La Vuelta Femenina: Vos outkicks Kool for stage 3 victory after echelon frenzy

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Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) won stage 3 of the Vuelta Femenina in the red leader's jersey, sprinting to victory after a very fast stage dominated by tail-crosswinds and echelons. The Dutch superstar launched her sprint with 200 metres to go and had the highest speed after a hard day. Kool finished second, Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) took third place.

The race split with 93 km left in the 157.8-kilometre stage when Movistar Team took action in the cross-tailwinds. Trek-Segafredo's Gaia Realini was the most prominent of the dropped riders that also included several other GC contenders. Realini's teammates tried everything to limit the time loss, but they finished 2:41 minutes behind in the end.

We were not so far off yesterday and knew there would be another chance today. But it was quite a hard day with the crosswinds. I am grateful to my team for bringing me into this position and happy that I could finish it off in the final," said Vos.

"We were well-prepared for the crosswinds, but you still need to focus constantly. In the beginning, it was quite relaxed, actually, because there was not much going on, and suddenly you need to switch on and get ready for the action. And from then on it was constantly a high-speed race, trying to stay in the first echelon," she described the day that was the fastest Women's WorldTour stage ever, raced at an average speed of 45.6 km/h.

In the general classification, Vos increased her lead due to bonus seconds and is now 13 seconds ahead of Dygert and 14 ahead of her teammate Riejanne Markus.

How it unfolded

Stage 3 was the longest of the Vuelta and also one of the flattest with no classified climbs at all, but nevertheless it ended up bringing about huge GC time gaps.

None of the early breakaway attempts lasted for long, and when the parcours turned with 97 km to go and tail-crosswinds started to sweep across the road, the action began. Movistar put the race in the gutter, leaving only 55 riders in the first peloton after a few kilometres. Realini, Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco-AlUla), Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ), and Claire Steels (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) were among the riders that found themselves dropped and struggling to get back.

Team Jumbo-Visma, Team SD Worx, and Team DSM took responsibility for keeping the pace up, and 48 km from the finish, the front group split again. Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) were among the dropped riders, and they were later joined by a.o. Ane Santesteban (Team Jayco-AlUla) when the Basque climber lost contact with the first peloton 18 km from the line.

In the end, only 29 riders finished in the first group. Kasia Niewiadoma led out the sprint with Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) on her wheel, followed by Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ), Riejanne Markus, Kool, and Vos. The latter two started their sprints almost simultaneously 250 metres from the finish.

Vos went to the right side of the road, Kool to the left, both quickly passing Norsgaard and Copponi in the middle. On the last 100 metres, Vos pulled away and kept the lead to the line, switching the stage 2 placings with Kool. Dygert came up fast from behind to take third place.

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