Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) bounced back from his near miss on stage two of the Ruta del Sol to take both the stage and the overall lead on Saturday's steep cobbled climb to Alcalá de los Gazules.
Wellens tore out of a severely reduced pack at the foot of the final short but steep climb to take a lone victory by five seconds on Mikel Landa (Movistar), with former leader Wout Poels (Team Sky) crossing the line at 13 seconds. Previously third overall, Wellens is now seven seconds ahead of Landa, with Poels dropping two spots to lie 11 seconds down.
The reshuffling of the top positions overall still leaves six riders within 32 seconds of Wellens, whilst Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) is a minute back, meaning the race is far from decided with a time trial still to come.
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As a former winner of the Guangxi Tour, the Eneco Tour and the Tour of Pologne, Wellens has a strong palmares in week-long stage races and as he pointed out "I'm not leading this by accident."
"I knew on the second day I had really good legs from the second day. I also knew that the climb today was good for me, I took the chance I had," he said.
"Yesterday I did a lot of research on this climb, and that paid off. I had really good legs, I knew the final climb. The fact there were cobbles and you can ride next to the cobbles on the tarmac was really good for me."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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