"I would have liked the whole day to be a bit harder" - Mathias Vacek laments comfortable pace of stage 3 at La Vuelta

After three stages of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana, Mathias Vacek is sitting pretty in 3rd overall and wearing the White Jersey of Best Young Rider.

Whilst it might have been a bit of a long shot, having started the day just 5 seconds down on Red Jersey wearing Wout van Aert, Vacek knew that somehow, if he could take a miraculous win in the likely bunch sprint finish of stage 3, he could swap that White Jersey for the Red Jersey. That didn't quite go to plan for the Lidl-Trek man however, as he came across the line in 12th place, as none other than Van Aert himself powered to the win, extending his lead in the general classification in the process.

"It was quite an easy day so a lot of guys were still fresh in the finish. I tried my best in the sprint. I was a bit jumping around in the finale. It cost me energy but still, a 12th place is good," assesses the 22-year-old Czech rider in his post-stage interview. "Definitely, I would have liked the whole day to be a bit harder. It was a finale that could have suited me with good legs but there are strong guys and it’s not easy."

With stage 4 seeing the 2024 Vuelta a Espana head to the mountains already, it's likely any hopes Vacek had of getting himself a day in the Red Jersey of race leader are over. Nevertheless, with the general classification hopefuls such as the likes of Mattias Skjelmose and Tao Geoghegan Hart in his team, the current Czech national time trial champion will still have an important role to play in the coming days. "Tomorrow, I will help the guys for the climbs," he concludes. "See what we can do with our GC leaders."