No one stops him! After emerging victorious in the first mountain stage the day before, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) repeated his trick and won the queen stage with finish in Port Ainé, in a fraction that had 176.7 kilometers and almost 4,000 meters of elevation gain.
The Slovenian attacked in the final part of the climb and crossed the finish line alone, ahead of Spaniard Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), who came in 48 seconds behind. Italian Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) finished third, more than a minute behind Pogacar.
As for the Colombians, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was once again the best Colombian in 15th place, followed by Einer Rubio (Movistar) in 16th place and Esteban Chaves (EF Education EasyPost) in 19th place.
Bauke Mollema was one of the first attackers, alongside Steven Kruijswijk, who also went on the offensive, but the experienced Dutchmen failed to make their submission. Just before the Port de Toses, the breakaway of the day was formed with Colombians Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) and Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Movistar). Joining the Beetles were Mauri Vansevenant, Hugh Carthy, Juan Pedro Lopez, Andreas Kron and Andreas Leknessund, among others.
The breakaway’s lead was always controlled and fluctuated around a minute and a half for a long time, but on the long Port de Cantó the gap dropped and the last escapees were caught by Visma | Lease a Bike who took the lead of the peloton, in the service of Sepp Kuss and Cian Uijtdebroeks.
The pace of the bees was not high enough, so the peloton kept a large group, which included all the favorites, and the battle was left for the final climb to Port Ainé (18.5 km at 6.8%), where the troops of Tadej Pogačar and Mikel Landa took command to make the race hard, so that the group with the overall roosters became smaller and smaller.
With seven kilometers to go, Spaniard Mikel Landa launched an attack to which Tadej Pogačar was the only one to respond. Then, there was no stopping the Slovenian, who quickly opened a 20-second gap to Landa, Sepp Kuss and Chris Harper. Behind them, a group formed with Aleksandr Vlasov and Egan Bernal.
In the final stretch, Pogacar pulled further and further away from the rest. His lead over Landa, who was clearly the strongest chaser, who managed to get rid of Kuss and Harper, grew bigger and bigger, allowing him to calmly celebrate his second consecutive victory to consolidate his leading position in the classification.
The 103rd edition of the Catalan round will continue this Thursday with its fourth stage, an undulating section of 169.2 kilometers between Sort and Lleida, which includes a second category mountain prize (3.9 km at 6.7%).
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2024 (2.UWT)
Results Stage 3 | Sant Joan de les Abadesses – Port Ainé (176,7 km)
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates | 4:34:25 |
| 2 | Mikel Landa | Soudal Quick-Step | 0:48 |
| 3 | Antonio Tiberi | Bahrain – Victorious | 1:03 |
| 4 | Wout Poels | Bahrain – Victorious | ,, |
| 5 | Sepp Kuss | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | ,, |
| 6 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | 1:10 |
| 7 | Cristián Rodríguez | Arkéa – B&B Hotels | ,, |
| 8 | Chris Harper | Team Jayco AlUla | ,, |
| 9 | Lenny Martinez | Groupama – FDJ | ,, |
| 10 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | ,, |
Ranking General
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates | 13:38:12 |
| 2 | Mikel Landa | Soudal Quick-Step | 2:27 |
| 3 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | 2:55 |
| 4 | Lenny Martinez | Groupama – FDJ | 3:21 |
| 5 | Chris Harper | Team Jayco AlUla | 3:22 |
| 6 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 3:27 |
| 7 | Sepp Kuss | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 3:34 |
| 8 | Wout Poels | Bahrain – Victorious | ,, |
| 9 | Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers | 3:50 |
| 10 | João Almeida | UAE Team Emirates | 3:52 |
Fuente: Revista Mundo Ciclístico