Itzulia Basque Country 2024 Stage 3

April 3, 2024 A traditionally lumpy stage but there would be a flat finish for any quick men who would be able to manage 3000M of altitude gain over the day. A break of four were kept around three minutes by Bora-Hansgrohe throughout the day. The break was caught before the ascent of the final climb at 47KM to go. The pace was high to get into position before going through a few town corners and Primož Roglič of Bora-Hansgrohe crashed along with a few others. He had a quick review from the doctors and was allowed to continue. The peloton calmed immediately and they seemed to be waiting for Roglič to come back. He was two minutes down and the peloton couldn't wait entirely so the speed started to pick up again. Bora-Hansgrohe dropped a number of their riders back and were able to get Roglič back in the peloton at 26KM to go, not far into the climb. Ineos led up the climb and it did not seem full on. The peloton all stayed together over the top and down the descent, through the intermediate sprint. It was won by Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep ahead of Isaac Del Toro of UAE and Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike. After the sprint at 7.5KM to go, UAE attacked with Marc Soler along with Nelson Oliveira of Movistar and Gorka Izagirre of Cofidis. The trio were caught with 3.3KM to go as the lead out got heated. A big crash with 1300M to go brought down many riders but the trains kept rolling. Decathlon AG2R had the main leadout but their man got boxed in and would not feature. Alex Aranburu of Movistar got a good jump but it was too long and ended up being a perfect leadout for the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Quinten Hermans who took the stage. Edoardo Zambanini of Bahrain-Victorious got ahead of Aranburu right on the line for second.