Place Name: Avinguda De Supermolina
Address: Avinguda De Supermolina 15, 17537 Alp, Girona, Spain
Details: March 26, 2025
It's the first of three summit finishes in this years edition of Catalunya. The profile goes up in stages, first to the Coll d'Estenalles then to the Coll de la Batallola. The next climb of the Coll de la Creueta is an Especial Category, climbing a whopping 20KM at an average of 5%. The riders will then descend down before starting the final ascent to La Molina, an 8.3KM climb at 6.5%, topping out 5KM before the finish. A short dip and then another rise takes the riders to the finish after a very long 218KM and an eye watering 4,700M of elevation.
Four riders went on the attack from the start including Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, Lorenzo Germani of Groupama-FDJ, Alex Molenaar of Caja Rural Seguros RGA, and Mats Wenzel of Equipo Kern Pharma. Their lead was 4 minutes 10 seconds with 72KM to go as they started climbing the Coll de la Batallola. UAE-XRG held a steady pace up the climb and cut 1 minute off the lead as Wenzel led the break over the top with 64KM to go. The peloton continued to chip away at the gap and at the start of the 20KM Coll de la Creueta in Pobla de Lillet, the break was just 2 minutes 10 seconds ahead. Armirail attacked from the front with 47KM to go which extended the gap to over 3 minutes. Pavel Sivakov of UAE-XRG took up the chase in the peloton and by the time Armirail crested the top, the bunch was just 2 minutes behind. Through the feed zone at the top, Lenny Martinez and Finlay Pickering of Bahrain Victorious crashed but both were able to get back up. Martinez got back into the peloton to keep his GC ambitions alive.
Armirail started the 12KM climb to La Molina with 1 minute on the peloton but UAE-XRG looked committed to making the race hard right from the bottom. Armirail was caught with 9.3KM to go but UAE-XRG did not have the resources to continue leading the entire way up and had to back off the pace. That allowed attacks to go including one from Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike and Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla. Adam Yates of UAE-XRG reeled them back in. George Bennett of Israel-Premier Tech was next to attack, bringing Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana and Marc Soler of UAE-XRG with him. Soler could not sit still and attacked the front group which dispatched Bennett. Behind, Kuss made another effort and bridged up to Soler and Fortunato with 4KM to go but the gap to the group of favorites, roughly 25 riders, was only 15 seconds. Kuss, Fortunato, and Soler were caught with 600M to go by the large GC group. Soler went to the front for lead out duties for Juan Ayuso but it was Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe who started his sprint first with 200M remaining. Only Ayuso could follow. Ayuso passed Roglič at 150M and still had a full bike length on Roglič at 75M but Roglič made one final kick and drew level with Ayuso. The pair threw their bikes at the line and it was impossible to tell who got it. Only with the photo could we see that Ayuso hit the line first to take the win. Mikel Landa of Soudal Quickstep finished in third behind Roglič with a 2 second gap. Another 2 second gap formed for the main group from 4th to 24th.
Ayuso now holds the GC lead by 6 seconds to Roglič and 11 seconds to Landa with two more summit finishes remaining in the race.
Tags: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, 2025, March, Stage 3, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2025, Viladecans The Style Outlets, La Molina, Bruno Armirail, Lorenzo Germani, Alex Molenaar, Mats Wenzel, Pavel Sivakov, Sepp Kuss, Ben O'Connor, Adam Yates, George Bennett, Lorenzo Fortunato, Marc Soler, Juan Ayuso, Primož Roglič, Mikel Landa