UAE Team Emirates-XRG take yellow ahead of penultimate stage
Friday 7 February, 2025
João Almeida and UAE Team Emirates-XRG continued their strong start to the Volta Valenciana with the Emirati squad taking the race lead after stage 3 in Spain. Almeida finished 3rd on the stage, 10” behind the lone winner Ivan Romeo (Movistar) who took the victory, enough to cement the yellow jersey heading into the final two days of racing.
With the race underway just before midday, the peloton would be allowed a reprieve for the first 80km of racing, as a six-rider breakaway was allowed to gain a substantial time gap over rolling terrain. It would not be long, however, until UAE Team Emirates-XRG would have to be at battle stations and ready to tackle the three categorised climbs that would come to define the stage.
Beginning in the town of Algemesí, which was struck by the catastrophic floods that swept across the Valencia region in October, UAE Team Emirates-XRG joined the peloton in paying tribute to the victims ahead of the stage start. The efforts of the disaster relief that has followed were applauded, and the sport came together to pay a heartfelt message to all those who were affected.
With Bahrain Victorious first taking up the challenge of pacing the peloton, Ivo Oliveira, Julius Johansen and Filippo Baroncini remained alert to any dangers and allowed the team’s climbers to stay well positioned towards the front of the group.
Beginning the day just two seconds down in the general classification, and having watched race leader Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) hit the deck earlier in the stage, João Almeida was well aware that there could be no lapse in concentration. Surrounded by riders in the ilk of Pavel Sivakov, Brandon McNulty and Felix Großschartner, Almeida and UAE Team Emirates-XRG could attack the second half of the stage with a real sense of vigor.
Sivakov was first to make the decisive change of pace at -25km with the Frenchman thinning out the group and dropping the race leader Vacek. With Almeida then destined to inherit the yellow jersey, it was up to him and McNulty to police any attacks from GC threats. Ivan Romeo (Movistar) would clip away to take a solo stage win by a narrow margin of 10” ahead of Buitrago and Almeida, with the Portuguese climber doing enough to claim a 2” lead in the GC and pull on his first yellow jersey of 2025.
Almeida: “Today I think we fought hard and deserved to get the jersey. The stage was not too demanding in general. We gave it everything we had. My teammates were amazing today as always and we managed to get the bonus seconds to defend ourselves from the rivals. We were already predicting that there would be attacks in the end so we had to follow the right moves without burning everything. We need to focus now on every second from now until Sunday.”
Saturday will bring the penultimate stage of the race, and with it, some 3,793m of climbing between Oropesa and Portell de Morella. Many of the opportunities for shenanigans will fall inside the first half of the stage, with all four categorised climbs to be raced before the peloton enters the final 80km of action.
First up is the Coll de la Bandereta (11.8km at 3.8%), followed by a back-to-back-to-back trio of the Coll de la Basa (4.5km at 4.3%), Alto de Chodos (10.8km at 5.2%) and Alto de Vistabella del Maestrat (6.2km at 5.4%). Once in the final 10km of racing, there is a kilometre-long stretch at around 6%, but otherwise, all eyes will be on the 10, 6 and 4 bonus seconds across the line.
Sunday, of course, looks set to suit a sprint finish to round out the week’s action.
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana Stage 3 results
1.Ivan Romeo (Movistar Team) 4:02:26
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) +10”
- João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) s.t
General classification after Stage 3
- João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 9:14:30
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) +2″
3.Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +21”
