Vuelta a Burgos: Sosa wins stage 3

Image 1 of 16

Iván Sosa (Team Ineos) took the win on stage 3 of the Vuelta a Burgos atop Picón Blanco, avenging his narrow loss to Miguel Ángel López on the same climb a year ago. The youngster attacked with 2km of the 8km climb remaining, soloing to victory and the race lead.

Óscar Rodríguez (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) put in a late charge to take second place, 17 seconds down, while Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) was third at 24 seconds.

Team Ineos and Movistar made the pace up the climb, setting up a showdown between their South American climbers, Sosa and Richard Carapaz. It was a brutal pace that quickly blew the peloton apart despite the short length of the climb.

Both teams had a plan but it was Ineos who had the strength, with David de la Cruz launching Sosa at the 2km mark. At first, Pedrero and his teammate Carapaz managed to follow, but Sosa quickly dispensed with the duo and rode through the mist alone to take victory.

How it unfolded

Stage 3 of the Vuelta a Burgos brought with it the first summit finish of the race, Picón Blanco, a 7.8km 9.3 per cent climb won by Mikel Landa and Miguel Ángel López in the past two years. Three third-category climbs came in the first half of the 148km stage, while a final third-category climb of the Alto Retuerta at 123.7km.

The opening 15km saw a flurry of attacks, but it wasn’t until the first climb of the Alto de la Mota that the break of the day was established. Matthias Brändle (Israel Cycling Academy), Ángel Madrazo (Burgos-BH), Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels), Lucas De Rossi (Delko Marseille Provence), Juan Camacho (Kometa Cycling Team) and Simon Pellaud (IAM Excelsior) were the six men to make it.

Pellaud and Brändle traded blows on the third-category climbs, though the steep final climb to the finish would instead give the mountain classification lead to a GC contender.

At the bottom of the climb, Pellaud and Madrazo were the last two men remaining from the break, having struck out shortly before, but with Team Ineos and Movistar working on the front of the peloton, they were brought back with 7km left to race.

With the peloton already shattered as the two teams pushed the pace, Sergio Samitier (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) was the first man to put in an attack, briefly striking out 4km from the summit.

With just over 2km to go, De la Cruz set up Sosa to attack from what was by then a seven-man lead group, while Carapaz swiftly reacted to take the Colombian’s wheel. The Ecuadorian didn’t hold on for long though, as with half a kilometre later, Sosa was off.

Pedrero rejoined his teammate at the flamme rouge and pushed on in search of Sosa, and then Rodríguez surged in the final kilometre. But by then it was already too late, leaving the 21-year-old Sosa to celebrate his second win of the season.

Results