On his third attempt, superstar Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) has managed a stage win at the Vuelta a Espana 2024. After third place in the opening time trial and second place in the first bunch sprint of the Tour of Spain on the second day, the Belgian won the third stage in a sprint on Monday. The 29-year-old relegated the previous day's winner Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) to second and third place.
It's been a while since I've been able to throw my hands up in the air to cheer. This feels so good - Wout van Aert
This ends a long dry spell for van Aert. The man from Herentals took his third win of the season. The three-time cyclo-cross world champion also won for the first time on the road in Portugal in mid-February on stage 3 of the Tour of the Algarve, after which van Aert won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne before crashing heavily at Dwars door Vlaanderen and being out for a long time. With a third and two second places at the Tour de France, the Belgian was already close to a victory, which was now enough at the Vuelta.
Van Aert extends his lead in the overall standings slightly with the victory and also takes the lead in the points classification from Groves. However, it is doubtful whether van Aert will be able to defend the red jersey of the overall leader on Tuesday, because the first tough mountain finish of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 awaits.
Vuelta a Espana 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 3
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) 4:40:42
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) +0:00
- Arne Marit (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Pavel Bittner (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:00
- Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Arjen Livyns (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00
- Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) +0:00
- Antonio Jesus Soto (Equipo Kern Pharma) +0:00
- Carlos Canal (Movistar) +0:00
The overall standings
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) 10:05:59
- Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:13
- Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +0:15
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +0:19
- Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:21
- Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:29
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:30
- Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:31
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:32
- Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) +0:33
How the 3rd stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went
As in the first mass-start stage on Sunday, it was riders from smaller teams who put themselves in the limelight: This time four pros tried it: Unai Iribar (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Luis Angel Mate (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who were already in the breakaway group on stage 2, as well as their team-mates Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Iban Ruiz (Equipo Kern Pharma). There was a counter-attack in the peloton with Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) and Kasper Asgreen (Soudal - Quick Step), which was not let go. Around five minutes maximum advantage was granted to the leading quartet by the peloton, where Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck did the work.
Mate collects mountain points
At the first mountain classification, the Alto de Teixeira (2nd category), Mate was the first to secure five points. Isasa secured the intermediate sprint and the associated 20 points. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) took the maximum ten points from the peloton.
On the second climb, the Alto de Alpedrinha (4th category), Mate was the first to collect another two points and now leads with a total of nine points ahead of Isasa and Ruiz (three each). While three of the four escapees were caught by the peloton early on, Isasa stayed alone at the front for longer. However, the peloton caught up with him 20 kilometres before the finish.
Campenaerts tries finisseur attack
In the finale, the sprinter teams formed up at the front - some of the classification teams also joined in to keep their captains at the front. Three kilometres before the finish, Alepcin-Deceuninck took over the lead for Kaden Groves - albeit a little too early. The Belgian team had to pull back a little because otherwise they would have run out of riders. Victor Campenaerts took advantage of this brief lull to launch a finisseur attack, which was thwarted in the final kilometre.
Van Aert started his sprint on the slightly uphill finishing straight around 200 metres before the finish. Nobody was able to counter the explosive attack of the man in the red jersey - not even Groves, who had beaten him on stage 2 of the Vuelta a Espana 2024.
