MADRID, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- David Gaudu (Grupama-FDJ) was the smartest of the pack to win the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Monday.
The French rider was able to take advantage of the excellent work of the Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease-a-Bike teams to finish ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease-a-Bike) with a turn of speed in the short final straight after a tight corner just 80 meters from the finish line.
Vingegaard retains the overall leader's red jersey, although Gaudu's win means he has the same time as the Danish rider.
The short, but sharp 136-kilometer stage between San Maurizio Cavanese and Ceres had a second-category climb in the middle and a series of short, but steep climbs that had Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) struggling to remain in the main peloton, and the Belgian sprinter finally ceded with 8.5 kilometers left.
Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) was the last survivor of a four-man break, before the group swallowed him up with 19 kilometers left to ride as the Lidl Trek team kept the pressure on to ensure Philipsen wasn't able to take part in the final sprint.
Lidl-Trek was looking to set up Pedersen, who is one of the strongest uphill sprinters in cycling, while Vingegaard was looking for his second in two days, but Gaudu was smarter on the last turn, cutting inside the pair to hold on to a slight lead at the line.
Stage four on Tuesday takes the race from Italy to France, with another hilly 205 kilometers between Susa and Voiron, where the climbing is packed into the first half of the stage, before a fast last 100 kilometers that could favor a breakaway. ■
