Surging through the inside corner with 50 metres to go on the uphill finish to Ceres, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) surprised his rivals with the stage 3 victory at the Vuelta a España on Monday.
Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone, who was second on GC after Sunday, paced teammate Mads Pedersen up the final climb, but the Dane was overtaken with a massive effort by Gaudu.
Race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished third and clung to the red jersey, as bonus seconds moved Gaudu to second overall, now tied on time with the Visma rider.
Ciccone managed to cross the line in fourth, but slipped one spot to third overall, now eight seconds back.
The next six places on GC remained the same, with Egan Bernal in fourth, 14 seconds off the top spot. Fifth through ninth positions are filled by Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), respectively, the quintet all 16 seconds back.
Moving into the top 10 was Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep), also in a large group of riders with a 16-second gap to the overall lead.
The most notable loss of the day was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who finished more than six minutes behind stage winner Gaudu and also dropped out of the points classification lead. Vingegaard now has 65 points to 54 by Ciccone, 52 by Gaudu and 50 by Philipsen, who is fourth in the classification standings.
Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) gained a three-point advantage over Vingegaard to take the lead in the mountains classification. Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continued with the white jersey in the youth classification, though Paret-Peintre moved up one spot behind him.
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Vuelta a España 2025 GC standings
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Vuelta a España 2025 Classifications
Here's a rundown of all of the classifications at the Vuelta a España.
Maillot Rojo/Red Jersey – The red jersey is worn by the overall race leader on the general classification who has completed the stages so far in the lowest accumulated time.
Maillot Verde/Green Jersey – The green jersey is the points classification. Points are awarded to riders at the intermediate sprints and stage finishes. The rider with the most points leads the ranking.
Maillot de Lunares/Polka Dot Jersey – The blue and white polka dot jersey is the mountains classification. Points are awarded to the first riders over certain hills and climbs during the stage, with the hardest mountains giving the most points. Once again, the rider with the most points leads the ranking.
Maillot Blanco/White Jersey – The white jersey is the youth classification. It works the same way as the yellow jersey, but only riders aged 25 or under are eligible to win.
