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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) once again stamped his authority on the Volta a Catalunya with another dominant victory on stage 3, soloing to the summit finish at Port Ainé to secure a second stage win in two days.
The Slovenian star bided his time in the peloton on the first 11km of the climb as Soudal-QuickStep set the pace before he matched an acceleration from Mikel Landa at 7.5km to go and then pushed on alone shortly afterwards.
Pogačar quickly built an insurmountable gap as Landa and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease A Bike) gave chase ahead of a larger group of GC men, with Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) also joining the move. By the 5km mark, he was 25 seconds up the road as the next group lay 45 seconds down and from then the only question that remained concerned how great his advantage would be at the finish line.
When Pogačar got there, he’d enjoy a lead of 48 seconds over the solo Landa, who took off on his own 4km from the finish to grab second on the stage. Meanwhile, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) rounded out the podium at 1:03 ahead of teammate Wout Poels and Kuss.
“It definitely wasn’t easy; it’s a really hard climb, also on altitude,” Pogačar said. “I definitely felt cold at the top and not enough oxygen. Once again, a super good stage from the team. I’m happy to take the win because my teammates worked hard for this win.
“Mikel Landa attacked first, and I went over him because I saw that he had made a gap. I was thinking it was maybe too early, but I got a good rhythm, and then, until the last two kilometres, I could push good. Then I stuffed a bit but managed to finish well.”
Pogačar retains the race lead following his easy victory and now holds first place with an extended 2:27 advantage over Landa in second. Third place is occupied by Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 2:55, while Lenny Martinez…
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