Stage 3 of the 2025 Volta a Catalunya featured a challenging mountain finish at La Molina, where climbers like Marc Soler and Sepp Kuss made early attacks. Despite strong efforts from the attackers, Juan Ayuso emerged victorious, overtaking Primož Roglič in the final metres to take the race lead.
The 2025 Volta a Catalunya brings a stacked GC field, with Giro d’Italia’s biggest favourites Juan Ayuso and Primož Roglič. However, Jonas Vingegaard, who had planned to race, had to change his schedule after a crash and concussion at Paris-Nice. The first mountain stage took place in the North of Spain, finishing at La Molina (8.7 km, 6.4%). It is not the steepest climb, but attacks from Ben O’Connor and Miguel Ángel López have created gaps in the past, offering one of the few opportunities to win against the GC group that is not chasing full gas. The 2025 edition of La Molina was slightly different from previous ones, starting from a different road.
It was a hard and long race until the final climb, with Emmanuel Buchmann expending 4,404 kilojoules over 5:23 hours at 13.46 kJ/kg/h. UAE Emirates and Red Bull were keen to control the situation in the peloton, given that they had Roglič and Ayuso. With stacked teams, this meant that climbers like Adam Yates and Giulio Pellizzari needed to work as domestiques.
As usual, there were multiple attempts, with Marc Soler, Lorenzo Fortunato, and Sepp Kuss surviving until the top and gaining 10 seconds on the peloton with 3 km to go. Soler was pulling hardest of the three, holding 5.93 ᵉW/kg for 21:09 minutes at altitude. At sea level, this would equate to 6.26 ᵉW/kg. The peloton averaged 5.78 ᵉW/kg, but given the tough day beforehand, not every climber could sustain that pace. Miguel Ángel López from 2019 still holds the record for this climb, completing it in 19:38 minutes at 6.53 ᵉW/kg. A remarkable feat from a Colombian during the pre-2019 La Vuelta/Slovenian era.
In the end, Soler and the others were caught just before the finish, with Soler leading out his teammate Ayuso. Roglič, who has dominated these types of stages for a decade, initiated the sprint first but was considerate to Ayuso, leaving him space to sprint. Roglič briefly stopped his sprint, ultimately losing by a small margin. Ayuso was already the fastest in the GC group sprint at this finish in 2022 at the age of 19. He now becomes the race leader, aiming to win his third major one-week stage race within 12 months.
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That was no gift.