Vincenzo Nibali conquers first mountain stage as Chris Froome takes the Red jersey and race lead
Chris Froome (Team Sky) is the new overall leader of La Vuelta 2017, two seconds ahead of David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors), Nicolas Roche (BMC) and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC). Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) is 10" behind
At the start of the last climb, Team Sky set a very high pace and quickly dropped riders like Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe), Rui Costa (UAE-Team Emirates) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo).
At seven kilometres from the finish line, Chris Froome (Team Sky) attacked and the only rider that could stay on his wheel was Orica-Scott's Esteban Chaves. Behind them Fabio Aru (Astana) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) attacked from the chase group and dropped Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and the Yates brothers (Orica-Scott).
During the last descent, Bardet and Aru caught Froome and Chaves. In the last kilometre the chasing group joined the leaders as well and the final sprint was won by a strong Nibali. David de la Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) crossed the finish line second and Froome third.
The Team Sky leader climbs to the first position of the overall classification.
Alberto Contador struggled on the final climb and lost 3 mins 20 seconds.
Froome: "I've thought about getting the red jersey back for a long time"
Chris Froome (Team Sky), overall leader of La Vuelta 2017 after stage 3: "I didn't expect to get the red jersey so early in La Vuelta. It's a great surprise. I think it's the result of lot of a hard work today from my teammates as well. They did a fantastic job on the final climb, especially a guy like Gianni Moscon. It's his first Grand Tour and he was great today as were the rest of the guys. I've lost La Vuelta before by 13 seconds so I'm going to fight for every second. It's been a long time since I had the red jersey (1 day in 2011). It feels amazing to put it back on. To be in this position is something I've thought about for a long time and I worked really hard after the Tour. It's going to be really hard to keep it until the end, especially with the time bonuses out there. It's only two seconds to the next group of riders. It's still really close. I don't expect to keep it til the end but I'm certainly gonna fight for it."
Tomrrow's 4th stage of the Vuelta a España the riders leave the Pyrenees behind taking them across Catalonia from Escaldes to Tarragona on the Mediterranean Sea. Riders descend from Andorra to Catalonia. On flat and rolling roads they cross into northeastern Spain to the coastal town of Tarragona. The only climb is the 3rd category Alto de Belltall, with 66 kilometres to go, so a bunch sprint or long breakaway is likely.
Tune in tomorrow for our live coverage of Stage 4 from 08:00 Eastern Standard Time, 13:00 UK, 14:00 Europe
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 3 Top Ten Results
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 4:01:22
2 David De La Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
4 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-Scott
6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
8 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:25
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 3
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 8:53:44
2 David De La Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:02
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
6 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:11
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:38
8 Adam Yates (Aus) Orica-Scott 0:00:39
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:43
10 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:48