Riding out front of the Vuelta a Espana nearly all day wasn't good enough for Serafin Martinez to win Stage 3 on Monday.
The peloton closed a 30-second gap to Martinez in the next to last kilometer of the race to Malaga. Phillipe Gilbert (left) attacked on the climb and held off all challengers to win the stage and take the overall leader's red jersey.
As for Martinez, his efforts over 97 miles didn't earn the cyclist for Xacobeo Galicia his first professional victory, but he did take over the lead in the King of the Mountains competition.
Not surprisingly, Mark Cavendish couldn't hang onto the leader's red jersey that he won at the team time trial on Stage 1. Now the HTC-Columbia cyclist will have to concentrate on just getting through the upcoming hilly stages until flatter sprint stages materialize again.
Stage 3 winner Gilbert also won this year's Amstel Gold bike race earlier this year. The Belgian rider for Omega has a 12-second lead over the day's second-place finisher, Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha.
Two HTC-Columbia cyclists round out the top 4, Kanstantin Sivtsov of Belarus (22 seconds behind) and Tejay Van Garderen (26 seconds) of the U.S.
Vincenzo Nibali is ranked in 5th place and Frank Schleck is in 9th.
Stage 4 is a stair step climb of 2nd and 3rd category climbs to Valdepeñas de Jaén.
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