On Saturday, Quentin Pacher took the opportunity of the third stage of O Gran Camiño to stand out. After a hilly final, the French puncher used his sprint to take third place in the stage, won again by Jonas Vingegaard in solo. On the eve of the queen stage, he but also Lenny Martinez and David Gaudu sit in the top-10 of the general classification.
Before the big battle planned on Sunday, stage 3 of O Gran Camiño took the riders to Castelo de Ribadavia on Saturday, for an uncertain outcome. “On paper, it was the easiest stage of the week,” explained Jussi Veikkanen. “Yet, there was a lot of action, right from the start.” Quentin Pacher couldn’t testify otherwise: “We didn’t expect the GC riders to move from the first climb, but that’s what happened. A group of ten riders went away with almost only favorites, especially David. This led to a hard chase for a while because Movistar was not represented.” The French climber, but also the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz or Joshua Tarling eventually led the race for around twenty kilometres before everything returned to normal. “We got back to a more classic scenario, but the breakaway took a big gap,” said Quentin. David de la Cruz (Q36.5), Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma), Victor Langelotti (Burgos BH), Asier Etxeberria (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Joaquim Silva (Efapel Cycling) indeed took advantage of the peloton’s apathy to enjoy a seven-minute lead.
“I’ve got a good dynamic again”, Quentin Pacher
The stage victory even seemed possible for them, but with sixty kilometres to go, the pace increased significantly in the bunch. “The race got faster in the last two climbs of the final, especially to come back on the breakaway and make the race hard,” added Quentin. At the foot of the final climb, the Alto do Couso (4.5 km at 5.7%), the gap was only of one minute. Castrillo went solo at the front, but halfway up through the climb, Jonas Vingegaard attacked. “No one was able to follow, it was already a bit of a race for second,” said Quentin. The Dane caught and dropped Castrillo, going solo for the last fifteen kilometers. “We couldn’t go with Vingegaard, but we were well represented in the group behind,” said Jussi. David Gaudu, Lenny Martinez and Quentin Pacher took place in the chasing group, and while the double winner of the Tour went to get another win, the most experienced of these three got involved in the fight for a good result. “I decided to take Carlos Canal’s wheel because we started from his home place, we knew he would be motivated, and he is above all a fast rider”, he explained. “He was faster than me, but I stayed in his wheel to get third place.”
Twenty-nine seconds after Jonas Vingegaard, who strengthened his lead overall, Quentin Pacher took his first podium of the season while David Gaudu (7th) and Lenny Martinez (18th) finished in the same time. “It’s a good result for Quentin,” said Jussi. “We are very happy and satisfied to see him in this physical condition. It’s a positive day”. “Since the start of the season, I’ve got a good dynamic again, so I am happy,” said Quentin. “If I can compete in punchy finishes like today, I make the most of it, but the main goal of the week still is the general classification. From this point of view, Lenny and David did not lose time on their direct opponents today.” On GC, Lenny Martinez is 5th at 1’35, Quentin Pacher 6th at 1’37 and David Gaudu 10th at 1’41 on Saturday evening, but everything will be decided tomorrow in the summit finish of Monte Aloia (7km at 8%).
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