Team News: Fuglsang wins again in Ruta Del Sol

Jakob Fuglsang sprinted to his second stage win on a punchy uphill finish in Ubeda on stage 3 of the Ruta De Sol

Team News: Fuglsang wins again in Ruta Del Sol

Today’s stage had its big showdown in the final meters, as the race headed up to Ubeda. The Kazakh Astana team pulled hard to close the gap to the escapees and Jakob Fuglsang finished the great work off with a well-timed attack on the last corner to take his second stage win at the Vuelta a Andalucía (Ruta Del Sol). The Danish rider still leads the overall ranking and was able to increase his lead overall.

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Another demanding stage awaited the peloton on the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucía today. The stage took the riders from Jáen to Ubeda over almost 177 kilometers and featured five climbs, two of which were category one ascents. As is the way in pro cycling stage races, some riders escaped and the peloton gave them some minutes advantage, knowing it would be all back together on the last two ascents of the day, the Puerto de Magina and the Puerto de Baeza climb.

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Astana stayed in the peloton and controlled the race, helping their leader Jakob Fuglsang to secure the lead of the overall classification heading into tomorrow’s penultimate stage. As expected, the escapees were caught as the race headed onto the last tricky ascent. The Astana team brought their leader Jakob Fuglsang into position surrounded by all the other favorites, battling for a stage win as the riders tackled the road up to Ubeda, a narrow road with some tricky corners.

In a moment of confusion, Jakob chose the perfect line and sprinted to his second stage win in Andalucía. By taking yet another impressive stage win, the Danish rider was able to open up a gap of 14 seconds over the second placed ride on the overall.

Jakob Fuglsang: “The first two hours of the race were really hard but my teammates did an amazing job working for me all day and after following all of the moves at the end, I used the last corner as my opportunity to go for the win. I looked at the road book this morning and I knew that if I wanted to go for the victory, it would be really important to be in the right position at that point.”

“Tomorrow will be another tough day but once again, I hope to defend the yellow jersey. Of course, we have a lot of teams here who are looking to make the race hard but so far, my team has been fantastic. Thinking ahead to Sunday, the TT looks difficult but if I have a little bit of an advantage, I think it could suit me” after his second stage win.”

Tomorrow, the penultimate stage of the Ruta del Sol, will cover 125 kilometers with three ascents. The race will start in Villanueva Mesia and finish in Granada.

RESULT

1. Jakob Fuglsang Astana Pro Team 04:33:25
2. Pello Bilbao Bahrain-McLaren @ 00
3. Brandon McNulty UAE Team Emirates @ 01
4. Ion Izagirre Astana Pro Team @ 04
5. Marc Soler Movistar Team @ 06
6. Dylan Teuns Bahrain-McLaren @ 08
7. Jack Haig Mitchelton-Scott @ 08
8. Mikel Landa Bahrain-McLaren @ 08
9. Antwan Tolhoek Team Jumbo-Visma @ 13
10. Maurits Lammertink Circus-Wanty Gobert @ 26

81. Niki Terpstra Total Direct Energie @ 04:06
85. James Shaw Riwal Readynez Cycling @ 04:23
101. Matthew Holmes Lotto Soudal @ 06:16
105. Scott Thwaites Alpecin-Fenix @ 07:35
123. Sebastian Mora Movistar Team @ 14:18
125. Enrique Sanz Unzue Equipo Kern Pharma @ 14:19

Overall
1 Jakob Fuglsang Astana Pro Team 14:22:26
2 Mikel Landa Bahrain-McLaren @ 14
3 Pello Bilbao Bahrain-McLaren @ 30
4 Dylan Teuns Bahrain-McLaren @ 31
5 Ion Izagirre Astana Pro Team @ 34
6 Jack Haig Mitchelton-Scott @ 35
7 Chris Harper Team Jumbo-Visma @ 01:23
8 Marc Soler Movistar Team @ 01:27
9 Ruben Fernandez Fundacion-Orbea @ 01:36
10 Harm Vanhoucke Lotto Soudal @ 01:36