McNulty on the podium in Andalucia uphill showdown

Brandon McNulty sprinted to a 3rd place finish in Ubeda on stage 3 of the Vuelta Andalucia (2.Pro) as race leader Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) claimed the stage.

The stage proved selective with five categorised climbs on the road from Jaen to Ubeda (176.9) and McNulty made the splits to finish with the group of favourites on the cobbled rise to the line.

Tomorrow will be another mountainous tests from Villanueva Mesia to Granada (125k).

Brandon McNulty : “”It was a super tough day. A huge group got away, which led to having to follow Fuglsang full gas up the first climb to get across. Then it was constant attacking until the next climb which was ridden quite hard as there was still a lot of attacking. First 2 hours were pretty much full gas until a small group got away from the larger break group, and then the peloton caught us. Then it was a pretty standard day, and the next objective was just to get the run in right. There was a crucial left turn off of a fast decent that led into the final climb. I made sure I was in a good spot there to be able to react to the attacks on the final climb. I couldn’t quite match the initial accelerations but was able to keep a close gap to the front guys and then close it down once it flattened out. From there it was just full gas craziness through the town on the cobbles and then found myself in third. Super good day overall and gives me a bit more confidence that I am capable of racing at the front in these hard finales which is nice.”

Stage 3 results

1.Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) 4h33’25’’
2. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) +0’’
3. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +1’’
 
General Classification after stage 3

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) 14h22’26’’
Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) +14’’
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) +30’’
David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) 2’05”