Sports

Stage three of La Vuelta took place on Monday, with the riders travelling the 157 kilometres from Marbella to Malaga under the punishing Spanish sun.

The peloton were confronted with an immediate nine kilometres ascent as they headed out of Marbella at the start of the stage and by the top of the Port of Ojon it was Niki Terpstra of Milram who was leading with overnight leader and sprint specialist Mark Cavendish one minute and thirty seconds back.

A seven man group including Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia) and Serafin Martinez (Xacobeo Galicia) formed inside the opening hour of racing and opened up a lead of over nine minutes over the peloton.

As they hit the first category climb of the Puerto del Le?n with 53km remaining, that advantage had been cut in half.

The 15.8km 860m ascent with an average gradient of 5.4 percent was always likely to decide the stage.

The escapees split on the climb with Serafin Martinez reaching the summit first with a lead of just under two minutes on the Liquigas-led peloton.

The Xacobeo Galicia rider looked set to hang on for a famous victory but was caught on the 1.75km climb to the finish at the Castillo de Gibralfaro.

The punishing six percent ascent looked like it would suit a punchy rider and the assumption proved correct as Philippe Gilbert sped away to take the second Grand Tour victory of his career.

His first was stage 20 of the Giro d''Italia in 2009.

Rodriguez, eighth overall in the Tour de France, finished ten seconds ahead of Igor Anton with a clutch of overall contenders in Vincenzo Nibali, Grega Bole, Nicolas Roche and David Arroyo following close behind.

Sickness in the Team Sky camp saw Britain''s Ben Swift and South African John-Lee Augustyn abandon the race

Gilbert, winner of the Amstel Gold classic in the spring, leads Katusha''s Rodriguez by 14 seconds overall as overnight leader Mark Cavendish lost a significant amount of time on the big climb of the Puerto del Leon.