The young Sheffield debuts and Covi continues to lead in Andalusia

BARCELONA, 18 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The American cyclist Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers) won this Friday the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta del Sol, disputed between Lucena and Otura over 153.2 kilometers, with a surprise attack just over a kilometer from the finish line, although Italian Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) continues to lead.

Few cyclists in the leading group made it to the final fight of the stage, when in the protected area there was a fall involving, among others, the INEOS Jhonatan Narváez and the Spanish Carlos Rodríguez. Both were able to continue and reach the finish line, but far from the fight that his teammate Sheffield finally took.

At 19 years old, the cyclist from Pittsford achieves his first victory as a professional. A triumph of merit for being able, once Lennard Kämna attacked meters after the fall, to go after the German and leave him dry, as well as preventing anyone else from reaching his wheel.

He put three seconds of margin in goal to ‘roosters’ much more expert than him as Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), second, or Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën Team), third, in addition to Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious), Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team) or Alessandro Covi himself, who continues to lead with 8 seconds compared to ‘Superman’ López, current champion in the Ruta del Sol.

This Saturday comes the fourth and penultimate stage of this 68th edition of the Andalusian round. Starting in Cúllar Vega and finishing in Baza after 167.4 kilometres, it once again presents an irregular route with two 1st category ports (Alto del Purche and Puerto de Blancares) in its first half.