Castrillo secures stunning stage win for Equipo Kern Pharma and late boss, race favorites hold back

The question of the day, and indeed every day in this Vuelta, is: will the general classification contenders put Ben O'Connor under pressure? Most of the time, the answer is yes. But do they also compete for the stage win? For the third day in a row, the answer was no, with a breakaway group ultimately battling for the stage victory.

The riders started at the thermal baths of Ourense, located in Galicia. It was a relatively short stage, just 137 kilometers. For this reason, the riders didn't start until 2:10 PM. Right from the start, the road went uphill for several kilometers at around a four percent gradient, where we would see the first attacks of the day. It was the beginning of a flurry of attacks on a section that rose in a step-like manner.

And we did see those attacks. Just like in the Giro, the Tour and as has frequently been the case in this Vuelta, the stakes were high, and many climbers wanted to join the breakaway. The result: many groups with ten or fifteen seconds as a gap, hopefully building up until the peloton once again moved to push new climbers forward. All this jostling led to a breakaway group of ten riders who, just as they seemed to be caught, accelerated again and managed to break away. Michael Woods and Laurens Huys missed the move and dropped back.

Who managed to get into the break of the day? Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty), Jhonatan Narváez and Óscar Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers), Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern-Pharma), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla). They quickly built up a lead of several minutes. Under the pace of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in the peloton, this lead even grew to more than ten minutes.

O'Connor's team kept an eye on the gap, with Tejada being the best-placed rider in the break, trailing by over seventeen minutes in the general classification. At one point, he even moved into the virtual top five. For a long time, nothing happened in the break of the day because the intermediate phase towards the final climb took a long time and the elevation steadily increased. This was good news for the breakaway's lead, which was nine minutes at the foot of the Manzaneda. The action could begin on an irregular climb of nearly sixteen kilometers at an average of just over four percent, but with sections steeper than seven percent. Breaking away wasn't just a matter of pure power, as Soler tried multiple times.

It was a thrilling spectacle, with the road gradually climbing and then becoming steeper. Soler tried about ten times, with INEOS sacrificing Rodríguez for Narváez's chances. The big names had no chance, but ProContinental rider Castrillo did manage to break free. The 23-year-old Spaniard riding for Equipo Kern Pharma created a significant gap, and since the chasers were alternating between chasing and slowing down, things looked promising. He had a 25-second lead with seven kilometers to go. Schmid was riding alone, somewhat lost in between.

It was time for reinforcements, which came with four kilometers remaining from Poole, Narváez, and later Soler. The Briton and the Spaniard had to drop the fast Ecuadorian, but first, they caught up with Schmid. The four riders had to close a 27-second gap, with the last two kilometers climbing more steeply. Poole and Soler tried to break away, but since they couldn't, Castrillo maintained his lead with a powerful effort. With the mourning band for Azcona on his arm, Castrillo and Equipo Kern Pharma secured the most beautiful victory. Poole, in an all-or-nothing attempt, was just too late and finished second.

Since Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rode the peloton with the general classification riders seven minutes behind the leaders, we saw another exciting battle after Castrillo's sensational win. Could anyone still grab a few seconds in the tougher final kilometers? EF Education-EasyPost led the way for a final push to the finish line. It turned out to be just a minor punch, as Felix Gall kept the pace high for O'Connor, leading the general classification contenders to the line.