After winning the Vuelta a San Juan, Colombia's Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) followed with a victory in the Vuelta a Burgos, adding his fourth win of the season to his hat-trick in Argentina in January.

CCC, Deceuninck-Quickstep, and finally Grupama FDJ tried to keep their riders in the lead pack as the peloton roared down the final steep descent to Villadiego.

Gaviria effortlessly overtook the French train and won by several car lengths over Arnaud Demaret (Grupama-FDJ) and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

For Gaviria and Team UAE, the victory ended a hectic day at the office in the best possible style, given the events of the morning of the second stage.

Three teammates, Sebastian Morano, Cristian Muñoz, and Camilo Ardila, were all sent home after it was discovered that they had been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday morning. all three tested double negative for COVID-19 in PCR tests before Burgos All three had tested double-negative for COVID-19 PCR prior to Burgos, but the team chose to exclude them from the race just to be safe.

"It was a difficult decision for the whole team. Morano is a rider who would have helped me a lot in this finish," Gaviria said after the race.

"We couldn't risk anything bad happening to all the riders and all the teams. This is the protocol we have to follow."

"It was difficult, but we focused and tried to win. I checked the corners twice" - early in the stage, when I crossed the finish town - "I was really in front when I entered the corner and I had full throttle until the finish."

Gaviria had no doubts about to whom he would dedicate this victory: "It was a really difficult moment for all of the peloton, because we hadn't raced in a long time."

Gaviria said.

Gaviria was surprised, to say the least, when asked if he was affected by the crash that involved several riders in the last big right-hand corner with around 500 meters to go. It turned out that he had not seen it.

"¿Caída? Donde? - Autumn, where are you going?"-Gaviria was asked the incredible question in Spanish. She answered shortly, "No."

"It's definitely one of the sweetest victories of the year. I was stuck at home not knowing if I would be able to race again this year, so to win here is really great," Gaviria added.

"I couldn't control the breakaway group. But I was able to rely on my legs and luck, and I was able to sprint for the win at the right time."

Gaviria added that he was "very happy with the result.

Gaviria will have another chance for a group sprint victory on Friday. However, judging by his performance on Wednesday, he should not have too many problems.