Marta Romeu (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi) won stage 3 at Vuelta Ciclista Andalucía Ruta del Sol.
The Spanish rider made a late-race attack and then hung on to secure a solo win by a slim one-second margin ahead of overall race leader Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (Israel Premier Tech Roland) and four seconds ahead of Katrine Aalerud (Movistar Team) on the uphill finish in Álora.
Dronova-Balabolina, who won the first two stages, maintained her lead in the overall classification heading into the penultimate stage 4 from Pizarra to Mijas. She is now 37 seconds ahead of Aalerud and 46 seconds ahead of Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team).
How it unfolded
The third stage of the Vuelta Ciclista Andalucía Ruta Del Sol was a 134km race from Nerja to Álora.
It was another hilly route that included three main climbs over the Alto de Colmenar (18km at 2.8% with the last 6.1km at 5%), Alto de Joya (3.6km at 5%) and Alto de Los Nogales (2.9km at 6.8%), followed by a long descent into Álora where there was a short uphill rise to the finish line.
Jessenia Meneses (Colombia Pacto Por El Deporte-GW Shimano) took full points over the top of the first climb, Alto de Colmenar, ahead of Elizabeth Stannard (Israel Premier Tech Roland) and teammate Dronova-Balabolina. Meneses' efforts pushed her up into the lead of the mountains classification.
A split in the peloton resulted in a front group gaining roughly 30 seconds on the chasing second group as the race entered 50km to go.
Over the second ascent, Alto de Joya, Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) crested the top first taking the mountain points, but Stannard and Meneses were close behind, hoovering up the remaining points.
Alto de los Nogales marked the final climb of the day, and Marta Romeu (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi) broke away and gained nearly a minute in pursuit of the stage win.
Romeu took the mountain points over the top of Nogales, but that had no effect on Meneses' mountain classification lead. As the peloton crested a minute later, Meneses took second-place points, which was enough to secure herself the mountains classification jersey heading into stage 4.
Romeu continued her solo efforts on the long descent toward Álora, but her gap was slashed to just 20 seconds with 10km to go.
The Spaniard held strong and still had 20 seconds in hand as she entered the final four kilometres. In one last effort on the short climb to the finish, she narrowly held on for the stage win, finishing a mere second ahead of Dronova-Balabolina.
Results
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