Aug 24 (Reuters) - A torrential hailstorm in the French Pyrenees forced the abandonment of the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Monday.
With 15 km (9.32 miles) remaining of the 174-km route from Gruissan to Font-Romeu, the skies darkened as the peloton neared the top of the Col de Mont-Louis and huge hailstones began bouncing off the tarmac and pelting the riders.
Mats Wenzel (Kern Pharma) and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) were 25 seconds ahead of the peloton when the elements intervened as race leader and favourite Tadej Pogacar was seen indicating to the peloton to pull off the course.
Bedraggled riders were then seen getting off their bikes and shuffling into a hotel for shelter.
Shortly afterwards race organisers ASO announced the stage would not resume, leaving fans frustrated at the finish where thick layers of hail blanketed the road.
Slovenia's Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) retained his overall lead of nine seconds from Belgium's Wout van Aert (Dutch Visma-Lease a Bike) with Britain's Matt Brennan 10 seconds back.
Earlier it had been warm and sunny on the flat approaches to the mountainous finish with no sign of the chaos to come as a five-man breakaway group stayed out ahead.
Pogacar, bidding to complete his Grand Tour collection by winning the Vuelta for the first time, was always near the front of the pack with his team setting the pace.
Sadly, his expected challenge for the stage victory fell foul of the weather in an anti-climactic finish.
He will get his chance to underline his superiority again on Tuesday though with stage four featuring three first-category climbs as the race starts and finishes in Andorra la Vella.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Ken Ferris)
