Tour of the Alps - Stage 3: Lopez takes the overall lead with first professional victory

At the age of 26, Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) has claimed his first victory as a professional. The Spaniard won the third stage of the Tour of the Alps around the Austrian town of Schwaz after 125 kilometres as a soloist. He celebrated the biggest success of his career to date "on one of the coldest days of my life on the bike", said the winner in an interview after the race. The day was four degrees and rainy, which Lopez described as "great" on the one hand, but also as a "shitty day for the whole field" due to the weather conditions.

Loepz, together with the young Italian Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane), broke away from the group of favourites on the first of two crossings of the Pillberg about 30 kilometres before the finish, which shortly beforehand had taken the only breakaway of the day, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).

Circle of favourites for overall victory shrinks

As many pros, including Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), were struggling with the conditions, no real chase work was organised and the previous overall leader Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) did almost all the work alone for the rest of the day. Nevertheless, he ultimately had to cede his jersey to Lopez, who now leads the overall standings by 31 seconds ahead of the Norwegian.

In addition to Lopez, his fellow escapee Pellizzari also made it to the finish ahead of the group of favourites. However, there were only eight riders left in the group, including the Decathlon trio Ben O'Connor and the Paret-Peintre brothers Aurelien and Valentin as well as Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Wout Poels and Antonio Tiberi (both Bahrain-Victorious). Other riders are unlikely to play a role in the battle for overall victory ahead of the queen stage on Thursday.

While the green jersey changed hands, everything else remained the same at the top of the special classifications: Foss continues to lead the points classification, Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa) retains the mountains jersey. Tiberi is - at the same time as Valentin Paret-Peintre - the best young pro.

>> Tour of the Alps 2024: route and TV broadcast

The top 10 of stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps

1. Juan Pedro Loepz (Lidl-Trek) 3:16:11
2. Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) +0:22
3. Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:38
4. Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:38
5. Aurelien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:38
6. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:38
7. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:38
8. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:38
9. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:38
10. Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Movistar) +0:38

The current overall standings

1. Juan Pedro Loepz (Lidl-Trek) 11:22:34
2. Tobias Foss (Ineos Greandiers) +0:31
3. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:45
4. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:48
5. Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:48
6. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:48
7. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:48
8. Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) +0:57
9. Aurelien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:19
10. Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Movistar) +1:19

>> The race report on stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps

>> The race report on stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps

How the 3rd stage of the Tour of the Alps 2024 went

After a little more than ten kilometres, a professional started an escape attempt that was not necessarily to be expected: Ganna attacked, but found no fellow riders. So the 27-year-old Italian tried to go solo.

While Ganna had extended his lead to 2:30 minutes after 70 kilometres, behind him Kyrolo Tsarenko (Corratec-Vini Fantini), who had already been active on the first two days, also tried to break away as a soloist after almost 90 kilometres. The move failed.

In uncomfortable temperatures not far from zero and rain, Ganna cleared both intermediate sprints at Reintaler See and in Jenbach and was awarded a maximum lead of just under four minutes. With around 50 kilometres to go, his cushion began to shrink again.

Decision on the Pillberg

With a lead of around two and a half minutes on the peloton, Ganna started the first crossing of the Weerberg after 90 kilometres, which, like the Pillberg, was ridden twice shortly afterwards. However, while he took the mountain points on the first climb (2nd category), he was caught again at the foot of the Pillberg (2nd category).

After catching Ganna, Bardet went on the offensive, but he didn't get far. The attack by Lopez and Pellizzari, who had built up a 20-second cushion at the summit of the Pillberg - Lopez had won the mountain classification - on the group of favourites, which had shrunk to around 20 riders and in which Thomas had to fight to catch up, was more successful.

On the short flat section before the two mountains were tackled again, the duo had extended their lead to 50 seconds, a large part of which was still left nine kilometres before the finish after the Weerberg. When the race returned to the Pillberg, Poels was the first attacker in the chasing group, but he was quickly caught again. At the front, however, Lopez shook off his companion. And that was to last. The Spaniard could no longer be caught and finished 22 seconds ahead of Pellizzari, while Foss led the eight chasers 38 seconds after Lopez.