Sagan breaks winless streak with stage three victory at Vuelta a España

Peter Sagan celebrates after crossing the line first to earn a long awaited major stage win at a Grand Tour ©AFP/Getty Images

Peter Sagan finally ended a barren Grand Tour winning run by sprinting to stage three victory at the Vuelta a España on a day of relative normality after the opening weekend drama.

Following a team time trial declared void in terms of the overall classification due to concerns over the hazardous nature of the course, which included sections on sand and wooden boards, Italy's 2010 Vuelta winner Vincenzo Nibali was disqualified from the race last night after television images showed he had been towed back to the peloton behind a team car after being caught behind a crash.

But today's 158 kilometres-long ride from Mijas to Málaga was comparitively incident free, with an eight-man breakaway caught with 14km remaining to ensure a contest for the sprinters rather than the overall contenders.

Germany's John Dengenkolb was the first to launch an attack, swiftly followed by Sagan and France's Nacer Bouhanni, who had battled back to rejoin the peloton following a crash earlier in the stage.

There was a late surge by the Frenchman, but it was Slovakia's Sagan who crossed the line first to take a first Vuelta stage win since 2011, and a first at any Grand Tour for two years.

It followed a remarkable five second-placed finishes at last month's Tour de France, where the 25-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo rider did win the green jersey competition for best overall sprinter.

Bouhanni finished second on this occasion with Degenkolb third.

Peter Sagan celebrates in style after securing his long awaited stage victory ©AFP/Getty Images

“I have to say thank you to my team mates because they did a very good job," said the winner afterwards before criticising other teams for not providing enough help in chasing down the breakaway.

“It was just Orica [GreenEdge] and us who were pulling."

There was no change in the overall standings as Colombia's stage two winner Esteban Chaves maintained his five-second lead over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin.

Ireland’s Nico Roche lies 15 seconds behind in third.

In the absence of Nibali, overall favourites Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana - first and second respectively at the Tour de France - finished safely in the peloton today.

Colombia's Quintana lies sixth overall with Froome four seconds behind in eighth.

Two other riders, Italy's Paolo Tiralongo and and Germany's Marcus Burghardt, each withdrew following heavy crashes yesterday, while Switzerland's four-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara also pulled-out after struggling with illness and stomach problems.

Tomorrow's 209.6km hilly stage from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera will be the second longest of the race, and should provide a good warm-up ahead of the mountainous tests to come later in the week.