The stage described a linear development with the common denominator of wear and tear that was mainly caused by the Ineos team, the main adversary of the US team led by Juan Manuel Garate .

In the Ineos the director of Navarre Xabier Zandio , who at the exit told us that this Tour Colombia is a new experience for him, that had never been seen before in a daily succession of routes touching the 3,000 meters of altitude and that therefore I did not know what would happen to the continuous steepness so high above sea level that this stage proposed.

The initial question to Zandio was whether he predicted fun and diversity, as the day advised pulling strategies to break the group. The Navarran director's Ineos answered it on the road shortly after starting the journey from Paipa to Sogamoso, with 183 real kilometers: Egan Bernal, number one of Zandio's formation, knocked on the door of the rival team. To disturb him. Education First swept through the inaugural team time trial on Tuesday and led five runners at the top of the overall standings with a world of 46 seconds ahead of the Ineos block. Now there are four, because the American Lawson Craddock , who was killed to work, gave time in the goal. On the other side, the foreseeable withdrawal of Italian Leonardo Basso left Ineos with only five riders. He came to Colombia as an urgent solution to cover the gap of the injured Iván Sosa , but for him it has been impossible to maintain the pace of the race at this altitude.

If Bernal or Richard Carapaz want to surpass the Education that precedes them in the classification on Sunday at El Verjón, it is obligatory to force them, to wear them physically and mentally . And in that they have been. Bernal's barrage, with Óscar Sevilla (Medellín), and Colombians Castiblanco (Illuminate), Camargo (Tierra de Athletes) and Ochoa (EPM Scott) vanished quickly. He had already said that of Zipaquirá that despite the great delay they have after the chrono "there was no need to go crazy . " His proud mother, Doña Flor, with his Fan Club tracksuit Egan Bernal kissed him before departure and must have encouraged him to intimidate with his presence in the first kilometers of the day .

SEVILLE, ALWAYS IN FRONT

More success in chronological sense, but with the same failed destiny, he accumulated the second escape, again with a Sevilla of indefatigable member and an Ineos of the second step, Sebastián Henao , in addition to another Iluminate, the Colombian Barón , and a Swiss, Pellaud , of Androni, which also has a Colombian address. In the absence of 15 kilometers they were recovered by the platoon. For three hours, Henao was a virtual leader.

Chopping the group in the high plateau of Boyacense with four runners means challenging 23 teams that have not put anyone in the escape, but in the end the whole leader is the one that carries the most weight. The Ineos managed to disturb the Education . No other team collaborated in decisive moments, with a minute and a half of advantage of the escape. Not even the UAE Emirates , which before had pedaled in the lead, but which in the last hour of competition preferred to keep its final train for the benefit of Molano .

THE SLOW TRAIN OF ALVARO

The Deceuninck of the sprinter Álvaro Hodeg lacked the strength to take his Colombian head. Those taken two kilometers from the end disarmed Julian Alaphilippe , who dresses as a worker and turns out to be Alvaro's best pawn, above Bob Jungels, Bert Lerberghe or Mikkel Honore . But Julian is not enough. Molano, a huge force that resurfaces after a year of confinement , came out for his second win and Hodeg surrendered. It was even surpassed by Edwin Ardila , the Colombian from Israel who was about to take down his Israeli companion Itmar Einhorn on Wednesday's sprint in Duitama.

The commissioning of Alaphilippe can help you break Friday between Paipa and Santa Rosa de Viterbo (169 km). It is the stage marked by the Frenchman and the Deceuninck, because the High Malterias culminates 2.9 kilometers from the goal and a change in the pace of the house could leave the 'musketeer' facing victory. Matxin , the Bizkaian director of UAE Emirates, is "convinced" that Molano will pass the slope and will be eligible for the third consecutive success.

What is certain, given that of the third stage, is that in the fourth the Ineos will once again check the EF, although it is unlikely to be matt . Caicedo is committed to a strategy of his team very different from this Thursday.

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