It was apparent from the word go that it just wasn't going to be the kind of morning that would yield a ton of autographs. No bother. I stayed at the podium for awhile and then wandered around the buses for the bulk of the time.

BMC's 8 remaining riders arrived together.

Movistar either stayed in a hotel that was close by or they were being punished as the team bus arrived empty this morning.

Yohan Bagot and Dominique Rollin.

Andrew Talansky was nearly taken out this morning by a spectator who had carelessly leaned his bike so that the handlebars clipped the American, causing him to very nearly crash. The spectator was completely unapologetic. Sheesh. When Andrew came over to sign an autograph, I offered to rough up the guy. He knows I've got his back.

Markel Irizar.

Antoine Duchesne.

Tsagbu Grmay and Alex Howes.

Tinkoff Saxo.

When Sagan came over to pose for a selfie, I took that as my cue to head to the buses.

A fleet of Scott bikes for IAM.

Johan Van Zyl.

MTN Qhubeka rides Cervélo.

Amets Txurruka is quite the social butterfly. After signing an autograph for me, I spotted him hanging out at the IAM, BMC, and Orica team buses.

Who was interviewing who? Esteban Chaves spoke with a journalist while armed with a GoPro and selfie stick.

Dominique Rollin's Orbea.

It looks like a 2 guys cheating at a staring contest but I assume you that Stephen Cummings and this BMC staffer were in a conversation.

Maxime Bouet.

Dario Cataldo.

I love that Thierry Hupond was just as excited to see me as I was to see him!

Koen De Kort, an honorary Dutchman, visited the Orica bus.

Orica getting ready for stage 6.

Iljo Keisse in the most aggressive number and Cam Meyer.

Pieter Serry and Jens Keukeleire.

Giovanni Visconti, the lone Italian in Movistar's Vuelta squad, rode in aimless circles.

Matteo Montaguti, the lone Italian on AG2R's Vuelta squad, soon joined him.

Whatever they were looking for, Mintaguti found it. Air conditioning? The ice cream truck perhaps?

The peloton approacheth.

Today’s 6 autographs came from:

48. Amets Txurruka

55. Dani Navarro

72. Maxime Bouet

127. Rory Southerland

151. Andrew Talansky

155. Ben King

Today was never going to be a pretty stage. The 167km route took the peloton from Rota through dry scrub land and even though the intermediate sprint was in Sevilla, the organizers for some reason decided to travel though bland streets in the new part of town, bypassing the historic center completely. The finish town of Alcalá de Guadaíra has an impressive old fort, but the the finish line was atop a 300+ meter climb. It would certainly be ugly. From the finish line looking back at the course, you couldn’t see an inch of the climb. Brutal.

Local kids had the opportunity to ride the final part of the course–many of them walked it!

I was thrilled to see Antoine Duchesne, one of 2 Canadians at the Vuelta and making his Grand Tour debut, in the break. Accompanying him were Tsagbu Grmay, Ethiopian national champion, and Iljo Keisse, the savy track rider who won the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia.

The break was caught according to plan after teams like Tinkoff and Giant put in huge work sitting on the front. Giant, in particular, took long pulls all day to make sure things were set up just right for John Degenkolb. Orica also put in a showing, getting their lead out train organized for Caleb Ewan.

When the last of the lead out men peeled off, the predicted names were left: Degenkolb, Sagan, and Ewan as a dark horse. Sagan lacked the kick to match his counterparts who were virtually even at 75 meters to go. But just 25 meters later, Ewan had clearly pulled ahead and was continuing to accelerate.

The 21 year old Australian took the stage win while his peers scrambled to finish in the top 10. Below: JJ Rojas on his way to 5th place, ahead of Kristian Sbaragli, Domenico Pozzovivo, and Dani Moreno.

Tosh Van Der Sande in 9th.

Tom Van Asbroeck, 11th.

Samú Sanchez and Rafal Majka (note Ewan’s advantage over Degenkolb at the finish on the big screen).

Purito Rodriguez, Esteban Chaves in red, Nick Roche, and Sergio Henao.

Tony Hurel hardly had any forward momentum while Luis Leon Sanchez powered up the hill.

Nairo Quintana.

Dan Martin.

Mikel Nieve and Romain Sicard.

Gianluca Brambilla, Maxime Monfort, and Andre Cardoso.

Simon Gerrans was so knackered, he was legitimately moving at the same herky jerky pace as the kids who rode in the afternoon. Twenty cyclists passed him in the last 50 meters.

Ariel Richeze and Rodolfo Torres.

Louis Meintjes.

Kevin Reza.

Koen De Kort is a pivotal piece in Degenkolb’s lead out. Once his work was done today, the Dutchman struggled to move up the hill, wobbling back and forth like a kid first learning to ride. It’s stunning and humbling to see how these mammoth riders will bury themselves so deeply for their leader that they can hardly pedal anymore.

Mitch Docker.

Adam Hansen.

Sprinter Nacer Bouhanni came in 53 seconds back.

Left to right: Alex Howes, Songezo Jim, Larry Warbasse, Danny Van Poppel, and Ben King.

Joey Rosskopf.

Dominique Rollin watched the sprint replay as he rode in.

As did Jens Keukeleire and King of the Mountains Omar Fraile.

Orica teammates Matt Hayman and Damien Howson ahead of Giant riders Johannes Fröhlinger and Luka Mezgec.

Natneal Berhane stole a glance at Andrew Talansky.

