• Classification This is how La Vuelta a España goes

The gleaming golden helmet that already for life recognizes its status as an Olympic road champion loses its shine in

Picón Blanco

, where

Richard Carapaz

suffers and regrets so much accumulated effort, because of all the favorites of this Vuelta he is the only one who competed with the best in the Tour until the last day and then go to Tokyo. His season, between the podium in Paris and the Olympic gold, was already more than done and therefore his presence in this Vuelta cast doubt, his odometer already triggered in front of the freshness of other rivals, including those of his own team.

It is always necessary to place

Carapaz with

the asterisk of his combativeness, of his courage, of his determination to turn around difficult situations. But the reality is, today, unappealable: the first big test was too far from those called to fight for the podium in Santiago. Even more so considering that the race was not broken, without attacks between the 'roosters', driven at a pace towards the finish line. Only

Valverde

really tightened the pegs in the final kilometer and by then Carapaz had long since said goodbye to a still large group.

The movement of the veteran former world champion served for

Enric Mas to

add three seconds of income with the others in a final movement and for other applicants to give time, such as

Carthy

(21 seconds),

Vlasov

and

Bardet

(both 29). Along with Valverde came

López

,

Roglic

, Yates, Landa, Ciccone and Bernal, in a great collective performance by

Movistar

, as is customary in these finals in the Vuelta. They were not all who are, but they are all who were and the race already marks a gap in its third stage, however salvageable it may still be.

But the protagonist of the day, outside of the big fights, was a 34-year-old Estonian named

Rein Taaramäe

, a classic hustler of the international squad who displayed his strength to culminate an eight-man escape to which Roglic, already a former leader, gave his blessing. from very early. A decade after winning in Lagos de Somiedo, five after kissing glory also in the Giro, Taaramäe enjoyed the best day of his career, with stage victory and a red jersey that is gold for the modest

Intermarché

, eager for glory in his first course among the best teams in the peloton. And Roglic, happy to give up the lead and thus release his teammates from the responsibility of guiding the peloton in the coming days.

The attitude of the Slovenian was clear from very early, in a very long stage (202 km.) Whose only major difficulty was that final eight-kilometer ascent to Picón Blanco. The eight escapees, among which were the Spanish

Soto

and

Amezketa,

came to enjoy a nine-minute lead. Time was reduced when the

Bahrain

of

Mikel Landa

decided to

toughen up

the pace, apparently anticipating an attack by Alaves which was never produced.

It was not the classic ascent to a first-class pass in which the peloton melts away at breakneck speed.

There were many who endured until the final two kilometers while Taaramäe, knowing himself with enough advantage for the stage-general combo, was shedding rivals ahead, oblivious to the suffering of a Carapaz that

Ineos

abandoned to its fate.

"The road will put everyone in their place," he said before starting on the division of hierarchies with

Bernal

in the British squad.

He got it right.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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