On stage 3, which finished with a climb up La Laguna Negra de Vinuesa in the Vuelta a España, Esteban Chavez (Mitchelton-Scott) suffered mechanical problems late in the race, losing over a minute and dropping four places overall.

Chaves was part of the lead group on the final climb when he suffered a flat tire with 5km to go. He continued to limit his losses and eventually finished 1:06 ahead of stage winner Dan Martin (Israel Startup Nation).

"I had the leg strength, but bad luck," Chavez said after the race. "I got a flat tire and I couldn't take my teammate's wheel with a disc wheel, so I took Tsgab [Gourmay]'s bike. It was an unbelievable situation at that moment. Everyone lost their wheels and the machines were chasing us backwards and forwards.

After Grumai's push, Chaves appeared to ride Grumai's bike for several hundred meters, but was forced to stand and pedal because the bike's saddle was too high for him. He also had to be helped back to the pack by teammate Nick Schultz.

Once the team cars were able to safely move forward, Mitchelton-Scott director Julian Dean stepped forward to help the mechanics change Chaves' bike for the second time and return him to his own properly fitted machine.

"You have to stay calm and not panic. I have an excellent director here, Julian Dean, who keeps me calm over the radio.

"Two bike changes, one minute, four kilometers to the finish, not bad. It's a long way to the finish, I need to keep a good feeling."

Chaves started stage 3 in 4th place overall, 17 seconds behind overall leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma), but an unfortunate mechanical issue left him 1:29 back in 8th place overall heading into Friday's stage 4, a 191.7km race from Galle to Ejea de los Caballeros. The team will now head into Friday's fourth stage, a 191.7-km race from Galle to Ajea de los Caballeros, in eighth place overall, 1:29 back.