Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 3 Results, Updated Standings and Highlights

Peter Sagan won Stage 3 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana on Monday, beating Nacer Bouhanni and John Degenkolb in a dramatic sprint finale. 

The 25-year-old powered past the pair in the final 800 metres, finishing ahead of Bouhanni by half a wheel.

Omar Fraile and Sylvain Chavanel led the race for much of the first half, while Alexis Gougeard and Maarten Tjallingii tried and failed to make an early run for the finish in the latter stages, but Peter Sagan's Tinkoff-Saxo led the peloton doggedly throughout.

Here's a look at the results from Stage 3, per the Inner Ring, as well as the general classification standings:

Position	Rider	Time
1	Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge	8:04:01
2	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin	0:00:05
3	Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky	0:00:15
4	Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team	0:00:24
5	Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:00:35
6	Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team	0:00:36
7	Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team	0:00:38
8	Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky	0:00:40
9	Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:00:40
10	Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team	0:00:47

With the vast majority of the climbing done in the first half and a largely flat 50 kilometres to finish off, Stage 3 was always going to be contested by the sprinters.

The stage began at a frantic pace, though.

Eight riders, including Fraile and Chavanel, broke away over the first 10 kilometres to establish a three-minute lead on the peloton heading into the category-three Alto de Mijas climb, likely in an attempt to upset the sprinters aiming to dominate the climax of the race.

Things went from bad to worse for Astana—who saw Vincenzo Nibali disqualified on Sunday for holding onto a team car—when Paolo Tiralongo's crash in Stage 2 forced him to abandon the Vuelta.

According to CyclingNews.com, he began the race with 20 stitches in his face, while cycling writer Mikkel Conde expressed his disappointment for the Italian:

Meanwhile, the breakaway hit the 16-kilometre, category-one Puerto del Leon, and the climb took its toll on the riders, as their lead dropped to just two minutes and 20 seconds, having earlier extended it to four.

Fraile was the first to reach the summit, and having done the same in the opening climb, he will wear the polka-dot jersey on Tuesday.

Back in the peloton, Tinkoff-Saxo and Orica-GreenEdge were the driving forces in closing the gap on the breakaway, and their hard work shaved another minute off the deficit.

Lotto Soudal's official Twitter feed summarised the situation in the breakaway:

Gougeard and Tjallingii soon led the breakaway, though, while the others dropped back and were ultimately consumed by the peloton.

The pair dovetailed well, as they held off Tinkoff-Saxo in their efforts to catch them, steadily increasing their lead to two minutes with 20 kilometres to go.

The race began to take its toll, however, as the chasing pack hauled in the pair over the next six kilometres, per VeloVoices:

In the peloton, Stage 2-winner Esteban Chaves lurked dangerously behind Tinkoff-Saxo while Degenkolb's Giant-Alpecin also moved up to the front, but there were no more attacks until Jerome Cousin made a short-lived push with nine kilometres remaining.

The race exploded into life in the final three kilometres as the sprinters roared into action. 

Degenkolb and Bouhanni attacked the finish but were reeled in by Sagan in the final 800 metres.

Velocast's Scott O'Raw believed a relatively minor crash from Bouhanni helped the Slovakian gain the edge, he but was nevertheless impressed with the performance:

According to Patrick Fletcher of CyclingNews.com, Sagan expressed his delight after winning his first Grand Tour stage in over two years. He said:

"

First of all I'm happy. Yesterday I crashed, nothing happened there and today I'm very happy. I say thank you to all my teammates, they did a good job. I was trying for the victory for the team and I'm happy to do it. It's a very nice day.

Today just us and Orica-GreenEdge were pulling. It was also a sprint for Nacer Bouhanni and John Degenkolb but they just came [to the front] in the final 3 kilometres. I was on his [Degenkolb's] wheel, he started early and went one way, i went the other. The wind was an advantage and it played into my hands.

"

Up next is Stage 4, which will take the riders from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera.

Stage 4 is fairly flat, but with two climbs right at the death of a 203-kilometre route, don't expect the sprinters to have much joy on Tuesday.

The top three finishers will receive bonus seconds, so don't be surprised if overall favourites Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde go for the win to gain an early lead on their opponents.