Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) showed the superb form that propelled him to a well-deserved win at the Cyclassics Hamburg one week ago and comfortably sprinted to victory on the third stage Vuelta a España, which saw the peloton travel from Mijas to Alhaurin de la Torre, over 178.2 kilometres that included a total of 2600 meters of elevation and a 20km-long first-category climb in the first part of the day.
“This wonderful season continues with a beautiful and very special moment,” said Viviani after capturing his 16th success of the year. “First Vuelta win, first Grand Tour victory in the Italian Champion jersey, all these make up for a perfect day, but I couldn’t have pulled it off without this incredible team, who did again a marvellous job. It was difficult to control such a tough stage by our own for 90% of the time, but we prevailed again thanks to the Wolfpack’s fantastic spirit.”
Quick-Step Floors helped to control a six-man breakaway for the most part of the day, not panicking even with 40 kilometres to go, when five riders attacked from the bunch trying to stir things up, and bringing everything back together ten kilometres from the finish, before taking Viviani to the front with the flamme rouge in sight.
Led out by Danish Champion Michael Mørkøv, Viviani made his jump inside the final 200 metres and put in a storming sprint, beating Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) by a bike length. The 29-year-old Italian, who is riding the Vuelta a España for the second time in his career, was eyeing this stage before the start of the race and at the finish in Alhaurin de la Torre was full of praise for his teammates, who perfectly executed the plan concocted at the pre-stage briefing in Mijas.
“There’s no such thing as an easy stage in a Grand Tour, and especially in the Vuelta, where he had a lot of climbing in store for what on the roadbook presented itself was a flat stage. We knew what to expect, because we did a recon last week, so Kasper and Pieter pulled at the front the entire day, then as we got closer to the finish, Dries kept a high speed, before Michael put me in an ideal position, from where I went immediately as I noticed Sagan making his move. With some tailwind, I felt that it was the right moment to go and I am happy for how things panned out in the end.”
