Remi Cavagna decimated the peloton with an audacious solo breakaway to win Stage 3 of the Tour of California on Tuesday.
”Today was really hard. It was a long day,” he said. ”But we go the maximum we can and I could go on the climb to the end. But it was really hard. I’m really happy.”
So was American rider Tejay van Garderen, who was able to easily protect the leader’s yellow jersey in part because the peloton was so far behind that nobody was willing to push the tempo.
In essence, they simply allowed Cavagna to roll to the win.
”It was really important for the team, for us to win here,” said Cavagna, whose Deceuninck-Quick Step team is sponsored by Specialized, a bike-maker based in the finishing town of Morgan Hill.
The third stage took riders 129 miles from Stockton, and Cavagna broke away early with 21-year-old Alex Hoehn of the U.S. national team. The two of them quickly built a sizeable gap on a peloton that was content to take it easy after a brutal ride Monday to South Lake Tahoe.
”It was an extremely hard stage today,” Hoehn said. ”I feel fine now. I was really messed up after the race. I probably had a few too many caffeinated gels. It’s all they kept giving me. I kept asking for solid food and they kept giving me gels. But no, I’m better now. The stage was really hard.”
It was on Mt. Hamilton that the 23-year-old Cavagna finally rode away from Hoehn, and then he managed a tricky descent before the flat run-in to the finish. Cavagna got into an aerodynamic tuck and cruised the rest of the way, punching a fist as he crossed the finish line.
That gave his team back-to-back stage wins after Kasper Asgreen was victorious Monday.
The fourth stage on the weeklong road to Pasadena begins at Raceway Laguna Seca and takes riders on a visually stunning 138-mile (212.5k) ride along the Big Sur coast to Morro Bay.
Tour of California 2019 – stage 3 results (Stockton – Morgan Hill):
| 1 | Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 5:44:22 |
| 2 | Ben King (Dimension Data) | +07’11” |
| 3 | Simon Geschke (CCC) | ,, |
| 4 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +07’47” |
| 5 | Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 7 | Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 8 | Davide Ballerini (Astana) | ,, |
| 9 | Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 10 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
Tour of California 2019 – general classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Tejay Van Garderen (EF Education First) | 15:23:28 |
| 2 | Gianni Moscon (Team Ineos) | +06” |
| 3 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +07” |
| 4 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +16” |
| 5 | Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +22” |
| 6 | Rob Britton (Rally) | +33” |
| 7 | Jonas Gregaard (Astana) | ,, |
| 8 | David de la Cruz (Team Ineos) | +34” |
| 9 | Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) | +35” |
| 10 | George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) | +36” |
