On the same tough mountain stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana where Belgium's top young star Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) had something of an off day, promising young Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) managed to step up his game with a vengeance.
The 21-year-old finished an impressive second on the Antenas del Maigmó summit finish to stage winner Alexsandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), outpowering far more experienced racers of the calibre of Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and, of course, Evenepoel as well.
In Valverde's defence, the veteran Spaniard did have a puncture on the upper segment of the climb after launching a powerful early attack, and that arguably all but destroyed any chance El Bala might have had to battle for the win.
However, Valverde's misfortune should not detract from Rodriguez taking a notable step forward. He was third atop the Torralba del Pinar on stage 1 and confirmed his climbing prowess on Friday by going one place better.
The young Andalusian rider's finish allowed him to move up to third overall, just four seconds down on Evenepoel, and barring major surprises, he should remain on the podium at the finish on Sunday in Valencia.
After stage 3, Ineos Grenadiers management were understandably delighted for their young star, whose climbing talents saw him solo the final stage of the Tour de L'Avenir last year on the Alpine pass of Col du Petit Saint-Bernard by nearly two minutes.
"These early stage races are always a bit hard to predict, but today the climb suited him well," Ineos Grenadiers Sports Director Xabi Zandio told Cyclingnews as he waited for Rodriguez at the team bus.
"He's a light little climber, so a climb where you need to accelerate hard like today was always going to be better for him than Wednesday, which was steadier.
"He's very young, but he's taking some really important steps each year. You never know early on in the season, but of course, we thought he could be up there."
Perhaps even more than the physical strength of his rider, Zandio was impressed by how cool-headed Rodriguez stayed on Valenciana's crunch climb despite being in such elite company.
Rather than attack early, the Spaniard waited right until the end before making his move to try to chase down stage winner Vlasov. Zandio had done a reconnaissance of the climb, he related, and the team had seen the video of the ascent that morning, "so we knew the last kilometre was really hard and the climb would end up being a very long one for everybody. But he knew how to calculate his strength really well.
"He's very calm and very bright, a pleasure to work with," Zandio concluded. "He was one of the three potential leaders we had here, and he's proving our expectations and hopes we'd placed in him were completely right."