Antoine Duchesne finished just over 3 minutes down after spending the day in the break.

Kris Boeckmans flatted in the final kilometers and didn’t even have the chance to factor into the sprint, but he did make sure to high 5 this kid on his way up.

Just a few more riders were left to come in.

Grmay gave interviews at the finish line. The break had been working well all day until around 20km to go, when they still had 2 minutes in the peloton, the Ethiopian decided to stop taking his turns. Both Keisse and Duchesne could be seen on TV admonishing him, but Grmay would not be persuaded to work.

Ben King, his Garmin having been audaciously stolen by a spectator in yesterday’s stage after he crashed, was in high spirits at the finish, giving interviews in Spanish for the Spanish and Colombian press. Judging by the pants, I’d say the Colombian journalist is in the second photo.

Caleb Ewan rightly enjoyed his victory. It’s not every rider who takes a stage win in his first Grand Tour. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical about Orica designing their roster around Ewan but I’m glad I was proven wrong.

Who else in green but Sagan.

Chaves may have lost the GC jersey by just 1 second, but he retains the combined jersey and couldn’t have looked happier.

Tom Dumoulin now has the overall lead. My favorite part of the podium ceremony was when the podium hostess gave him the stuffed animal too soon and then grabbed it back from him.

Fraile kept the KOM polka dots.

Today the public transport gods smiled upon me and I was able to get to the finish in Málaga with no problem. Hizzah!

Here's the gist of the stage in 50 words or less: an inevitably doomed break was caught in time for the sprint teams to establish their lead out trains as the peloton thundered towards the line.

Coming in to the finishing straight, John Degenkolb had one teammate pulling for him while Peter Sagan sat on his wheel and Nacer Bouhanni on Sagan's.

The Giant rider peeled off and while Degenkolb accelerated, Sagan breezed by him, pulling Bouhanni. The Slovakian champion, a perpetual bridesmaid of late with a string of second place finishes at the Tour de France, threw his bike at the line, though he'd have taken the stage ahead of Bouhanni even if he hadn't.

Niki Terpstra.

The peloton rolled in together.

Luka Mezgec.

Dom Rollin.

Long shadows from Larry Warbasse and Jens Keukeleire.

Sylvain Chavanel.

A glance over the shoulder from Geoffrey Soupe.

A solo Matt Hayman.

Javier Moreno.

Simon Gerrans.

Matej Mohoric and Ben King.

Alex Howes.

Sagan, a bridesmaid no more.

Sharing the spoils of his victory.

Perhaps she'd have preferred her champagne in a glass.

Another day in the leader's jersey for the diminutive Colombian climber, Esteban Chaves. Note that he is in fact standing on a higher step than the podium hostesses.

Omar Fraile claimed the KOM jersey.

Two more trips to the podium for Chaves to collect the green jersey…

…and the white jersey, both of which he will loan out tomorrow.

For his work in the break, Fraile received the combativity prize.

Salvatore Puccio, Mikel Nieve, and Christian Knees represented Sky in the best team competition.

Expect a similar scenario to play out tomorrow in stage 4, another day for the sprinters to challenge each other.

Tonight the 70th running of Spain's grand tour got underway with the team presentation. It was a surprisingly low key affair. Held on a driving range between the white painted buildings of Benahavís and the arid hills beyond, each team was called to the stage, sometimes the riders were introduced by name, and then they were ushered off stage. Just a few riders were actually interviewed, which meant the evening moved along quite quickly and also that I didn't have much time to take too many photos other than general team shots.

For me the highlight of the night was the first five minutes after I'd arrived. Europcar had just walked by but the team's lone Canadian Antoine Duchesne was straggling, so I wished him good luck which made him grin from ear to ear. I kept walking towards the spectator area and Lotto Soudal were filing by, trying to dodge the active sprinkler on the football pitch behind us when Adam Hansen stopped to say hi. He is without a doubt one of the nicest guys in the peloton, which is saying a lot because there really are a lot of nice guys out there, so it meant a lot to me that after we'd met briefly at so many races, he took the time to have a proper, non hurried conversation. Thanks, Adam.

MTN Qhubeka.

Lotto Jumbo.

Lampre.

IAM.

Etixx Quick Step.

Spaniard David de la Cruz was one of the first riders to be interviewed all evening.

Caja Rural have enjoyed a winning season so far and will look to continue their success over the next three weeks.

AG2R.

Europcar.

Colombia.

Jimmy Engoulvent, Antoine Duchesne, and Yukiya Arashiro of Europcar walk back to their bus behind a casual AG2R squad.

Orica Green Edge.

I'm not sure how many of you followed the Eurovision Song Contest back in May but Spain won and had the singer preform between teams.

Cannondale Garmin.

While I don't normally condone the use of selfie sticks, I'll make an exception just this once.

Cofidis.

Giant Alepcin.

FDJ.

Trek.

Astana.

Vincenzo Nibali.

Cue musical interlude.

Lotto Soudal.

BMC's Marcus Burghardt guiding Darwin Atapuma into place so as to be in alphabetical order. Or maybe it was height order??

Samu Sanchez, Atapuma, and Burghardt.

Tinkoff Saxo.

Katusha.

Movistar.

Race favorites and Tour de France podium finishers Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana.

Sky.

Chris Froome has said he's not in top form after winning the Tour de France a second time but he's got teammates like Ian Boswell looking after him and Sergio Henao to put to work in the mountains.