After a difficult start to the year, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) is back to his best after he won today’s first big GC stage in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. On the brutally steep Alto La Antigua, he managed to bridge the gap with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to an attacking Sergio Henao (Sky) before winning the 3-rider sprint. With no bonus seconds in the race, Henao took the overall lead on a countback.

 

After the Tour of Oman, Joaquim Rodriguez was hugely disappointed with his performance and admitted that he had a lot of work to do to get ready for his first big goal at the Ardennes classics. He showed signs of form when he returned to competition in Tirreno-Adriatico but he was hit by a major setback when he fell ill just before the Volta a Catalunya.

 

Having been forced to skip his home race, he had to change his schedule to include the Vuelta al Pais Vasco as his final preparation for the classics. Going into the race, he claimed to be feeling good but due to his lack of racing, he didn’t know whether he would be able to mix it up with the best.

 

Today the Katusha leader proved that he is fully ready for his biggest goal when won stage 3 of the Basque race in his trademark fashion. The stage ended with a second passage of the brutally steep Alto La Antigua whose 20% gradients were followed by a tricky 3km descent to the finish. The finale was last used in 2011 and back then Rodriguez had taken the win.

 

Hence, he lined up for the stage in a determined mood and he showed his intentions when he asked his teammates to lead the chase with around 50km to go. When the peloton split to pieces during the first passage of the climb 20km later, Rodriguez seemed to be at ease and he had his teammates Ilnur Zakarin and Angel Vicioso at his side in the small 15-rider group that emerged.

 

Another group rejoined from behind to make it 30 riders that would hit the bottom of the Antigua together. On the lower slopes, Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) who had done a lot of work swung off and after a brief slowdown, Sky hit the front with David Lopez.

 

When the Spaniard finished his work, Vasil Kiryienka took over and he was riding so fast that he got a gap. This forced Movistar into action and it was Benat Intxausti who brought the Belarusian back.

 

As they turned onto the steep part of the climb, Intxuasti made a big acceleration that whittled the group significantly down. When he swung off, only Rodriguez, Sergio Henao, Nairo Quintana, Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep), Michele Scarponi (Astana), Daniel Moreno, Ilnur Zakarin (both Katusha), Rein Taaramae (Astana), Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE), Bauke Mollema (Trek), Tejay van Garderen and Samuel Sanchez (both BMC) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) were left.

 

Quintana took over but as the Colombian was not ready to go full gas, Henao saw his chance. The Colombian got a small gap which forced Rodriguez to show his cards. With Quintana glued to his wheel, he bridged the gap and the trio crested the summit with Henao leading the way followed by Rodriguez and Quintana. Kwiatkowski, Majka, Sanchez, Mollema and Scarponi were next, a few seconds further back.

 

Rodriguez and Henao set the pace on the descent before Henao led them onto the flat road at the flamme rouge. Rodriguez took over to keep the pace high before the game of cat and mouse started.

 

While Rodriguez stayed calm, Henao lost the battle and made a sprint that was way too long. Rodriguez drifted to third and waited for the right moment to strike before he easily passed the Colombian to take the win. Kwiatkowski, Majka, Scarponi and Sanchez followed in a small group 7 seconds later.

 

As there are no bonus seconds in the race, Henao, Rodriguez and Quintana are equal time and it is the Sky rider who takes the lead on a countback. He will wear the leader’s jersey in tomorrow’s queen stage which includes a total of 7 categorized climbs. After a finale that is always up or down, the riders hit the bottom of the famous Alto de Arrate which summits just 1km from the finish. From there, it is a technical descent to the finish and the stage should be the scene of another big battle between the best climbers.

 

The first GC stage

After two days for the sprinters, it was time for the GC riders to come to the fore in stage 3 which brought the peloton over 170.7km from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Zumarraga. After a rolling first half with three relatively easy climbs, the peloton descended to the difficult finale. Here they tackled five short, steep climbs in quick succession, with the brutally steep Alto La Antigua (2.5km, 9.6%) being the biggest challenge. They would do the wall which included sections of more than 20%, twice, with the final passage coming just 3km from the finish. Then it was a technical descent to the slightly rising final 500m.

