Contador Cracks on the first Mountain Stage
Alberto Contador struggled on today's stage 3 of Vuelta a Espana, losing over two and half minutes to his GC rivals
It was another disappointing day for three-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador in his final race before retirement as he finished more than two minutes down on the leaders to trail Froome by 3 mins 10secs overall. “I don’t know what happened to me, I don’t know what it is down to, but I felt really flat,” said Contador. “It was difficult just to save the day as much as possible.”
The rest of the general classification favorites finished together, as after a team time trial in the opening stage and a long flat ride from Nimes to Gruissan on Sunday, the race exploded into life as it passed from France into Andorra.
Nibali is one of the few contenders who missed the Tour de France, and the Italian looked to have the fresher legs as he headed a nine-man group including Froome, Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet, De la Cruz, Roche, Van Garderen, Esteban Chaves and Domenico Pozzovivo to the line.
“I thought it was a good opportunity to win some time and very happy to win the stage,” said Nibali.
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."
Tuesday’s fourth stage sees the race finally enter Spain under heightened security measures following a pair of terrorist attacks in Barcelona and the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils. The 198.2km ride from Escaldes to Tarragona finishes just 20 kilometres along the Mediterranean coast from Cambrils.
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