Mathias Flückiger and Nicola Rohrbach put in another solid performance. Up until the last hour of the race, the two are at the front of the battle for victory. The Portuguese riders Tiago Oliveira and David Serralheiro proved to have the strongest legs on the final, long climb. They distance themselves from their rivals and take the victory to the finish. Flückiger/Rohrbach then also have to let the Topeak-Ergon-Racing-Team with Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek go. The subsequent descent does not bring the two Swiss the desired rescue either. It is not technical enough to give them a clear advantage. "Today was a bit tougher than yesterday. But Mathias and I are harmonizing better day by day," says Rohrbach. "Tomorrow should also be more technically demanding again, which will increase our chances of winning again."

At the beginning, the overall leaders Pedro Romero and Luis Leao Pinto dropped out of the day's decision. A puncture and a broken chain forced the two of them down to 13th place and will certainly take them out of contention for overall victory. The Portuguese duo is currently leading ahead of the Austrian-Czech duo Lakata/Hynek. Mathias Flückiger and Nicola Rohrbach have moved up to third place. Matthias Stirnemann and Marc Stutzmann also made a leap forward. Thanks to their fourth place on the stage, the pair are now in fifth place in the overall standings. Eighth place in the daily classification goes to Urs Huber and his German team partner Karl Platt.

Manage position
Milena Landtwing and Esther Süss get away without a traffic jam and immediately set a good rhythm. The two wheeler ladies then set this pace solo over the steep, tough climbs. Even a minor incident couldn't slow them down. "We had a small 'rear-end collision' in the second refreshment zone due to a dropped bidon - women at the wheel and a supervisor with little knowledge," Landtwing smiles self-deprecatingly. "Esther and I hope that we can maintain our lead over the remaining days, even though our form is not yet so stable."

Tanja Zakelj - the 2013 World Cup winner - and Claudia Galicia are in second place behind the Swiss. The Slovenian-Spanish duo are in third place overall. In second place are the Belgians Githa Michiels and Alice Pirard, who finished the stage in third place. They are a good ten minutes behind Landtwing and Süss.

Fourth stage completely in Swiss hands?
As already mentioned by Nicola Rohrbach, the fourth stage, with start and finish in Mancha Real, should be more technically demanding than the previous stages. The 50-kilometer circuit should therefore offer the Swiss more chances of winning the stage than the previous days.

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