La Vuelta a Espana 2023: Remco Evenepoel storms to Stage 3 victory in Andorra, crashes in finish area

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick Step) stormed to victory on Stage 3 of La Vuelta a Espana ahead of Jumbo-Visma rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic, but had his celebrations cut short as he crashed heavily in the finish area.

Blood could be seen streaming down the Belgian’s face as he was tended to by his team at the culmination of the first mountain battle between the main GC contenders.

On the 158.5km run from Suria to Arinsal, Andorra, a series of early attacks eventually formed into a relatively settled 11-man breakaway after about 45km of racing. Of that number only two, Lennard Kamna (Bora–Hansgrohe) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), were serious threats for either the stage or the overall race lead.

Despite Evenepoel’s expressed pre-race preference for the breakaway to be allowed to win the stage – which would likely have meant the overall race lead as well – the four main GC teams, Jumbo-Visma, Ineos Grenadiers, Soudal-Quickstep, and UAE Team Emirates, contributed to the work of the peloton, preventing the breakers from managing to obtain much more than a five-minute advantage.

That figure was gradually whittled on the long, steady run towards Andorra, where they crossed the border with just under four minutes in hand. By the first official climb of the day, the Coll d’Ordino, it was nearer three, which was when the cohesion began to leak from the lead group. Caruso’s team-mate, Jasha Sutterlin, was the first to fall away completely, and as the front group neared the summit, there was only three of them in it.

The pair carried a little over a minute’s lead at the foot of the final climb. That didn’t look like close to being enough but they were able to increase it to nearly two and give themselves what appeared to be a fighting chance of victory.

After several unsuccessful attempts by Kamna to dispense with Caruso, he eventually succeeded. Unfortunately for him the peloton, led by Jay Vine (UAE Emirates), was closing in.

Vine’s work completed, his team-mate Juan Ayuso launched an attack out of the group, which was countered by Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma). Kuss it was who ended the hopes of Kamna and delivered a select group of the best riders and their support through the flamme rouge and the final kilometre.

Evenepoel sprinted away from Vingegaard at the final left hand bend and kicked again in the final 100m to seal the victory.

Evenepoel expressed his frustration at the organisers for “an issue with safety for the third day in a row, now – it’s a bit breaking my balls now.” But despite the head injury he was satisfied with the result.

“It was the perfect tactics from us to just be patient, to wait,” he said.

“I felt good on the final climb and then went for a long final sprint. I’m super happy with this victory. For us it would have been good if the breakaway had stayed away, but when we caught them it was important to be focused, and I knew I had a big punch left in my legs, so we decided to go for it. It shows that my preparation was good and that I’m ready for the next three weeks.”

As a result of his win, Evenepoel holds the red jersey, with Vingegaard fourth and Roglic 10th in the GC standings.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) is down in 21st, one minute and eleven seconds back.

Evenepoel also now leads the mountains and young rider’s competitions, with Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroen), who was first at the intermediate sprint, the outright leader in the points competition.

Tuesday’s Stage 4 sees the riders take on a hilly 185km route from Andorra La Vella to Tarragona.