 

Lots of spectators had turned up for the start which again took place under a beautiful sunny sky. There were no non-starters as the riders headed out for the most difficult stage yet.

 

The break takes off

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for the early break to be established. Already after 3km of racing, Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal), Hugh Carthy and Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) had escaped and at the 10km mark, they had built an advantage of 1.50.

 

The four escapees reached the bottom of the first climb with an advantage of 3.15 and when Fraile led Westra, Armee and Carthy over the top, they had added another 30 seconds to their advantage. The peloton was still not showing any desire to bring them back and at the 38km mark, the gap had ballooned to 4.50.

 

Movistar take control

Fraile led Westra, Carthy and Armee over the top of the second climb while Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) was first from the peloton and as they went down the descent, they maintained an advantage of 4.50. The peloton had still gone into chase mode though and as they started the third climb, the advantage was 5.50.

 

That was the signal for the peloton to up the pace and as they entered the final 100km, a small acceleration had brought the gap down to 3.05. Movistar had taken responsibility and with Igor Anton and Giovanni Visconti doing the work, they kept the situation under control.

 

A big crash

They briefly had to slow down to wait for Quintana who had to change his bike and this allowed the gap to come up to 4 minutes. While Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ), Calvin Watson (Trek), Evgeni Petrov (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) went down in a big crash that forced the former to abandon, they went back to work and kept the gap stable at around 3.45.

 

With 70km to, Jose Herrada and Jonathan Castroviejo started to work with Anton and Visconti while the fight for position had started. As they went up the steep fourth climb, the gap came down and with 65km to go, it was only 3.05.

 

Disaster for Talansky

Westra was clearly the strongest in the front group and his fast pace was too much for Carthy and Armee who got dropped. Fraile dug deep to stay with the Dutchman and he crested the summit as the first rider before the group came back together on the descent.

 

With 50km to go, disaster struck for the Cannondale team when Andrew Talansky hit the deck. The American was clearly in a lot of pain and even though he managed to rejoin the peloton, he would end stage with a big time loss.

 

Katusha hit the front

At this point, the gap was 2.55 and now Katusha started to chase. Maxim Belkov and Sergey Lagutin quickly brought the gap down to 2.20 as they started the next climb.

 

A big battle for position brought Movistar back on the front and while Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) fought his way back from a mechanical, Herrada and Castroviejo strung out the peloton. Fraile led Westra, Carthy and Armee over the top of the climb while the peloton followed at 2.00.

 

Westra takes off

Westra got a small gap on the descent but decided to wait for his companions. However, the advantage allowed him to win the first intermediate sprint while Lagutin and Visconti started to work in the peloton.

 

As they hit the Antigua for the first time, the gap was only 1.30 and this prompted Westra to attack. He easily distanced his companions while Gorka Izagirre had taken over the pace-setting in the peloton before Castroviejo again took over.

 

The peloton blows to pieces

As they entered the steep section, Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) hit the front of the peloton and his fast pace made the group splinter completely. Several riders were forced to run up the very steep climb while Westra crested the summit as the lone leader follower by Fraile, Carthy and Armee who crossed the line one by one before the Caja Rural duo rejoined each other.

 

A 15-rider group had emerged at the front and it was Vicioso and Poljanski who did all the work. As they crossed the finish line for the first time, they had picked up Armee and Carthy while Westra led Fraile by 52 seconds and the peloton by 1.20. Westra won the second intermediate sprint.

 

The second group rejoins the peloton

BMC and Sky were chasing hard in a second group and as Vicioso did all the work in the front group, they managed to rejoin the main group which caught Fraile. Westra crested the summit as the penultimate climb as the lone leader while Gorka and Ion Izagirre took over from Vicioso as they approached the summit, leading the peloton across the line with a 1-minute deficit.

 

Gorka Izagirre set a very fast pace on the descent and as they hit the flat road, he started to bring Westra back. The Dutchman managed to win the final sprint and was still clear when they hit the final climb. When David Lopez took over, however, he was brought back and from there the dramatic finale unfolded.