Spain can celebrate at the Tour of the Basque Country. The queen stage goes to Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers), the final classification goes to Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates): in the last fraction of Eibar the two Iberians, who grew up sportingly together, arrive arm in arm after being the strongest in a nervous stage, characterized by seven GPM. Everyone is therefore happy, except Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): leader of the race in the morning, the Dane sees the final success slip away, finishing on the lowest step of the podium, also overtaken by Rodriguez for just one second.
A few kilometers and the running brawl begins immediately. There are 23 of them leaving after a few kilometres, a quite noble group too Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe), Sepp Kuss, Steven Kruijswik, Milan Vader (Visma | Lease a Bike), Igor Arrieta, Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates), Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar), Lucas Hamilton, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), Gorka Izagirre (Cofidis), Rein Taaramae (Intermarché-Wanty), Romain Combaud, Martijn Tusveld, Oscar Onley (dsm firmenich PostNL), Esteban Chaves, James Shaw (EF Education-Easypost), Fabien Doubey ( Totalenergies), Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Brandon Rivera (Ineos-Grenadiers), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Jasha Sutterlin (Bahrain-Victorious) and David De La Cruz (Q36.5).
Then from behind, on Krabellin, part Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), who takes advantage of a shot from Lecerf to take off and get back to the leading men. The group lets it happen, while in the meantime the leading group splits up and fewer and fewer remain, Kuss (who is aiming for the GPM classification), Kruijswik, Chaves and Mollema stand out. The race for success begins in Izua, where Oscar Onley tries to break the deadlockwhile behind it the fight for the general con is also raging Ayuso who breaks away from Skjelmose and receives help from Soler, in a great team effort.
Onley is recovered, just as Skjelmose and Carlos Rodriguez manage to reunite with Soler, Ayuso and Chaves. It will be the last GPM in Urakegi that will decide the fate of the race, and Ayuso starts immediately, with Rodriguez close behind. Skjelmose gets no support from Soler and Onley, his disadvantage grows more and more. In the final there was no sprint: Ayuso, already satisfied with the final success, left the stage to his old friend, who was thus able to rejoice immediately after the finish line.
By the editorial staff of Inbici Magazine and OA Sport partner – Copyright© InBici Magazine ©Reproduction Reserved
