00:00Welcome to stage 3 of La Huerta.
00:03Stage 3 and it's already time for the race's first trip to the mountains as we head to
00:08Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees.
00:10The final will test the legs of some of the GC hopefuls and should give us a clearer idea
00:15of whether Tadej Pogacar wants to keep that red jersey from start to finish.
00:21If it's really, really hard to control obviously we'll have to save a bit the legs but we don't
00:26want to give away the jersey for free, that's for sure.
00:29For us it's also great to have this extra motivation to have the red jersey in the team, I mean
00:36anyway we'll have the big favourite but having the red jersey it's a great feeling.
00:42Even top GC riders like Matthias Schielmoze and Richard Carapace will be taking their cues
00:47from the world champion.
00:49The climbs today are not super hard and the only one I really see making a difference is
00:55Tadej if he really wants to but yeah we'll have to see.
00:59I think it will also take a lot from his team and I think also you want to save them
01:03a little
01:04bit.
01:05Well Tadej will definitely attack.
01:07How about you?
01:08Well I think that trying to stay with him will be important.
01:12We know that he is the guy who can really shake things up today so trying to stay with
01:17him will be important.
01:20Well plenty of climbers are also targeting stages from the break away like Valentin Parépintre
01:25who battled with Carapace for the polka dot jersey at the tour.
01:31I think we need to seize every opportunity that comes our way.
01:34Today is the first summit finish, perhaps the first chance for a break away.
01:38We will see how things go at the start but I will be fully focused from the off.
01:45174km today heading to almost 2000m above sea level.
01:49The final two climbs add up to around 30km at an average of 5% so not too steep but
01:55if
01:55Pogaccia attacks how many riders will be able to follow.
02:01Only six men got into the day's break away so there wasn't much chance of the move going
02:05all the way.
02:06Ethan Hayter was up there for the second day running in the green jersey, once again targeting
02:11the intermediate sprint, adopting a similar strategy to Mads Pedersen at the tour.
02:16He was joined by the Danish champion Magnus Kort, winner of six stages at La Vuelta and
02:21the former Dutch champion at Timo Roesson.
02:24Olivier Legac, Asbjorn Hellermoser and Mats Wenzel completed the sextet.
02:29Their gap though was never more than two and a half minutes.
02:32Well the pace was a fair bit higher than yesterday, an average of around 45k an hour and a couple
02:37of teams decided to up the pressure when they entered an area of crosswinds.
02:42All of a sudden the splits began to appear with Pogaccia's UAE Team Emirates XRG doing
02:48most of the damage, shredding the red jersey group to around 50 or 60 riders.
02:53Tadi Pogaccia is well protected, there's a distinctive split here in the peloton, the
02:59question is who has been caught out in that second split here.
03:05Well Felix Gau was the only major GC name caught behind, but it didn't take long for things
03:10to calm down and the breakaway who had been close to getting caught were able to open up
03:15the gap again, almost two minutes with 75k to go.
03:23The riders winding their way towards the climbs and soon learning that there would be rain and
03:28potentially hail to contend with in the final.
03:32Look at the clouds up ahead, it's so dark, going from the sun, that's what the riders have
03:39to face.
03:41Well first up was the intermediate sprint where Hayter was able to roll through unchallenged,
03:46moving ahead of Pogaccia and into top spots in the points classification.
04:07It would soon be on to the first category one climb of this Vuelta, the Col de Mont-Louis,
04:12an average of 4.8% but with passages at 8%, the gap a minute and 40.
04:20But the break's advantage began to drop as the road began to rise.
04:24When it was down to 40 seconds or so, Hele Moser kicked on, followed by Kortz and Wenzel.
04:30Further back the UAE train was getting ready to launch Pogaccia, surely it was only a matter
04:35of time before they caught the breakaway, but then the heavens opened.
04:38The rain and the hail starting to absolutely hammer down.
04:42Wenzel, the last man standing from the break, was joined by Lorenzo Fortunato before the summit,
04:47hits, but it quickly became apparent that the race could not go on, with the riders diving
04:52for cover.
04:53The stage was soon officially cancelled.
04:57All the riders are trying to keep themselves, we see how big these hillstones are, bouncing
05:03off their heads.
05:17So no stage winner today and no change in GC, the race resumes on Tuesday with a big day
05:23of climbing to Anthroi Lavea.
05:25Join us for that tomorrow and thanks for watching.
05:29For more information, we have an online trial for the recording.
05:29Over there!
05:30Good night tomorrow and good evening guys the γ of the Lambert
05:32Watch this game, we'll do that now!
05:33Bye for the next day!
05:33See you next time!
