Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) soloed to victory and the race lead on stage 3 of the Vuelta a Burgos, attacking from a group of five in the final kilometre to take the win in Valpuesta.
Sprinting from the group behind, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) took second, whilst Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished third as the chasers finished some 10 seconds behind the Frenchman who attacked at the perfect moment.
A group of five riders – Bisiaux, Ciccone, Pellizzari, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) – went clear on the final climb, the Puerto de Orduña 20km from the finish, and held off a chasing group all the way to the line to battle for victory between themselves.
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It looked like it was going to be a five-way sprint, but Bisiaux attacked early in the final kilometre and no one responded.
Bisiaux takes over the lead of the race from stage 1 winner Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who was dropped early on the final climb.
This is the 20-year-old Frenchman’s first victory of 2025, and with it the purple leaders’ jersey, which he will wear on stage 4 with a 22-second gap over Pellizzzari in second, whilst third overall is Del Toro, 26 seconds down.
How it unfolded
As the race rolled out of it took some time for the break of the day to form, but it eventually did, made up of six riders: Sander De Pestel (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA), Hugo Aznar (Equipo Kern Pharma), Iker Mintegi (Euskadi-Euskatel), Daniel Cavia (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Mario Silva (Illes Balears Arabay). They quickly built up a healthy four-minute lead and were ahead for much of the day.
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The break began to split slightly going into the final 60km and the first of the three final climbs, with De Pestel and Sorarrin eventually forging clear of their companions. Behind, as the race approached the final 40km, the peloton started to accelerate to chase down the group, bringing the gap down to two minutes and rapidly falling.
Over the top of the Alto de las Campas, Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) attacked out of the peloton in what seemed like a leg-testing exercise as much as anything, for the Spaniard returning from serious injury. He got a gap of around 20 seconds on the peloton, but was soon reeled back in and subsequently dropped.
With 28km to go, De Pestel pushed ahead of Sorarrin on the final climb, but only had a small gap. Halfway up the climb, race leader Roger Adrià was dropped from the peloton, whilst Giulio Ciccone pushed on up front, followed by Léo Bisiaux. Three kilometres from the top of the climb, Ciccone and Bisiaux caught and passed De Pestel, pulling out a 20-second gap on the very reduced main group.
The main group split apart even further as riders started to attack, forcing the likes of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Isaac del Toro to work hard to try to hold on. Meanwhile, in front, Lorenzo Fortunato and Giulio Pelizzari joined the two leaders, before Del Toro also bridged up to the front of the race over the top of the climb.
With 20km to go, it was those five riders in front, 20 seconds ahead of the next chasing group, which contained Bernal, and the gap was up to 45 seconds with 5km to go. Fiercely chasing, the group did bring the gap down in the run-in, but not enough to catch the leaders, who battled out the final kilometres amongst themselves.
Going into the final kilometre, Bisiaux launched early, which initially looked like it could have been too early, but a moment of hesitation in the group saw him jump away, and then solo to the line to take the victory, as his attacking companions had to settle for the minor places behind.
Pushing on in the final kilometres, Giovanni Aleotti (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility), Urko Berrade (Equipo Kern Pharma), and AJ August (Ineos Grenadiers) were the first of the chasers to come home, only 14 seconds behind Ciccone in second, whilst Bernal lost time in the finale.
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