De la Cruz solos to stage 3 victory in Vuelta al Pais Vasco

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David de la Cruz soloed to victory on Wednesday's third stage of the Vuelta al País Vasco, attacking on the day's final climb and staying clear to the finish in San Sebastián.

The Quick-Step Floors rider opened up an advantage on a select group of GC hopefuls cresting the final ascent, and he held on to just enough of the gap to take the stage win at the line. Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski won the sprint for second place three seconds behind De la Cruz, with Bora-Hansgrohe's Jay McCarthy taking third on the day.

Team Sunweb's Michael Matthews, who started stage 3 atop the overall leaderboard, came unglued from the main GC group on the hectic final climb. The Australian gave a valiant chase trying to rejoin the group on the descent but couldn't make the catch, dropping out of the GC top 10 and relinquishing the leader's jersey to De La Cruz

How it unfolded

The undulating stage 3 of the Tour of the Basque Country kicked off with a flurry of attacks as numerous riders tried to make the day's main breakaway, but it took quite some time for the successful selection to form.

Only after around 40 kilometres of racing did a group get clear.

Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis Solutions, Credits), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Antonio Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Drapac) and Eros Capecchi (Quick-Step Floors) formed the formidable nine-man escape on the way up the Udana climb.

After the hectic start, the bunch gave the breakers some breathing room, allowing the gap to grow to a little over four minutes before tightening the leash, with Movistar and Sky taking to the front of the peloton.

The gap was down to around two and a half minutes with 70 kilometres to go, and it hovered there for a while before gradually beginning to drop again.

A crash in the peloton saw Quick-Step's Julian Alaphilippe hit the deck going through the feed zone, another frustrating moment for the Frenchman after a heart-breaking puncture just a few hundred metres from the safety of the three-kilometres-to-go marker dropped him out of contention in the opening stage.

The bunch had closed the gap down to around a minute with 50 kilometres to go, with the escape starting to break into pieces on the third-category Alkiza climb. Six of the escapees were caught in short order, while Fuglsang, De Marchi and Montaguti pressed on into the final 40 kilometres. Montaguti then fell off the pace, but Fuglsang and De Marchi held on for dear life with Movistar and Sky continuing to set a hard pace in the peloton, with the gap at 20 seconds heading into the last 30 kilometres.

Though the duo managed to hold out for a little while longer even with the small gap, they were finally caught with around 20 kilometres to go heading into the Mendizorrotz final climb.

In the ensuing regrouping, Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Orica-Scott's Simon Yates both found themselves in technical difficulty. Valverde made a quick bike change and a strong effort in pursuit saw him reattach with the dwindling peloton on the slopes of the climb. A punctured Yates, however, had no such luck, finding himself well behind the pack after getting a new wheel. He ultimately came home 1:33 down.

There was a flurry of attacks off the front as the GC group made its way up the Mendizorrotz, but none stuck until de la Cruz powered away with around 15 kilometres to go. A brief moment of hesitation from the rest of the group was all he needed to quickly open up a 20-second advantage.

Movistar and Sky jumped to attention as they neared the summit, and then Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) and Rigoberto Urán (Cannondale-Drapac) tried to bridge, shortening the gap—but no one could quite catch De la Cruz, who took around 10 seconds over the top of the climb.

Despite a hard-charging select group in pursuit, the Spaniard held onto most of that gap through trek down into San Sebastián, heading into the flat final three kilometres with a 10-second gap.

The bunch drew closer rounding the last few corners, but De la Cruz was not to be denied, holding on by three seconds to take the victory with the pack settling for minor placings close behind.

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