La Vuelta Feminina Stage 3 Live - Charlotte Kool looks to make it two from two in sprint stages

TOP TEN - GC

Vos (6:26:46), Dygert (+13), Markus (+14), Henderson (+22), Kraak (+22). Chabbey (+23), Niewiadoma (+23), Lippert (+32), Norsgaard (+34) and Van Vleuten (+34).

TOP TEN - STAGE

Vos, Kool, Dygert, Clara Copponi (FDJ SUEZ), Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), Tamara Dronova (Israel Premier Tech Roland), Lippert, Alba Teurel (Laboral Kutxa Fundacion Euskadi), Vollering and Reusser.

VOS EXTENDS LEAD IN LA VUELTA FEMININA

The 35-year-old showed no signs of age to take Jumbo-Visma's second victory at the 2023 Vuelta Feminina in an absolutely lightning fast stage.

It's the 247th career win for the Dutch superstar.

MARIANNE VOS TAKES STAGE 3

She's called the greatest of all time for a reason and showed it perfectly there to take the win ahead of Kool and Dygert close behind.

Even after burning a match at the intermediate sprint, Vos still had enough to blitz past Kool who launched earlier into the wind than yesterday.

1KM TO GO - BUNCH SPRINT IMMINENT

The fight for position is furious in the bunch will Henderson sat right in front of Vos now.

It's tailwind again all the way towards the line.

2KM TO GO - WILL ANYONE ATTACK?

Can anyone launch over the top of DSM and force them to burn their full leadout train before the final sprint?

Maybe Riejanne Markus or Anna Henderson can force them to play their hand early.

3KM TO GO - DSM PULLING ON THE FRONT

The Dutch team have taken position at the head of the peloton, as the group turns into the headwind.

They will be hoping to set a pace hard enough to deter attacks from the likes of Dygert and Reusser, giving Kool the best chance to sprint for victory again.

5KM TO GO - RIDERS PREPARING FOR SPRINT

Everyone seems to be working well and pulling through in this still relatively large front group.

The second group on the road is now also over a minute behind and the third group is approaching the two minute mark.

9KM TO GO - KOOL SITTING CALM

Yesterdays stage winner is sitting calmly in the group and donning the green jersey nicely in anticipation of a possible second bunch sprint.

Can anyone overpower Kool in the run to the line?

10KM TO GO - DYGERT AND REUSSER CHATTING

Two of the finest time trial riders in women's cycling are perhaps plotting and planning at the back of the peloton. Both Marlen Reusser (SD Worx) and Dygert are capable of a long range finish and will have to watched carefully in the final few kilometres.

Dygert won't have the element of surprise like she did yesterday, so will need to be really strong to get away from any chasers.

14KM TO GO - DSM AND VOS STAYING SAFE AT THE FRONT

Vos is putting her nose at the wind and avoiding any possible sprints, with Team DSM opting to do similarly and keep Kool twards the business end of the race.

16KM TO GO

It looks very nervous in the bunch as everyone is fighting for position. Stress will be high for the general classification contenders present as they cannot risk missing any splits that form.

20KM TO GO

More riders are losing contact in the group, notably Blanka Vas (SD Worx) and Quinty Ton (Liv Racing TeqFind).

21KM TO GO - VOS TAKES INTERMEDIATE SPRINT

The race leader extends her lead in the race taking the only sprint point of the day ahead of teammate Markus and Lippert.

Vos launched from a long way back and looked as snappy as ever. Kool didn't bother going for it, perhaps saving herself for the finale.

25KM TO GO

The third group on the road containing the full contingent of Trtek riders got as close as within half a minute of the leaders following the earlier split.

However with their disadvantage now sat over one minute and seconds, it will be damage limitation all the way to the line.

26KM TO GO

Van Vleuten is sturggling to get a bidon at the back of the bunch, and after hearing how much Movistar pushed on to keep the splits big, it's no surprise.

The front group is just over 30 riders deep and it's Trek-Segafredo and Jayco AlUla who are the biggest losers of the day as it stands.

They got it right earlier in the year at the inaugural UAE Tour women but are really sturggling in the wind today.

30KM TO GO

Here we go, stage 3 of La Vuelta Feminina is live with the peloton flying well ahead of schedule with the tough racing and tailwind pushing them closing to La Roda at quite the rate of knots.

The two fastest sprinters from yesterday in Vos and Kool have made it into the leading group with teammates and in terms of the general classification, all of Demi Vollering (SD Worx), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon SRAM), Liane Lippert (Movistar) and defending Vuelta champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) have made it.

LIVE PICTURES COMING SOON

We're minutes away from live coverage of stage 3 and it's been kicking off throughout the afternoon on the exposed Spanish roads.

We had early attempts to form a break by Kerry Jonker (Coop-Hitec), but she was joined by a group of five before they were all reeled back into the peloton.

As they approached the city of Albacete groups started splitting all over the road with Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) and Kristen Faulkner (Jayco AlUla) the big names to miss the front group amongst the echlons.

Vos leads the general classification one second ahead of Dygert and two from teammate Riejanne Markus.

Jumbo-Visma also occupy fourth and fifth through stage 1 red jersey holder Anna Henderson and Amber Kraak, with a quartet of Canyon SRAM riders close behind them still only seven seconds in arrears of Vos: Kasia Niewidoma, Elise Chabbey, Ricarda Bauernfeind and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka.

It’s all poised for the GC contenders to fight it out in the higher mountains as the week goes on, but they will have to navigate the open roads as they go north towards La Roda.

Who will stay in touch if echelons start to form?

Jumbo-Visma extended their stint in the red jersey through Marianne Vos for at least one more stage. This is the cycling legend’s first time leading La Vuelta Feminina with the six bonus seconds she gained by finishing second place to Kool, enough to stay ahead of Chloe Dygert (Canyon SRAM).

Dygert has been on the long road back from a deep laceration to her leg caused by a crash in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in 2020 and being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus in 2022.

She attempted an early dart for the line on stage 2 but was caught by Vos in the final stages, before Kool showed her strength, jumped out of Vos’s slipstream and passed her Dutch compatriot to win her first stage at a Grand Tour.