The first major mountain stage since the restart of the season was what stood in the way of the Vuelta a Burgos 2020 peloton on stage two and it was 20-year-old Remco Evenepoel who stamped his dominance on the race.
In another day largely shaped by the wind, it was perhaps inevitable that a Belgian would thrive with some riders suffering from their efforts in the earlier echelons.
There were plenty of names to think about on the final climb - Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) was most people's favourite as a former winner on the climb.
Other big names were Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos), teammate Ivan Sosa, Ajejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) among many others.
But it was Evenepoel (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) who smashed his rivals on the final climb to take victory and move into the overall lead.
How it happened
The stage began in Sargentes de la Lora and the riders took on an up-and-down day of 150km featuring four category three climbs before finishing on the beyond categorisation climb of Picón Blanco.
A large break of nine riders went up the road at the start of the day and got a gap as large as six and a half minutes.
Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Nikita Stalnov (Astana), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Juan Felipe Osorio (Burgos-BH), Marton Dina (Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team), Roger Adrià (Equipo Kern Pharma), Kiko Galván (Equipo Kern Pharma) and king of the mountains Gotzon Martin (Fundacion Ciclista Euskadi) made up the move as wind began to cause absolute havoc.
Bora-Hansgrohe and Team Ineos took the race by the scruff of the neck with 60km to go and destroyed the peloton with only riders from those two teams making the lead group.
It didn't go completely to plan for Ineos, as defending champion Ivan Sosa was unable to stay with his teammates and the Bora riders, including race leader Felix Großschartner.
Behind the chase group was breaking down into several groups ranging from ten to 30 riders. But teams behind managed to get together and drag those riders back with 40km to go and as the race snaked into the forests and closer to the mountains, the peloton came back together.
The biggest names that took a long time to rejoin the peloton were Sosa and David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ.
Teams Jumbo Visma and Ineos had control of the peloton with Roger Adria (Equipo Kern Pharma) going solo up the road and dragging his advantage up to above three minutes 40 seconds with 11km to go.
Adria hit the base of the climb with three minutes but the pace behind was rapid and Ineos, Trek-Segafredo and Movistar upped the pace yet again.
It was a calm start to the climb with just one attack by two time Tour of Austria winner and new father, Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation), going up the road with 6km to go, but was brought back a couple of kilometres later.
The first surprise was that Richard Carapaz was the rider that was working on the front for Ineos, Dunbar and Sosa were still sat in the peloton.
But then, Ineos's plans seemed to be in trouble as Sosa lost touch with the peloton when Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) turned the pace up a notch. This also put race leader, Felix Großschartner out of the back and in trouble. Carapaz then sat in and followed the wheels.
With 5km to go, Roger Adria still had two minutes on the favourites but started to look as if he was on his limit as Mitchelton-Scott started controlling the pace again.
The climb didn't bring the attacks we were expecting, but rather big names out of the back. Alejandro Valverde was one of those riders struggling.
The first of the favourites to attack was Colombian, Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), only George Bennett (Team Jumbo Visma) and Evenepoel could follow the initial move,.
Mikel Landa and Evenepoel's teammate, João Almeida just got back as Chaves kicked again and took the same two riders as before.
As they caught Adria with 2km to go, Evenepoel took off and went solo to try and take an amazing stage win on the Picón Blanco.
The European time trial champion stayed seated and just powered away from his rivals, who had no response to the amazing power put out by the young Belgian.
Evenepoel took the stage and the overall lead with a comfortable 18-second margin to second place Bennett, who had gapped Chaves.
Rising star Evenepoel now leads the race overall by 18 seconds ahead of Bennett.
Results
Vuelta a Burgos 2020, stage three: Sargentes de la Lora - Picón Blanco (150km)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, in 3-59-09
2. George Bennett (Nzl) Jumbo Visma, at 18s
3. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 32s
4. Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 35s
5. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 45s
6. Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 52s
7. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Team Ineos, at same time
8. Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-03m
9. Joel Nicolau (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, at 1-20m
10. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at same time
General classification
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, in 11-35-16
2. George Bennett (Nzl) Jumbo Visma, at 18s
3. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 32s
4. Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 35s
5. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 45s
6. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Team Ineos, at 52s
7. Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nations, at same time
8. Febio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-03m
9. David De La Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-33m
10. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at same time
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