Santiago Basso and Iker Díaz in the top10 of the third stage of Vuelta al Besaya

After two days with sprint finishes, the third stage seemed to follow a script with the same finish. A breakaway was the protagonist with Iker Díaz and Iván Loaisa showing their best version. Santiago Basso and Miguel Moreira reached the head of the race and the Italian signed a brilliant fifth place in the sprint.

The start of the stage was surprising as the race leader himself attacked to make the race harder and Iván Loaisa quickly stuck to his wheel. The breakaway was neutralized kilometres later after a frantic start. One of the attacks after the bunch was reunited managed to open a gap. Nine riders broke away with Iker Díaz and Iván Loaisa among them. The breakaway quickly achieved an advantage of over a minute and a half at the foot of the ascent to Castillo Pedroso (2nd). On this climb the breakaway was selected and at the same time three riders attacked from behind, including the race leader.

First, the three riders would arrive at the head of the race and then six more would follow with Santiago Basso and Miguel Moreira to form a new group of 17 riders. They kept up a close battle for more than 30 kilometres with the pack and managed to bring it to a successful conclusion. In the last kilometres one of the riders from the Belgian team attacked and took the victory with a slight advantage over the leader’s group where the four representatives of the team arrived. Santiago Basso took fifth place and Iker Díaz was tenth. Miguel Moreira was twelfth and Iván Loaisa sixteenth.

“It wasn’t easy, from the start the race went very fast and Robinson had to abandon because of the pain in his knee from yesterday’s crash. A breakaway formed and I told them not to work because there were two riders with options in the general classification. In the end there were 17 riders and they had to share the work in order to be attentive and fight for the stage, but Acrog is at a very high level. There is one more day and we will fight for everything”, explained Isaac Cantón, director of the junior team at the end of the stage.

“Today I felt better, I’m getting better every day and I’m happy with 5th place in the third stage. I want to thank the whole team. Tomorrow is the last stage and we are going to give everything to try to take the podium”, said Santiago Basso after his fifth place in Polanco.

Photo: Ciclismo Gonzalez