Vuelta a Espana 2013 - Stage 3
The Vuelta a Espana continued today with another hectic day on the roads of Galicia. The peloton travelled 184.8 kilometres north from Vigo to the Mirador de Lobeira. The climb at the finish was short and sharp, but it was the coastal crosswinds that would provide the main story of the day. A break did get away early in the stage, but was never allowed the same leeway as yesterday's trio. The break consisted of Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Cyril Bessy (Cofidis), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vicente Reynes (Lotto-Belisol) and Luca Dodi (Lampre-Merida).
After a touch of wheels with 60 kilometres to go proved harmless, there was a more serious collision with around 40 kilometres to go. As the peloton took a right hand bend, riders jostling for position collided, and brought down around eight to ten riders. Among these were pre-race favourite Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and a man many had tipped for victory today, Simon Gerrans of Orica-GreenEDGE. Gerrans looked winded but other than that generally unharmed. Mollema on the other hand had a difficult chase ahead, as Movistar put the pressure on as the race entered the crosswinds.
The peloton soon split into three large groups, Nibali, Valverde and Rodriguez all making the front. Valverde was obviously wary not to make the same mistake as he did in the Tour de France, and had been riding in the front of the bunch all day. The onus looked to be out of the chase groups, but then a tricky bridge and badly placed bollards (right in the middle of the road!) meant the peloton slowed, mainly thanks to Fabian Cancellara coming to the front to bring calm to proceedings.
After a long hard chase the race came back together, and the race for the base of the final climb commenced. Cannondale, Astana, Movistar, and Orica-GreenEDGE were all prominent in trying to get their leaders in the best position come the bottom. At first it looked like it was going to be a formality as the peloton strung out under the work of Orica-GreenEDGE, but they were soon pushed back by RadioShack, who are riding their last grand tour before becoming the Trek team.
Juan Antonio Flecha of Vacansoleil-DCM launched the first serious attack, only to be jumped by the Italian champion Ivan Santaromita, who looked set for the win. However, as the race approached the flamme rouge, Santaromita began to struggle, and then an American by the name of Christopher Horner jumped out the back, pushing a huge gear.
He flew past Santaromita, and reached the line with 3 seconds to spare, before Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez grabbed the rest of the bonus seconds. By winning the stage, Horner became the oldest grand tour stage winner ever, and also took the red jersey off of Vincenzo Nibali's back. The Shark was easy-going about the loss of the jersey however, and was probably relieved not to have to defend it for the next three weeks with only a handful of seconds. Horner stated he was going to try and keep the jersey as long as he could, and being a strong climber, it could be all the way to the first rest day.