The morning of the 3rd stage of the Vuelta a Espana had begun in a positive way for Lampre-Merida, thanks to the good news about the health condition of Przemyslaw Niemiec, who was involved in a heavy crash in the 2nd stage.Tthe Polish rider, after he had undergone another CAT scan, got the permission to leave the hospital since the exams did not underline further problems. Niemiec will fly to Poland on Tuesday.

Just after the start of the race, a blue-fuchsia-green rider, Ilia Koshevoy, demonstrated his fighting spirit, like Oliveira had done yesterday, by escaping from the bunch on the hill of Alto de Mijas. The Belarusian rider, who is in his first participation in a grand tour, formed a breakaway with 7 other riders, Velits, Tjallingii, Berhane, Fraile, Gougeard, Chavanel and Pedraza.

The group of attackers was reduced on the Puerto del Leon and in the dowhill sector where Koshevoy was dropped. LAMPRE-MERIDA's neo-pro was caught by the bunch with 40 km to go, while the last escapee was caught by the peloton 14 km from the finish.

With 20km to go, a crash in the peloton involved some sprinters: in addition to Bouhanni and Bennati, also Maximiliano Richeze crashed, but he had no major injuries and, thanks to the quick help from his team mates, he made it back to the bunch.

The final sprint was regular and without problems. Richeze had a good starting position which gave him the 5th place behind winner Sagan, Bouhanni (2nd), Degenkolb (3rd) and Drucker (4th).

"I'm happy for a good team performance," sports director Orlando Maini explained. "Koshevoy could join the main breakaway, it was not simple because he chased the lead group and he succeded in closing the gap.

"I really appreciated the support that all the riders gave to Richeze to allow him to get back to the peloton after he had been involved in a crash."