Vuelta a España: Stage 3

Like I said before the race began, part of the fun of the Vuelta are all the big named one day racers being present in order to train for the World Championships.  They were in full force today.  An odd stage that had two big climbs near the end.  It's so early in the 21 stage race that you didn't really expect any of the overalls to try and do anything, but with these big hills you knew it wouldn't be a sprint finish.  That sets up the race for the one day guys.  One of the best one day racers in the world right now Philippe Gilbert took the stage. 

Of course with it being the first mountain stage everyone was looking to see who would struggle among the overall contenders.  The problem is with the stage coming so early it's hard to make any judgments.  None of the primary overall contenders fell apart, but definitely Denis Menchov, Frank Schleck, and Nicolas Roche all look raring to go.

It's another very hill stage tomorrow, so look for another break away win.

 

General classification after stage 3

1	Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto	8:55:56
2	Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:00:14
3	Kanstantin Sivtsov (Blr) Team HTC-Columbia	0:00:22
4	Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC-Columbia	0:00:26
5	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo	0:00:28
6	Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia
7	Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi	0:00:35
8	Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team
9	Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank	0:00:36
10	Xavier Florencio (Spa) Cervélo Test Team	0:00:41