Movistar outsmart UAE and INEOS! Iván Romeo wins stage 3 at Valenciana as João Almeida becomes new race leader
Cycling
Iván Romeo has won stage 3 of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana with a strong solo attack in the final kilometers of the stage. The Movistar Team benefited from his power and from the tough ascent that dropped former race leader Mathias Vacek.
Although it was not as chaotic as in France, the start of the stage in Spain was another dreadful one for some as we saw race leader Mathias Vacek involved in a crash that saw other riders abandon. José Juan Prieto, Unai Iribar, Francisco Muñoz, Matteo Scalco, Walter Calzoni and Filippo Ridolfo formed the day's breakaway, anticipating the mountain battle ahead.
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This situation remained until the base of the final climb, with Muñoz being the final rider to get caught with 27 kilometers to go with the work of UAE Team Emirates - XRG. The Emirati team put several men to work and dropped the slightly injured Vacek - a new race then began, as UAE's work became defensive against their rivals.
Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda attacked close to the summit of the climb, but when Santiago Buitrago attacked it was virtual leader João Almeida himself who responded and the two would go on to take bonifications at the top of the climb. The work of INEOS brought back the duo, and soon after Iván Romeo attacked from the group - sparking a chase of INEOS, UAE and Bahrain who each had a men willing to work against the Spanish time-trialist.
He made it to the final ascent and crossed the line with a glorious stage victory, his first as an elite rider - also making his way closer to the race lead. Santiago Buitrago sprinted to second place in front of Almeida, but the bonifications of the Portuguese were enough to net him the race lead.
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- Good choice of profile picture by the way :-)Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Bolt was an outlier, for some people it can’t exist. Funny thing is 3 generations later, a lot of amateurs reach the level the average pro had. Ok, maybe counting from today it might be 5 or 6 generations because we won’t all have access to the equipment and staff and assistance pros now need to perform.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Actually, I’ve not noticed that fans have even noticed results are provisional so as far as the sport itself goes, I wouldn’t worry too much. Obviously some riders will miss out on celebrating but then these days, they’re all paid so well that it’s quite a small price to pay. Andy Schleck certainly didn’t get to party like he was used to when he received Alberto’s trophy and titles, nevertheless, he’s in the books and I’m sure he feels like and gets treated like a tdf winner. CATCHING dopers is good for the sport, though at the moment I’d have no idea who to go looking for.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Someone like David Walsh, who was the point person in the Sky Team coverup? When there was money and fame in bringing down Armstrong, he went for that. Then he sold that crusader image to Sky. And then renounced them. The guy has made more money from athletes and doping without ever once competing himself, having to take drugs, or even stand for a single principle. He is no different than Novitzsky, who was pivotal in the Armstrong investigations, and helped put Marion Jones in jail. Now he is full-time in the coverup business for the UFC.
Barney10-04-2025 - Do you think that making results provisional for 10 years makes for good sport? Or in any way remotely fairer, or safer?Barney10-04-2025
- Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Harold Tejada, Simone Velasco ... Peripheral riders who have failed to make much impression so far in their carrier, suddenly starting to win everywhere, climbing with the best in weekly WT races. Aging riders years after their prime, now seen more often than none at the head of the peloton in the classics. Still, no what is talking about the Chinese candies in the roomBM10-04-2025
- It's easy to dismiss doubters. We need someone like David Walsh who dares to ask the hard question. In the mean time, I wouldn't worry too much about Tadej. Whether he dopes or not, at least, he's not a terrible person like LA Doper.
KerisVroom10-04-2025 - Pogi is an outlier. You cannot prove an outlier using the statistical data of average pros. If he releases the data, it will only cause even more suspicion. In 2020 TDF he was dropped by Roglic in the mountains. So how does he do the TT where in the flats he nearly beat Tom Dumoulin and beat everybody else on the climb by a ton. No matter what Pogi is too much of an outlier which can be proven by dataabstractengineer10-04-2025
- Sorry? Have you not noticed how many winners and others have been cancelled post event, not least from the Beijing and London Olympics? If that doesn’t qualify for practice generalisation in sporting procedure, what is, we’ve even gotten to the stage of pre-emptive barring under suspicion of possible doping. If you’re going to look at a problem like this seriously, don’t just look at what makes media headlines in the parts you pay attention to. There is probably a wiki list (very long) of athletes who were disqualified for substance irregularities post event, and each had the opportunity to their long and costly process to defend themselves, it just doesn’t make the news unless you’re already a megastar (in which case you’d be extremely stupid nowadays to risk it, but then again, many people, especially in sport, fall in or close to such a category.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Not comparing GT results but you should not forget guys like Kuiper, Kelly, Moser, who did pretty well in both.Mistermaumau10-04-2025