Another dawdling day at the Vuelta a Espana eventually saw Wout van Aert avenge his recent defeat to Kaden Groves. The overall leader claimed his first win since Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in February as he put a difficult season behind him. With the first summit finish arriving on Tuesday, Van Aert’s stint in the red jersey may be short-lived as the GC big-hitters look to make their mark.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) delivered his first victory since February as he comfortably saw off Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the Stage 3 sprint at the Vuelta a Espana.
After seeing Groves come out of his wheel to win the previous stage, Van Aert flipped the tables by sitting behind the Australian and his lead-out. He then powered to victory in the final tear-up.
As the final day in Portugal, and one of the few remaining opportunities for the sprinters, it was effectively agreed ahead of time between Visma-Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck that Stage 3 would conclude in a bunch gallop.
The Breakaway’s Nathan van Hooydonck predicted it would unfold as a carbon copy of Sunday. All the same, a couple of other big teams with less interest in a fast finish attempted to flip the script.
After four riders from the same team as the previous day got away early, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) and Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex QuickStep) attempted to join them. Visma and Alpecin were having none of it, and soon shut the move down.
Unai Iribar and Ibon Ruiz (Kern Pharma), and Luis Angel Mate and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) were then able to get on with the task in hand. That task being to give some TV time to their sponsors and, in the case of Mate, pick up as many mountains points as he could to wrest the classification’s leader’s jersey from the shoulders of Kung.
This he managed with relatively little effort, taking the maximum five points on the category two Alto de Teixeira.
The next few hours proceeded relatively uneventfully. The breakaway’s lead fluctuated between three and four minutes, as Visma and Alpecin took turns at the front of the peloton.
Only in the final 50 kilometres did they lift the race pace. They had no interest in shutting things down too early, and risk inviting counter-attacks.
Mate was therefore allowed to add two more to his mountains tally on the 6.3km Alto de Alpedrinha. He and Isasa continued on as the peloton bore down, leaving the latter the last man standing and the most combative rider of the day. Isasa was caught 100m inside 20km to go.
On wide, flat roads, the teams continued in formation. Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadier) once again showed himself at the front, no worse for wear after the previous day’s tumble.
With all of their riders present in correct Alpecin, the team most designed to serve up sprints were handed full responsibility for guiding the peloton home. It looked to be going to plan until Campenaerts again decided to play wind-up merchant, forcing Groves’ lieutenant to shut down his flamme rouge attack.
Wout van Aert, for his part, could afford to just sit on Groves’ wheel as his last lead-out man piloted them down the home straight. Rather than wait for last man Edward Planckaert to peel off, Van Aert jumped early, before the 200m line, to the right.
Groves was forced to improvise, initially going left but found himself blocked by Arne Marit (Intermarche-Wanty) going at full speed immediately beside him. Only when Marit faded was Groves able to draw closer, by which time Van Aert had the win wrapped up. He was able to celebrate with his trademark albatross flap of the arms.
“It’s worth it to be patient,” said Van Aert of his six-month wait for a win. “It’s been a while since I could raise my hands, and it feels so good.”
His plan, he added, had always been “to use my strength and launch early, and I think I surprised (Groves) by going before 200m”.
Although the Belgian extends his advantage in the leader’s red jersey to 13 seconds over Stage 1 winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), he dismissed any possibility of retaining the race lead beyond Tuesday’s tough day in the mountains.
“Unfortunately the fun is over,” he said. “Tomorrow I will be happy to give the role of team leader to (team-mates) Sepp (Kuss) and Cian (Uijtdebroeks). For me it will be really hard to keep the jersey.”
