Vuelta a Espana 2017: Vincenzo Nibali's Win Highlights Stage 3 Results

Vincenzo Nibali won Stage 3 of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana on Monday, crossing the finish line at Andorra la Vella. 

The peloton had three intermediate climbs to deal with as the first mountain stage of this year's Vuelta took them through the Pyrenees, but it ended with a group sprint of nine riders as the Italian surged clear to victory.

Cycling blog the Inner Ring shared the results and their impact on the general classification:

Recap

Fabricio Ferrari attacked from the outset, quickly followed by Thomas De Gendt, Davide Villella and Anthony Turgis.

That group of leaders quickly expanded to seven riders before Przemyslaw Niemiec put in a superb solo effort to bridge the gap, per Eurosport's Felix Lowe:

The breakaway soon reached the first climb, and De Gendt was the first to the summit ahead of Villella to secure maximum points, per the Vuelta's official Twitter feed:

With around 55 kilometres remaining, Axel Domont attacked from the leading pack and established a lead of more than 25 seconds, but the Frenchman was caught at the base of the category one Coll de la Rabassa.

Meanwhile, the peloton began to close the gap thanks to the efforts of Team Sky:

The leaders were eventually subsumed as the peloton entered the final 30 kilometres. Alexandre Geniez and Villella were the last to do so, though they still managed to top the Rabassa climb in first and second, respectively.

Chris Froome grabbed a bonus three seconds by winning the intermediate sprint, and he continued to attack into the final climb along with Esteban Chaves.

Nibali looked to have been dropped from the chasing pack when it splintered with around seven kilometres remaining, but along with Tejay Van Garderen, Nicolas Roche and Domenico Pozzovivo he remained in the hunt.

The quartet caught Froome, Chaves, Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet with 700 metres remaining, and the Italian made his move late on:

The riders will face a much smoother ride in Stage 4 on Tuesday as they make their way from Escaldes-Engordany to Tarragona.