Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2025 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

February 21, 2025

71st Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2025 🇪🇸 (2.Pro) ME – Stage 3 – Arjona – Pozoblanco : 162,1 km

The Vuelta a Andalucía (Tour of Andalusia) or Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) is a regional Spanish road bicycle race first held in 1925. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became a part of the new UCI ProSeries in 2020. The nickname, Ruta del Sol, is in reference to the region’s popular tourist coastline the Costa del Sol.

Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) moved one step closer to 100 career victories on Friday, timing his final sprint to perfection to win stage 3 of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol. The veteran Norwegian has now won 97 races in his career.

It looked as though Ineos Grenadiers’ Ben Turner might be the man with his hands in the air in Pozoblanco, as the Brit launched a long-range effort 300 metres from the finish line, but Kristoff came through at the last moment to snatch victory on the line, and prevent a third Ineos celebration this week.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) battled for the final podium spot, with Van Gils pipping Pidcock into third.

Despite additional bonus seconds on offer during the stage on the ‘golden kilometre,’ there was no change in the top three positions on the general classification, led by Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Pidcock moved several seconds closer to second-placed Clement Berthet (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale).

Speaking after the stage, Kristoff said: “We had control from the start. The guys did a great job during the race, and also in the crosswind when we were there with almost the whole team. The finish was a bit harder than I was hoping, it was going quite a lot up to the last kilometre, so my legs were not fresh. and then I think we did two mistakes with the two lead-out guys.

“They are not used to being the last man in the lead-out. They are more climbers, not really used to this situation, so they kind of went the wrong side of the Ineos guys two times. So then I lost a lot of speed. I think I could have taken it much easier. But at the end, it was really close, I was lucky I had still enough power in the legs to pass in the last few metres.

“It was my first [win] this year. Søren [Wærenskjold] already won one for team. Now we have two, my aim is 100 pro wins and now I have 97, so I need three more this season.”

How it unfolded
The race headed further inland and to the north for stage 3, beginning the day in the Jaén province, in the town of Arjona. Covering a total distance of 162.1km, the parcours was rolling once again, but with the majority of the climbing taking place in the first 50 kilometres, the race situation was much calmer in the early stages than it had been on previous days, with a bunch sprint looking to be the most likely outcome on paper.

The main bunch remained intact with 50km remaining, just over two minutes behind a three-man breakaway comprising Lorenzo Pesci (Petrolike), Thomas Silva (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma).

With very few sprinters in the race, it was in the interests of those teams that did have a sprinter to reel the breakaway back in, and Euskatel-Euskadi and Uno-X Mobility shared duties at the front of the bunch on behalf of David Dekker and Kristoff, respectively.

The lead group’s advantage reduced dramatically as the race moved within 30 kilometres of the finish, with the bunch under half a minute behind the breakaway, in preparation for the race’s first ‘golden kilometre,’ which offered a maximum of nine bonus seconds split across three separate points along its distance.

The action kicked off well in advance of this, however, as the parcours turned east and the wind direction changed, and the peloton split under pressure from UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Ineos Grenadiers, with the breakaway’s advantage quickly diminishing.

A big crash in the second group on the road held up a large number of riders, but most of the top teams were able to stay out of trouble in the first peloton. They then quickly subsumed the final two riders from the day’s early break with just over 20km to go. Euskatel-Euskadi rode as a unit behind to try and make up the deficit on behalf of Dekker, but looked to be out of luck as the pace remained ferocious in the slimmed down front group, which contained around 40 riders.

The golden kilometre arrived with 18km remaining on the stage, and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) snatched the first set of three seconds, riding defensively on behalf of race leader Sivakov. The second sprint was contested between Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X Mobility) and yesterday’s stage winner Pidcock, who took three seconds at the second line and two at the third for a total of six additional seconds. With that business concluded, the race for the stage was on, instigated by Ineos Grenadiers’ Connor Swift.

With 10km remaining, the reduced bunch were piloted by UAE on behalf of Sivakov, and with the pace remaining high, there was no opportunity for those caught behind in the split and subsequent crash to re-establish contact with the front of the race.

The bunch stayed compact heading for the finale, and with Kristoff arguably the strongest of the remaining sprinters in the group, Uno-X took up the pacesetting once they were within the 3-kilometre to-go mark.

Heading under the flamme rouge, Ineos Grenadiers charged to the front and led out Ben Turner, who launched with around 300 metres to go. But as the line approached, Kristoff reached full speed and passed the British rider at the last moment, denying him just his second professional victory.

Maxim Van Gils took third spot, as the situation on the general classification remained the same within the top three, though notably, Wagner Bazin WB’s Leander Van Hautegem leapt up 43 places into fourth position on the overall.

Results :