By Gareth James
Geraint Thomas showed he is on course to be a serious challenger at the Tour de France as he continued his climb up the standings at Volta a Catalunya.
The 2018 Tour champ finished fourth at the summit finish at Vallter 2000 in the Pyrenees having helped Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Adam Stage to a stage win that catapulted him into the lead.
Thomas also moved up from eighth to fourth overall – 53 seconds down on his fellow Brit with four stages left including another mountain test on Thursday.
How many thumbs up can we get for that win 👍👍👍@AdamYates7 moves into a 45-second lead on GC. And it's a Grenadiers 1-2-4 with @richie_porte in 2nd and @GeraintThomas86 4th.#VoltaCatalunya100 pic.twitter.com/V6FxOMfUOr
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) March 24, 2021
The 36-year-old is using the race as part of his build-up to Le Tour and Wednesday’s display showed he is returning to the form that famously took him to the Yellow Jersey three years ago.
Thomas finished 31 secs down at the summit to Yates who soloed to victory at the ski resort after a late attack, helped by the punishing pace set by the team earlier on the mountain roads.
“It was really good,” Yates said after the stage. “It’s my first victory for the team and I’m really happy.”
Ineos will now work to defend Yates’ lead during Thursday’s fourth stage in the high mountains and another Hors Catégorie summit finish at Porte Ainé.
Stage 3 Result
1 Adam Yates (GB) Ineos Grenadiers 5:00:58
2 Esteban Chaves (Col) Team BikeExchange 0:00:13
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar 0:00:19
4 Geraint Thomas (GB) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:31
5 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal
6 Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:33
7 Hugh Carthy (GB) EF Education-Nippo
8 Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:00:36
9 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers
10 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
General classification
1 Adam Yates (GB) Ineos Grenadiers 9:44:21
2 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:45
3 João Almeida (Por) Deceuninick-QuickStep 0:00:50
4 Geraint Thomas (GB) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:53
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:03
6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar 0:01:04
7 Hugh Carthy (GB) EF Education-Nippo 0:01:16
8 Simon Yates (GB) Team BikeExchange 0:01:21
9 Esteban Chaves (Col) Team BikeExchange
10 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:30