19 February, Padul (ESP)
It was a solid day in the saddle for BMC Racing Team on stage 3 of Ruta del Sol with Damiano Caruso claiming the King of the Mountain jersey and Brent Bookwalter and Philippe Gilbert finishing in the top ten.
Caruso formed a nine rider breakaway early in the 157.9km stage which built and maintained a four-minute lead over the peloton.
The peloton caught the breakaway with 25km to go, making way for another bunch sprint to the line. Oscar Gatto (Tinkoff) took the win, and Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Raymond Kreder (Roompot) rounded out the top three.
Caruso is happy to be wearing the KOM jersey.
“It was a big battle on the climb to get the points and get this jersey. It was a good day for me. We had a good breakaway but there were too many people who wanted to win today so eventually we knew that we would be caught before the end of the stage,” Caruso explained.
“Tomorrow we have the ITT so I’ll try and perform well again there, and then on Sunday for the final stage I’ll be focusing on defending the KOM jersey.”
Gilbert now sits fourth overall on the General Classification, with the same time as new race leader Ben Swift.
Tomorrow the riders are set to battle it out in a 21km individual time trial in and around Alhaurin de la Torre.
Tejay van Garderen is looking forward to testing the legs tomorrow.
“I’m feeling really good. We’ve had three good tests but the real tests are to come with the ITT and the summit finish so that will reveal a lot more. We have some important time trials coming up this year so tomorrow will be a good course for my first time trial of the season,” van Garderen said.
