Adam Yates rises to fourth overall at O Gran Camiño

On the third stage of O Gran Camiño, Adam Yates rose up to fourth overall for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. The Briton placed fifth on the stage to Padrón, with an adventurous ride over the day’s only categorised climb.

Yates was well placed heading into the day, having produced a good time trial on stage 1 and finished inside the leading group on stage 2, but it would require imaginative tactics on stage 3 to animate an otherwise flat parcours.

The cat-2 Alto Pico Muralla (10.7km at 3%) was the only climb on Thursday afternoon, but fell with more than 40km to ride. Sensing an opportunity, Yates was one of a number of riders who went on the attack on the climb’s upper slopes, with the group soon opening a gap of over 50 seconds to the peloton behind.

Over the ensuing descents, the front group of six riders split into two, and the eventual stage-winning move was made by Iván Romeo of Movistar. Meanwhile, Yates stuck to task and eventually came across the line in fifth place. That result was enough to see the 33-year-old move to fourth overall, now just 14 seconds from the race lead of Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Yates: “It was a good day of racing in general – the last 45km made for a hard final with some tricky roads and bonus sprints along the way, not my ideal terrain especially with some tactical games being played also, so I think we can look forward to the next 2 days that finish uphill and hopefully play for a result.”

O Gran Camiño stage 3 results:

1. Iván Romeo (Movistar) 3:52:33

2. Alessandro Pinarello (NSN Cycling Team) +15″

3. Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) s.t

5. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +26″

O Gran Camiño general classification after stage 3:

1. Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) 7:24:34

2. Alessandro Pinarello (NSN Cycling Team) +2″

3. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) +8″

4. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +14″

8. Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +47″