Pogacar looked back, and the race stopped
Fifteen kilometres from Font Romeu, Tadej Pogacar turned his head and shook it. The bunch slowed behind him. Within a minute the sky over the Col de Mont-Louis had turned white and the road was covered in ice.
Riders who had already lost contact pulled over on their own initiative and looked for cover. Television pictures showed a group of them crammed into a roadside hotel at the top of the climb while team staff pushed rain jackets through the door. A race announcement told the rest of the field to shelter if they needed to. Organisers first neutralised the stage, then killed it altogether.
“For the security of the riders, stage three has been cancelled due to hail and severe weather,” the race said in a statement. “There will be no winner and no podium ceremony.”
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A summit finish that never arrived
The day had started in sunshine. The 174km run from Gruissan was meant to deliver the first proper mountain verdict of this Vuelta, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG rode the front for most of it as if that was exactly what they had in mind.
Five riders went clear early: Ethan Hayter, Magnus Cort, Mats Wenzel, Timo Roosen and Olivier Le Gac. Hayter, Le Gac and Roosen were swept up with 28km left. Cort and Wenzel kept going over the Mont-Louis, but the race was stopped before either of them could take the mountains points at the summit. Their effort disappears from the record along with everything else from the day.
The red jersey freezes in place
With no classification for the stage, Sunday’s overall standings simply carry over into Tuesday. Pogacar keeps the lead he took in the Monaco time trial on the opening day, when he beat Hayter by nine hundredths of a second. Wout van Aert sits nine seconds back, Matthew Brennan ten, Leo Bisiaux twelve, Finn Fisher-Black fourteen.
Pogacar was widely expected to stretch that gap on the climb to Font Romeu. Instead the Pyrenees gave him a hotel lobby and a wet jersey. The mountains of this Vuelta are not going anywhere, and neither is the weather forecast.
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