Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2024 Stage 3

March 20, 2024 Another major climbing day with 4000M of elevation gain but this time in much warmer, seasonable conditions. A ten rider break was caught on the Port del Cantó, over 50KM from the finish by the Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE led peloton. UAE kept things very fast on the decent of Port del Cantó and through the valley. Jan Hirt of Soudal Quickstep set the pace up the final climb of Port Ainé, significantly reducing the group. With over 7KM to go, Hirt pulled off and Mikel Landa made the first attack. Tadej Pogačar of UAE quickly followed and then countered Landa. Landa tried to get back on terms but Pogačar pulled away, leaving Landa in between Pogačar and the rest. Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike was next to move, jumping out of the bunch, up to Landa. The pair worked well but could not make any progress towards the catch. Chris Harper of Jayco AlUla bridged to Kuss and Landa, making three in the first chase. The gap got to forty seconds at 3KM to go and Landa lifted the pace. Kuss was dropped first then Harper, both drifted back to the main chase of eight or ten riders. At the finish, Pogačar took the stage fifty seconds ahead of Landa and an additional fifteen seconds ahead of Antonio Tiberi and Wout Poels of Bahrain-Victorious who lead the chasers home. Pogačar now holds two minutes and twenty seven seconds over Landa in GC.