CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Santiago Buitrago secured an impressive top 10 finish yesterday in the third stage of the 80th La Vuelta a Espana, the third and final Grand Tour of the international cycling season.
Buitrago was part of a large group of competitors who made a frantic sprint to the finish to end the 134.6-kilometre leg. The Colombian took seventh overall just metres behind David Gaudi of Groupama-FDJ, who clinched the win in two hours 59 minutes and 24 seconds.
Teammates Torstein Traen from Norway and Antonio Tiberi from Italy were ranked 42nd and 43rd, respectively, in the stage, while Russian Roman Ermakov and Australian Jack Haig followed in 90th and 91st.
Rounding out Bahrain Victorious’ riders yesterday were Italian Nicolo Buratti in 103rd, Briton Finlay Pickering in 106th, and Dutchman Mathijs Paaschens in 127th.
Buitrago’s placing yesterday was the team’s best so far after three of the elite men’s road race’s 21 stages. He remained seventh on the general classification – 16 seconds behind overall leader Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.
Tiberi stayed 10th in the best young rider classification, where he is 19 seconds from top man Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Bahrain Victorious were also seventh amongst the 23 outfits in the teams’ standings, 40 seconds from first-placed Team Visma-Lease a Bike.
La Vuelta a Espana continues today with the fourth stage, covering 206.7km – the longest on this year’s programme. Frenchman Gaudu outwitted his rivals as Jonas Vingegaard came third to retain the overall lead.
Gaudu, who was third on Sunday, finished ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) to climb to second place in the general classification, 14 seconds behind two-time Tour de France champion Vingegaard.
“I was thinking in the bus this morning it was more for Pedersen, but (teammate Stefan) Kung said to me I have a punch and I can win today,” Gaudu said after his first Vuelta stage win since 2020.
“I’m very happy. I’m very, very proud to win for me, for the team. This is, I think, the best start to the Vuelta we could get.”
Pedersen’s teammate Giulio Ciccone finished fourth and was third overall at the end of the first medium-mountain stage of the race, a 139km ride from San Maurizio Canavese to Ceres in Italy.
The riders made a fast start, covering 45.8km in the first hour as Sean Quinn, Luva Van Boven, Patrick Gamper and Alessandro Verre formed a leading pack.
Lidl-Trek’s riders stayed in front of the peloton for most of the race, controlling the chase as only Verre and Quinn remained in the breakaway pack during the first big climb of the stage to Issiglio.
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