage 3

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Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked outside the final kilometre to claim his first professional win on the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol.

The 19-year-old American surged clear of a leading group on an uphill rise in Otura forcing a small gap and holding his advantage to the line.

Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) led the sprint behind from a small leading group for second while Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën Team) finished third.

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) kept his overall leader's jersey by eight seconds but was given a scare when Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) attacked on an unclassified climb taking a group of seven riders clear.

However, with a fast last 30 kilometres into Otura the leaders were pulled back by the chasers led by Movistar.

The attack did split the peloton with the leading group of around 40 riders approaching the finish together while a larger peloton chased behind.

A crash inside the last three kilometre saw Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) hit the ground ending his sprint hopes, but team-mate Sheffield timed his attack perfectly to take the stage win.

How it unfolded

After winning the previous day on the steep finish up to Alcalá la Real, it was Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) who led the race overall going into the third stage by five seconds.

Covi had shown his form last weekend winning the 1.1 classification race Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia Costa Calida beating a good field.

The Italian also led the points classification after two stages while Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) had the King of the Mountains lead.

A lumpy third stage saw riders compete over 153.2 kilometres including four categorised climbs but a host of other ramps before descending into the final rise to Otura.

Not taking the start was both the American Human Powered Health team and Gazprom-RusVelo squads with both forced to withdraw after returning positive Covid-19 tests before the stage start.

The American Human Powered Health team consisted of Ben King, Chad Haga, Nathan Brown, Stephen Bassett and Gavin Mannion.

Meanwhile, the Gazprom-RusVelo riders in the race were Nikolay Cherkasov, José Manuel Díaz, Alessandro Fedeli, Sergei Chernetski and Artem Nych.

The day's breakaway was established after 14 kilometres of racing and included four Spanish riders.

Euskaltel – Euskadi team-mates Ibai Azurmendi and Xabier Isasa were joined in the break by

King of the Mountains leader Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) as well as Juan Antonio López-Cózar (Burgos-BH).

With 31 points available in the King of the Mountains competition on the day Barrenetxea had a three-point advantage over Isasa coming into the stage.

At the top of the third category Alto del El Higueral coming after 29 kilometres of racing it was Barrenetxea who took the maximum three points gaining a further point over Isasa.

The pair would resume their battle on the third category Puerto del Morrón coming after 49.4 kilometres of racing with Barrenetxea again getting the better of Isasa as the four-man breakaway had a lead of over two minutes on the peloton.

With 85 kilometres remaining the leading quartet topped the second category Puerto de Tocón with Barrenetxea taking maximum King of the Mountains points once again from Isasa and the leaders having an advantage of around 2:40.

With Euskaltel-Euskadi teammates Isasa and Azurmendi sitting just 20 and 25 seconds back respectively on general classification UAE Team Emirates were forced to work on the front to kee the breakaway at two minutes.

On the final classified climb of the day Alto de Cacín the breakaway were pushing the pace and López-Cózar was dropped leaving a leading trio with 42 kilometres remaining.

At the summit, it was again Barrenetxea who took the King of the Mountains points to increase his advantage to nine points over Isasa.

After having a successful day in the breakaway Barrenetxea was next to be dropped leaving the two Euskaltel-Euskadi riders 1-45 clear of the bunch with 35 kilometres remaining.

An attack by Lennard Kämna (BORA – Hansgrohe) sparked the bunch into action and meant the end of the breakaway with 32 kilometres remaining.

As the race fractured Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange – Jayco) counter-attacked and was joined by a small group of favourites including Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) and Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team).

On the last 30 kilometres to the finish at Otura the leading group were joined by

Mauri Vansevenant (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl Team), Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) and Cristián Rodríguez (TotalEnergies) to form a leading group of seven.

UAE Team Emirates had been chasing the breakaway most of the day and race leader Covi was left isolated in a chasing group 13 seconds back.

Led by Movistar the chasing group used the fast downhill roads to the finish to their advantage pulling back the breakaway group back with 22 kilometres remaining.

Bahrain Victorious were pulling the leading group of around 40 riders towards the finish while a large peloton led by Equipo Kern Pharma were chasing 15 seconds back.

A crash on a right-hand bend with 2.5 kilometres remaining split the leading group with Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) one of those that came off.

Approaching the final kilometre Kämna saw his attack countered by Sheffield who forced a slender advantage which he held to take the victory.