Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2025 Stage 3

February 21, 2025 The only real geographical feature of Stage 3 is the Alto de Españares. The 8KM climb takes the riders up to the town of Cardeña on top of a plateau but that is within the first 50KM. The rest of the stage rolls on the plateau through open cattle pasture until the main point of interest which is the Golden Kilometer which starts at 17KM to go. There are three sprints evenly spaced across the kilometer. Each sprint has 3, 2, and 1 bonus seconds available for a maximum of 9 seconds to any one rider. The rest of the day is straightforward and is the best chance for the sprinters to get something out of the race. Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma, Lorenzo Peschi of Petrolike, and Guillermo Thomas Silva of Caja Rural Seguros RGA went up the road to contest some of the prizes on offer. Uno-X Mobility and Euskatel-Euskadi were doing the chasing and had the break on a tight leash of just 2 minutes with 50KM to go. The bunch went through the small, twisting streets of Pedroche with 26KM to go. When they left the town, UAE-XRG drilled the pace to split the bunch in anticipation of the a potential cross wind. The wind did not materialize but the added pace brought the break back with 22KM to go. A crash in the peloton at that moment did split the group in half including nearly all of the Euskatel-Euskadi riders. The 50 riders still at the front could not wait though because the Golden Kilometer was quickly approaching. Marc Soler of UAE-XRG hit out early to grab the first sprint, with Jasha Sütterlin of Jayco AlUla and Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 taking second and third. Pidcock just beat out Markus Hoelgaard of Uno-X Mobility in the second sprint with Nickolas Zukowsky of Q36.5 in third. Pidcock did not slow down after the second sprint which may have cost him because it allowed Hoelgaard to sit on the wheel and roll Pidcock on the line for the third sprint. The final tally through the Golden Kilometer was 6 seconds for Pidcock, 5 seconds for Hoelgaard, 3 seconds for Soler and 2 seconds for Zukowsky and Sütterlin. UAE-XRG took leadership and led the group from 15KM to 4KM when Uno-X Mobility took over. Ineos came up with three riders under 1KM when the road started to drag up but Uno-X Mobility won control back. Ben Turner of Ineos infiltrated the Uno-X Mobility train and when the last man pulled off for Uno-X Mobility, Turner went but there was still 300M to go. It took Alexander Kristoff of Uno-X Mobilty about 150M to get to Turner's back wheel. It wasn't until 50M from the line that Kristoff kicked again and just nipped passed Turner on the line for his 97th career win. Maxim Van Gils of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe came across for third, just ahead of Pidcock.