A prolonged acceleration by Movistar in the final kilometres of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vuelta a España stage 3 was seen as surprising by some race followers on a day expected to end in a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:bunch sprint and where the Spanish team had li🅠ttle to play for.

But as both stage 2 winner 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alejandro Valverde and GC contender 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Nairo Quintana explained afterwards, the Spanish team’s aim had be⛄en nothing more than to ensure they stayed out of trouble in a tumultuous finale.

Besieged by a small, fas🌳t-moving cloud of Colombian reporters as he wended his way towards the Movistar team bus, Quintana finally stopped at the foot of the bus’s stairs🦩 to explain to the ever-persistent South American media and other journalists why Movistar had adopted this unexpected strategy.

“The iꦑdea was to move ahead on that long descent to the finish to avoid any dangers or splits in the sprint,” Quintana said. “That was the most important thing today, we didn’t want to fight for the stage win, just avoid crashes. It was an incident-free day and the team was with us all th🀅e way.”

Valverde ♚was equally determined to brush off any ideas of repeating his stage 2 win. Even though he started out his professional career as a sprinter, and he remains a formidable fastman on the uphills - as Kwiatkowski saw on Sunday - it has been a long time since Valverde went for a more straightforward bunch spr🉐int, or as the Spanish would say, “it has rained since then.”

“I was well placed just to avoid cr💟ashes, nothing more than that. There 🔯was no way I was going for the win,” Valverde said. “I felt good, even though it’s been another day of intense heat.”

Lookin𒅌g ahead to Alfacar on stage 4 and his chances of a🐟 second victory in 72 hours, Valverde argued that it certainly suited him.

“Of course. But,🦋” he added with relentless logic, “I can’t say it’s a better finish for me than stage 2, because I won on Sunday, so it can&♛rsquo;t be much better than that.”