As a result, Ayuso (UAE Emirates - XRG) also took the lead in the overall race standings. Bonifications now give him a six-second lead over Roglic. "The overall victory is the main goal, but you also have to win stages here, because there are bonus seconds for those," said the winner matter-of-factly, who did not go into detail about the centimetre decision at the finish, which brought him the 13th victory of his career. Together with Roglic, the Spaniard had broken away from the leading group in the final metres before the finish and sprinted with him to the stage win.

Two seconds behind the duo was Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick-Step third), another two seconds behind was Lenny Martinez (Bahrain - Victorious), who brought the rest of the favourites to the finish. Despite the 218 kilometres of the day, the climb up to the La Molina ski station in the Pyrenees was obviously not difficult enough for large gaps, as it was not steep enough. However, the pros were rather restrained throughout the day, compared to the performances that have been shown throughout the season.

A sign of this was also the fact that Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), who held the overall lead after his opening victory and second place yesterday, made it to the foot of the final climb as a sprinter before switching to power-saving mode. However, he defended his lead in the points classification. The man in the mountain jersey is also new. Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) collected enough points as a breakaway rider to take over the classification before the next stage.

It will again end with a mountain finish, this time on the Montserrat mountain after 188 kilometres and 3000 metres in altitude - and an 8.8 kilometre long, 6.6 percent steep final climb.

Tour of Catalonia 2025 - Results of the 3rd stage

>> Tour of Catalonia: route, start list, TV coverage & live stream

>> All results of the Tour of Catalonia at a glance

This is how the 3rd stage of the Tour of Catalonia 2025 went

It took around 30 kilometres until the group of the day had established itself. After several unsuccessful attempts, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lorenzo Germani (Groupama - FDJ), Mats Wenzel (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) were able to break away from the peloton.

The lead quickly grew to a thick cushion of over six minutes, which they used to climb the first categorised mountain of the day, the Coll d'Estenalles (2nd category). After that, the race situation remained constant for a long time. The group still had a lead of two and a half minutes over the second mountain classification of the day, which Wenzel won just like the first.

On the climb to the 20-kilometre Coll de la Creueta, Armirail then broke away from his fellow escapees and made it over the HC category mountain in first place with a good two-minute lead. His fellow escapees also managed to cross before the peloton, but they then took it easy. Just like the peloton, led by UAE Emirates - XRG and Lotto, who did not set the fastest pace.

Favourites hold back for a long time

When the road started to climb again, Armirail's seconds quickly began to tumble. Nine kilometres before the finish, he was caught. But even after that, there were only a few attacks. The most promising attack was launched by George Bennett 6.5 kilometres before the finish (Israel - Premier Tech), who has teamed up with Marc Soler (UAE - Emirates - XRG) and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team). A short time later, Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) replaced Bennett in the leading trio, but the gap to the main group of around 20 riders was never greater than 20 seconds.

With 500 metres to go, Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) closed the gap. However, the Austrian was unable to stay in front as Roglic then picked up the pace. Only Ayuso was able to keep up. And when the Slovenian didn't ride directly on the barriers in the final bend, Ayuso slipped through the small gap. And even though Roglic came dangerously close again up to the finish and ultimately the photo technique had to decide the victory, the Spaniard saved a mini lead over the line.