Vuelta a San Juan: Alaphilippe wins stage 3 time trial in Pocito

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Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) took his second consecutive stage win at the Vuelta a San Juan on Tuesday, setting the best time over the 12km individual time trial in Pocito. The Frenchman covered the course in 13:41, 12 seconds better than runner-up Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates). Alaphilippe's young teammate, Remco Evenepoel, was third, just eight-tenths of a second behind Conti.

The stage win bumped Alaphilippe into the overall lead after previous leader Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) finished sixth, 21 seconds down on the new race leader.

The 12km out-and-back course left little to the imagination for the riders, who were required to race on their road bikes "Eddy Merckx style" without the assistance of aerodynamic gear. There was no elevation gain or loss to speak of on the course, and the route went straight out to the turnaround - the only turn on the entire course - and then straight back. It was all about power on the wide-open, four-lane road in and out of Pocito. Temperatures once again hovered around 38C, with a breeze of 22kmh blowing in from the southeast.

Starting early in the day in 26th position, former UCI Hour Record holder Mattias Brändle (Israel Cycling Academy) set the early time to beat, covering the route in 14:28, almost a minute better than his nearest rival up to that point. Brändle's time stood for nearly half an hour before Tom Bohli, UAE Team Emirates' new recruit from BMC, blistered across the line in 14:09, 19 seconds better than Israel Cycling Academy rider.

Dimension Data's Rasmus Tiller and Deceuninck-QuickStep's Alvaro Hodeg came close to Boehli's time, but they fell short and slotted into third and fourth, respectively, about half way through the stage. The status quo held until Irishman Conor Dunner flew across the finish with a time of 14:14, five seconds slower than Bohli, moving the Israel Cycling Academy rider into second. With just 30 of 161 riders remaining, Bohli led Dunne by five seconds, Brändle by 19, Tiller by 38 and Hodeg by 41.

The best times of the day started tumbling like a series of dominoes from there. Starting 141st, nearly 90 minutes after Bohli, Bora-Hansgrohe's Felix Grobschartner set a new best time of 13:27, a full dozen seconds faster than the UAE rider. Evenepoel topped the leader board next, coming in at 13:53 to take the lead. Winner Anacona (Movistar) finished next and was just four seconds shy of Evenepoel.

But the young Belgian's time in the hot seat was also shortlived as Conti came in next with the fastest time, just .8 of a second better than Evenepoel. Conti's time held until Alaphilippe, who also set the fastest time at the intermediate time check, came in 12 seconds faster. With only Gaviria out on course, Alaphlippe's stage win looked guaranteed, with only the overall race lead on the line.

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