Eddie Dunbar has slipped out of contention at Vuelta a Burgos in Spain on what was a testing day for his Team Ineos squad.
Ivan Sosa, the young Colombian who has won the race for the last two years, was the first of the Team Ineos big trio to lose time on the finishing climb on today's stage 3.
He fell back from what was still a large favourites group with about 6km remaining to the finish not long after the final climb of Picón Blanco began.
Dunbar got into difficulty shortly after Sosa, as Mitchelton-Scott made much of the running on the final ascent to the finish.
While the Australian WorldTour team had the numbers as the select group whittled down on the final climb, it was its Colombian rider Esteban Chaves who looked strongest, attacking repeatedly on that climb.
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Those repeated attacks by Chaves whittled the front group down to just a handful of riders as it picked up the last of the early breakaway men on the upper slopes of the summit finish climb.
However, it was Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) who proved strongest; riding away from the others with 2km to go.
He left George Bennett (Jumbo Visma) and Chaves as Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Merida) were just a few lengths behind struggling to stay in touch.
Evenpoel took a solo win, 18 seconds ahead of Bennett, with Landa at 32 seconds and Chaves at 35 seconds while Carapaz was back in 7th some 52 seconds back.
Race leader this morning, Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe), was also dropped on the final climb meaning Evenepoel is the new race leader.
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Dunbar had ridden well early in the stage and when a group comprised mainly of Team Ineos and Bora-hansgrohe riders rode clear from the bunch in the crosswinds with about 50km remaining, the Irishman was in it.
He forced his way into that move with some aggressive and very strong riding and was to the fore close to the front for much of the stage.
However, after he forced his way into the strongest group in the crosswinds, that period of activity and splits in the field was followed by a regrouping.
And when the riders then hit the final climb, Dunbar lost his place at the front. He trailed home in 37th some 5:14 down on stage winner Evenepoel.
That means while Eddie Dunbar began the stage in a group of over 30 riders all eight seconds down on stage 1 winner Großschartner, and in the white jersey of best young rider, he has now slipped to 25th overall.
Giro champion Carapaz is best of the Team Ineos riders, in 6th at 52 seconds, and the team will look to protect him on the final stage on Saturday, which also features a summit finish.
Before then, tomorrow's stage 4 should see another chance for the sprinters and Evenepoel's Irish team mate Sam Bennett will look to take victory.
Bennett was well down the field today; finishing in 103rd at 21:38. However, that time loss is irrelevant to the Carrick-on-Suir man who will be one of the favourites for tomorrow's stage.
Bennett would dearly love a win to get himself back into the groove after such a long break from racing due to Covid19. Dunbar perhaps felt the lack of racing today and it will be interesting to see if he can rebound on Saturday after losing a lot of time in just 3-4km today.
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