Eurosport analysts on decision to cancel Vuelta a España stage 3: 'No one expected this'

Unfortunately, the third stage of the Vuelta a España had to be canceled on Monday. In the final twenty kilometers, a thunderstorm broke out over Font Romeu, forcing the riders to take shelter from the rain, hail, and thunder. Representing Eurosport, Laura Meseguer and Jip van den Bos were at the finish line, reporting live from the scene.

Meseguer began her account from the finish line. “Unfortunately, the stage was canceled, as we’ve already seen. It’s been absolute chaos here, with an incredibly severe storm. But to be fair, you could see this coming, of course,” she said, referring to the cancellation of the stage.

"It came out of nowhere: hail, rain, strong gusts of wind... it was really bizarre. As you can see, there's still a huge amount of hail on the asphalt. It's incredibly slippery. The weather is clearing up a bit now, but it was complete chaos," said Van den Bos.

"As we speak, the team buses are already turning back. I think they were about 15 kilometers from the finish. The riders didn’t see this coming at all,” said Meseguer, who also conducted the pre-race interviews. “This morning, everyone was talking about the wind, but no one mentioned rain, let alone such a severe storm. You could also see that virtually no one had brought appropriate clothing for this severe weather.”

"This morning, it was all about the wind," Van den Bos adds. “An hour before it all kicked off, the first reports of possible hail came in, but by then it was already too late. Neither the organizers nor the riders could do anything about it at that point. There was no choice but to halt the race.”

"Well, you just can't control the weather. It's a real shame we'll have to miss the race in Font-Romeu, but tomorrow we'll head on to Andorra," Meseguer concludes.