Jens Keukeleire continued his impressive run of success in the Vuelta a Burgos by taking his second consecutive win in the tough uphill finish in the third stage. The Belgian made use of a fantastic lead-out from Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ) who tried to set up overall leader Roux for the win, and powered clear to take a convincing win while Roux took second and held onto the leader's jersey.

Orica- GreenEdge has no reason to regret their decision to sign a new contract with Jens Keukeleire as the Belgian has been unstoppable ever since the extension of his stay was announced. Today he doubed his victory tally in the Vuelta a Burgos by taking a win that was very similar to his first one.

The Belgian was well-placed in the wheel of overall leader Anthony Roux as they headed up the final 1km climb to the finish line. In front, Roux' teammate Benoit Vaugrenard was giving it his all to produce a fabulous lead-out but when Keukeleire opened his sprint inside the final 200m, Roux had no power to come around the Belgian.

Keukeleire took a convincing win while Roux held on to second. Daniele Ratto held off Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) to take 4th while a 3-second gap opened behind Simone Ponzi (Astana) in 6th.

Roux may have missed out on the win but the FDJ rider can console himself with the fact that he will get another chance to wear the leader's jersey tomorrow when the peloton is set to tackle the easiest stage. As a bunch sprint is on the cards, Roux should be able to defend his jersey ahead of Sunday's big showdown on the Lagunas De Neila climb.

An aggressive start

The 175km stage was the longest of the race and much hillier than the first two ones. Once again, the riders faced a tough uphill finish and there was a great chance that gaps would open up on the 1km climb to the finish.

The hilly profile invited riders to race aggressively and so the race was off to a really fast start. On the day's first climb, Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), Luca Paolini (Katusha), Fumiyuki Beppu (Orica-GreenEdge), Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia), Marcos Garcia (Caja Rural) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi) got clear but they were hunted down before they had reached the top.

A new group is formed

Instead, Janez Brajkovic (Astana), Anthony Ravard (Ag2r), Zak Dempster (NetApp-Endura) and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) moved clear and those four riders had to fight for a long time before the elastic finally snapped. Euskadi and Burgos had both missed the move and they did what they could to bring back the escapees.

Having failed in that mission, Euskadi decided to send Jon Larrinaga off in pursuit but the young Spaniard never made the junction and fell back into the peloton. Up ahead, Txurruka crested the second and third climb in first position ahead of Brajkovic to set him up for another KOM win of which he already has many.

Ravard falls off

On the third climb, Ravard fell off the pace and the French sprinter was absorbed into the peloton. The gap was more than 3 minutes at some point but as the riders headed up the day's fourth climb, the gap had come down to just 2.30.

Demoster was unable to keep up with his companions and the Australian fell back into the peloton which was led by the FDJ team of race leader Roux. Jussi Veikkanen was one of two riders who did all the work to gradually bring down the gap to the front duo.

Txurruka picks up KOM points

Txurruka made sure to also crest the next summit in first position and when the leaders passed the finish line to start the final 23km circuit, the Basque was once again first across the line to move himself comfortably into the lead in the KOM classification. At that point, the hard pace by FDJ had reduced the gap to only around 30 seconds.

Movistar wanted a hard race and so the Spanish team put down the hammer on the climb, Ruben Plaza setting a furious pace. As the main group headed down the descent, the Spaniards remained in control and it was now Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Jesus Herrada and Sylwester Szmyd who did the work.

New attacks

Brajkovic and Txurruka did a fantastic job to keep the fast-moving peloton at bay but with 11km to go, it was all over for the front duo. Haritz Orbe (Euskadi) made an immediate counter attack and Duber Quintero (Colombia), Ivan Basso (Cannondale) and Szmyd all made it across to form a very strong front quartet.

Behind a small chase group containing Plaza, Herrada, Andrey Zeits (Astana), Juan Pablo Valencia (Colombia), Mickael Cherel (Ag2r), Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel) and a Vini Fantini rider had formed and the front group decided to wait for that group. Quintero disagreed and attacked on his own but was quickly brought back.

Back together

Cofidis, Burgos and NetApp-Endura had all missed the move and so they dug deep to bring back the group with 6,8km to go. Plaza and Cherel tried again but NetApp remained in control and brought back those two riders a little later.

With 3,5km to go, Angel Vicioso (Katusha) and an Ag2r rider attacked but those two were quickly reeled in. Instead, Ag2r took control of the peloton but suddenly a gap was made and an Ag2r rider drew three other riders clear, one of them being big favourite Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Orica-GreenEdge on the front

Orica-GreenEdge had now hit the front of the peloton and they brought back that move and the Australian team led the peloton all the way to the bottom of the final climb. From there, FDJ took over and Vaugrenard led the peloton almost all the way up the climb.

Inside the final 200m he was finally overtaken but not by Roux as he had hoped. Instead, it was Keukeleire who powered clear to take his second consecutive win in the race.

Result:

1. Jens Keukeleire 4.13.33

2. Anthony Roux

3. Daniele Ratto

4. Samuel Sanchez

5. Sergei Chernetskii

6. Benoit Vaugrenard

7. Simone Ponzi

8. Carlos Barbero +0.03

9. Francesco Failli

10. Mikel Landa

General classification:

1. Anthony Roux 11.07.09

2. Simone Ponzi +0.02

3. Sergei Chernetskii

4. Jens Keukeleire +0.03

5. Benoit Vaugrenard +0.07

6. Samuel Sanchez +0.10

7. Mauro Finetto

8. Rinaldo Nocentini +0.11

9. Dario Cataldo

10. Daniele Ratto

Points classification:

1. Jens Keukeleire 60

2. Anthony Roux 48

3. Simone Ponzi 44

4. Sergei Chernetskii 37

5. Daniele Ratto 36

Mountains classification:

1. Amets Txurruka 24

2. Janez Brajkovic 16

3. Anthony Roux 11

4. Paolo Tiralongo 10

5. Jorge Azanza 7

Sprints classification:

1 Fabricio Ferrari 17

2. Zak Dempster 9

3. Christian Meier 7

4. Amets Txurruka 6

5. Illart Zuazubiskar 6

Teams classification:

1. Caja Rural 33.22.22

2. Vini Fantini +0.05

3. Euskaltel +0.22

4. FDJ.fr +0.25

5. Movistar +0.27