Lastras dedicated the win to three fallen comrades: teammates Xavier Tondo and Mauricio Soler, and Leopard trek’s Wouter Weylandt. (Weylandt died while riding in the Giro d’Italia, Tondo was killed preparing to ride, and Soler is recovering from a crash in the Tour de Suisse.)
"I think that I won today because of the expertise that I've built up as a veteran rider,” Lastras told CyclingNews.com. “I think it was a good win.
“I really wanted to raise my arms at the finish today and I dedicate the win to Xavi Tondo and to my teammate Soler who is very ill, as well as to all the friends who have been lost this year.”
The thirty-three-year-old Lastras faced two threats as he pedaled over the hot Spanish roads with the rest of the breakaway—behind him, Leopard Trek was chasing his group, hoping to catch them to set up a sprint finish for race leader Daniele Benatti; and around him were riders who all wanted the stage win.
Rather than waiting for others to decide his fate, Lastras sprinted up the final few hundred meters of the third Cat Three climb of the day. I t looked like he just wanted King of the Mountain points, none of the other riders reacted. Lastras crested the peak and kept going.
Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel presented the greatest threat; he was the strongest rider of the remaining three (Cofidis’s Nicolas Edet dropped out) and was only one second behind Lastras in General Classification. Knowing this, the other two escapees, RadioShack’s Markel Irizar and Vacansoleil’s Ruslan Podgornyy, refused to cooperate.
Chavanel could not drag the other two back to Lastras; he closed the gap to nine seconds with three kilometers left, then ran dry. Two kilometers later Lastras had a 17-second lead and was home free.
Leopard Trek pushed hard for a while, cutting the gap to the breakaway to two minutes, but no other team was willing to share the load. Leopard Trek decided defending the red jersey wasn’t worthwhile this early in the Vuelta.
That left the peloton riding a training ride, until the summit of the final climb when a few od the GC contenders—Brad Wiggins of Sky, Lampre’s Michele Scarponi, RadioShack’s Janez Brajkovic, Euskatel’s Igor Anton, and Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan of Liquigas—did a bit of jousting. Everyone settled down opn the descent, saving their legs for Stage Four, the first real mountain stage of the Vuelta.
Stage Four, 170 km from Baza to Sierra Nevada, opens with a Cat One climb with a Cat Three two-thirds in and a mountaintop finish.
The final two kilometers are flat, but the 23 km before angle up at nearly six percent; possibly a lagging GC contender—Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Lotto, Janez Brajkovicof RadioShack, or Bradley Wiggins of Sky, all more than two minutes down—might take a shot here.
|
2011 Vuelta a España Stage Three Results |
|
General Classification after Stage Three |
||||||
|
1 |
Pablo Lastras |
Movistar |
3:58:00 |
1 |
Pablo Lastras |
Movistar |
8:25:59 |
|
|
2 |
Sylvain Chavanel |
Quickstep |
0:00:15 |
2 |
Sylvain Chavanel |
Quickstep |
0:00:20 |
|
|
3 |
Markel Irizar |
RadioShack |
0:00:15 |
3 |
Markel Irizar |
RadioShack |
0:01:08 |
|
|
4 |
Ruslan Podgornyy |
Vacansoleil |
0:00:15 |
4 |
Ruslan Podgornyy |
Vacansoleil |
0:01:24 |
|
|
5 |
Nicolas Roche |
AG2R |
0:01:43 |
5 |
Jakob Fuglsang |
Leopard Trek |
0:01:55 |
|
|
6 |
Matti Breschel |
Rabobank |
0:01:43 |
6 |
Maxime Monfort |
Leopard Trek |
0:01:55 |
|
|
7 |
Valerio Agnoli |
Liquigas |
0:01:43 |
7 |
Vincenzo Nibali |
Liquigas |
0:01:59 |
|
|
8 |
Francesco Gavazzi |
Lampre |
0:01:43 |
8 |
Valerio Agnoli |
Liquigas |
0:01:59 |
|
|
9 |
Enrico Gasparotto |
Astana |
0:01:43 |
9 |
Eros Capecchi |
Liquigas |
0:01:59 |
|
|
10 |
Jan Bakelants |
Omega Pharma-Lotto |
0:01:43 |
10 |
Kanstantsin Siutsou |
HTC-Highroad |
0:02:04 |
|
