Cédrine Kerbaol won stage 3 of La Vuelta Femenina 2026 with a perfectly judged late attack, holding off the reduced bunch in A Coruña after a day that looked likely to end in a sprint but never truly settled. Lotte Kopecky finished second after leading the chase in the final metres, while Letizia Paternoster rounded out the podium on another nervous and selective day in Galicia.
Stage 3 was billed as flat by the organisers, but it never really rode like a straightforward sprinters’ stage. The 121.2km route from Padrón to A Coruña had no classified climbs, yet it packed in more than 2,000 metres of elevation gain and a constantly rising, dipping profile that encouraged opportunists to think big and made it hard for the peloton to fully relax.
Photo Credit: GettyAn aggressive start sends Wilson-Haffenden up the road
The attacks began almost immediately after the flag dropped. Felicity Wilson-Haffenden and Sterre Vervloet were the first riders to get clear, with the Australian and the Lotto-Intermarché rider quickly forcing a split behind. A second trio of Justine Gégu, Katia Ragusa and Marina Garau tried to bridge across, and for a while the road held two separate breakaway groups rather than one settled move.
That phase eventually simplified itself. The chasers never properly made contact in a useful way, the race kept shifting shape, and in the end Wilson-Haffenden and Vervloet emerged as the true move of the day. Behind them, the bunch was content enough to let the gap grow, especially with neither rider posing a threat to Franziska Koch’s overall lead.
Wilson-Haffenden, the former junior world time trial champion and current Australian time trial champion, was the rider who made the break feel serious. She drove it on over the rolling roads and through the damp conditions, while Vervloet began to fade as the day wore on. Their advantage moved out beyond three minutes and, for a while, the stage had the look of one that might slip away from the sprinters altogether.
The peloton tightens the race on the road to the coast
The character of the stage changed once the bunch began to organise itself properly. UAE Team ADQ, Visma-Lease a Bike, Liv-AlUla-Jayco and eventually FDJ United-SUEZ all spent time near the front as the road headed north and then east along the coast. The cross-tailwind sections and repeated short climbs kept the pressure on, and the gap began to fall from the moment the peloton committed to the chase.
Wilson-Haffenden kept riding with real purpose, and after Vervloet was dropped she continued alone, which only added to the impression of a rider trying to turn a good break into a genuinely special result. But by the time the race approached the intermediate sprint in Arteixo, the maths were beginning to turn against her. The roads were becoming more technical, the speed was rising, and the peloton was no longer allowing any room.
Even so, Wilson-Haffenden still had enough left to take the intermediate sprint and with it six bonus seconds. Kopecky took four seconds there and Koch two, an important moment in the GC picture even if the stage itself was heading towards a different finale.
The bunch fractures in the final hills
The real fight for the stage began after the intermediate sprint. The road kicked up repeatedly in the final 15km and the peloton was cut down more and more with every rise. Wilson-Haffenden was finally brought back on one of those short climbs, but the catch did not bring calm. It triggered another round of attacks instead.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was one of the first to sharpen the race, stretching the front group on a climb and forcing more riders out of contention. Paula Blasi then lifted the pace, Visma-Lease a Bike tried to counter, and the shape of the bunch became fluid rather than fixed. Around 25 to 30 riders were still in the front part of the race, but it was never one settled lead group for long.
There were warning signs too for some of the main names. Franziska Koch was briefly distanced during one of the sharper uphill drags before riders came back together again, while Kristen Faulkner launched a late attack that looked dangerous for a few kilometres on terrain that suited her. SD Worx-Protime were forced to commit riders to the chase there, and once Faulkner was caught, the stage moved into its final technical phase with everything still open.
Kerbaol strikes at exactly the right time
The final kilometres into A Coruña were messy, fast and full of hazards. There were nine roundabouts in the last 6km, a descent into the city, a short cobbled section and then a right-hand turn inside the final kilometre before the road rose slightly to the line. It was the sort of finish where timing mattered as much as speed.
That is where EF Education-Oatly made the winning move. Kerbaol attacked late, just as the bunch was reforming and the lead-out trains were trying to organise themselves for what many still expected to be a reduced sprint. She got the gap immediately and, crucially, did so at the moment when hesitation behind her was most likely.
Once she was clear, the chase became desperate rather than smooth. Kopecky’s team had numbers near the front. Liv-AlUla-Jayco were trying to line up Letizia Paternoster. Visma-Lease a Bike still looked interested in forcing something. But nobody was able to establish a clean pursuit before the final kilometre. By then, Kerbaol had the space she needed.
She entered the last 1,000 metres alone, still driving hard despite the slight rise, and the chasers stretched out in a long line behind her. Kopecky was the best of those behind and closed late, but not late enough. Kerbaol reached the line clear to take a superb win by 4 seconds, one built on timing, nerve and the confidence to attack when others were still thinking sprint.
Koch survives and keeps control of the race
Behind the stage battle, Franziska Koch came through the day without losing her grip on the race. She had a brief wobble in the final hilly section, but the bunch reshaped around her and she remained in touch when it mattered. After taking bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint and then safely negotiating the chaos of the finish, she held onto the red jersey heading into the next stage by 2 seconds from Lotte Kopecky.
For the stage itself, though, the day belonged to Kerbaol. This was meant to be a day for fast finishers if they could survive the rolling terrain, but the Frenchwoman used that terrain better than anyone else. She did not wait for the sprint. She attacked the uncertainty of the finish, and that made all the difference.
La Vuelta Femenina 2026 Stage 3 result
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Main photo credit: Getty
