Pablo Lastras pulled off a stunning solo ride, to win stage 3 of La Vuelta and take control of the red jersey.
Lastras attacked, with 11 kilometres to go, as the leaders reached the final summit and his breakaway companions struggled to catch him. The Spaniard time-trialled to the end and gained a well earned 15 seconds, on the chasing group. He dedicated his victory to, last year’s 6th place rider, Xavi Tondo, who was killed in a freak accident earlier this year.
Sylvain Chavanel claimed second place, but it could have been more if he and the other chasers hadn’t argued over tactics. Lastras has a 20 second lead in the general classiment, with Chavanel sitting in second.
The breakaway began with Ruslan Pydgornyy, Nicolas Edet and Chavanel launching an attack, after 14km of riding. They were soon joined by Lastras and Markel Irizar, who finished third, and built up a gap of over seven minutes. Edet was the first to go, with 70 of racing left, when he dropped back to see the medical car and never regained the gap.
