“Hands up if you think Jonas Vingegaard is going to win the stage!” O Gran Camiño’s race commentator repeatedly asked the finish line crowds at Castelo de Ribadavia braving the cold and occasional heavy spots of rain as the Dane launched his second solo attack in as many days.
Given the crowd were likely rooting for popular local pro Carlos Canal (Movistar), who finally placed second, only a few ‘voted’ for Vingegaard the first time round. But with five kilometres left to go, and Vingegaard’s advantage staying steadily around the half-minute mark, even the most partisan of local fans bowed to the inevitable and a small forest of hands raised skywards recognised that the Dane had left the opposition for dust for a second time in 24 hours.
Unlike stage 2’s deceptively difficult final climb of the Alto de San Pedro de Licora, the much less challenging terrain on Saturday was far from favourable for such a long-distance attack, which came when Vingegaard surged away on a gently rising category 3 climb some 21 kilometres from the line.
But after a blisteringly fast solo descent, and having caught and dropped the last man standing from the break, Pablo Castrillo (Kern-Pharma), Vingegaard duly crossed the line with a 29 second-advantage over Canal and slightly more on the rest of his GC rivals.
Monte Aloia, theoretically the summit finish that is due to deliver the definitive verdict on O Gran Camiño, still awaits on Sunday. But right now, the case for a second straight Vingegaard GC victory in his first race of the season looks overwhelmingly strong.
“I’m once again happy to take the stage, it was another hard, cold day at the beginning but it warmed up a bit by the end. The boys did a good job keeping the breakaway under control and I took the chance to go and could stay away to the finish,” Vingegaard told reporters with his characteristic succinctness.
Asked with somewhat wry humour by one reporter if he had made a time trial-like effort with his long lone break because Thursday’s opening TT in A Coruña had been partially neutralised, Vingegaard responded: “I would like to say yes, but not really. It was a bit of a time trial experience, having to make yourself as aero as possible and then go as quickly as possible. But it was more like that, I was not thinking about the time trial.”
In any case, Vingegaard’s move did spark some resistance, with EF Education-EasyPost pushing hard in the shredded peloton to try to limit the gaps….
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