Date: Friday, 10 August 2018
It was a really good day for our team on stage three of the Vuelta a Burgos that finished atop the stunning Pico Blanco.
Merhawi Kudus and Igor Anton finished fourth and fifth, respectively, battling it out with all the main contenders on the tough final climb. While Louis Meintjes was 13th and Amanuel Gebreigzabhier rounded out the top-20.
The stage was won by Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) with Ivan Sosa second, the two playing a dueling it out to the delight of the crowd in the final throes of the day, with David de la Cruz finishing third, 32 seconds behind.
Kudus’ strong performance today, and in the previous stages, also sees him now into a podium spot on the GC, into third, with Anton now fifth in the category and Meintjes ninth.
Merhawi Kudus – Rider
This is one of the hardest stages in this race. So at the bottom of the final climb; Louis, Igor Amanuel and myself were trying for different options, so myself and Igor were in the first group. I was feeling great but wasn’t able to follow Lopez or the other guys. I was looking for the jersey, especially with 1km to go, where it was 14s to Lopez but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. It was a great effort by the team, we tried our best and it was a really good day.
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team | 3:59:30 | |
2 | Ivan Sosa (Col) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec | ||
3 | David De La Cruz (Spa) Team Sky | 0:00:32 | |
4 | Merhawi Kudus (Eri) Dimension Data | ||
5 | Igor Anton (Spa) Dimension Data | ||
6 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky | 0:00:52 | |
7 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team | 0:00:57 | |
8 | Rein Taaramäe (Est) Direct Energie | 0:01:04 | |
9 | Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 0:01:06 | |
10 | Nicholas Schultz (Aus) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 0:01:22 |