Sagan ends drought with win in Vuelta stage 3

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) won a bunch sprint ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpacin) to claim the third stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) which finished in Malaga on Monday.

It was the first stage in a major Tour that Sagan, who won the green jersey for the highest number of points during this year's Tour de France had won in 780 days.

The stage, which took place without 2010 winner Vicenzo Nibali, who was kicked out of the race following an incident which saw him hang onto his team car on Sunday, began with a breakaway over a first category climb.

That came earlier enough in the stage for the sprinters' teams were able to close the gap, which had reached five minutes, with plenty of time to organize the sprint finish.

Bouhanni took a nasty tumble at a roundabout with around 40 kilometers to go, but was able to take advantage of a strong tailwind to catch the main peloton. Nevertheless it was Sagan, who on Sunday had finished 20 minutes behind the main pack, who had the best legs in the flat final straight.

The Slovakian was able to latch on Degenkolb's back wheel before pulling out and holding off Bouhanni's late challenge to take a win that has been a long time coming for him.

There is no change in the overall race leadership with Colombian Esteban Chaves, retaining the leader's red jersey ahead of Tom Dumoulin.

Tuesday's 216km stage takes the race from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera along the south coast of Spain, but one rider who will not take part is Fabian Cancellara who withdrew on Monday as the result of a stomach. Enditem