Quinten Hermans sprints to stage victory in Tour of the Basque Country, Roglic and Ayuso crash

Quinten Hermans has won the third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was the fastest in a peloton sprint. Primoz Roglic had a hard crash along the way, but was able to return and remains in the lead in the general classification. In the last kilometers Juan Ayuso was also involved in a serious crash.

The new edition of RIDE Magazine is now available! Our new 188-page spring edition is full of wonderful cycling stories about Mathieu van der Poel, Lotte Kopecky, Demi Vollering, Sepp Kuss and Matej Mohoric. Insure your copy and order it online now for only €9.95. Would you like to receive RIDE extra cheaply? Then take out a subscription now and receive a 20% discount!

The third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country took the peloton from Ezpeleta to Altsasu in 190.9 kilometers. It was not an easy stage, because there were no fewer than six categorized slopes on the menu. The last climb, towards Lizarrusti (6.4 km at 4.7%), had its top 18 kilometers from the finish. This was followed by a flat final, especially by Basque standards.

Battle for the early flight
In the opening phase it rained attacks. Several times a group was given some space, but the peloton always returned. Until Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies) opened a gap after about fifty kilometers. The Frenchman saw Tom Paquot (Intermarché – Wanty) and Eric Antonio Fagundez (Burgos-BH) cross shortly afterwards, creating a leading group of three. After a long chase, James Fouché (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was also able to do so. A quartet colored a large part of the race.

The maximum lead of the four leaders was approximately four minutes. Sixty kilometers from the end, BORA-hansgrohe, the team of classification leader Primoz Roglic, had already reduced the difference to one minute. Then INEOS took over Grenadiers. The British formation had already closed the last gap when the peloton was startled by a crash just under forty kilometers from the end. One of the victims was yellow jersey wearer Primoz Roglic.

Roglic returns after heavy fall
The BORA-hansgrohe leader looked upset and pointed to his hip. Still, he got up again after a while. Two teammates, Emanuel Buchmann and Matteo Sobrero, were waiting for him and tried to bring him back to the peloton, but the yellow jersey wearer was already more than two minutes behind 36 kilometers from the finish. Because they slowed down a bit and another teammate was waiting for Roglic, the classification leader was able to return to the peloton on the climb to Lizarrusti. Later he would simply position himself at the outposts again.

Little happened on this climb. The favorites kept quiet and there was (albeit at a brisk pace) and groupe drove up. Until about two kilometers before the top, when Louis Meintjes accelerated. The South African from Intermarché-Wanty was the first to cross the top, but his lead was limited. A few kilometers later the mob captured him again.

Evenepoel takes bonis, Ayuso falls
There was an intermediate sprint eight kilometers from the end. Remco Evenepoel came through first, ahead of Isaac Del Toro and Jonas Vingegeaard. They took three, two and one bonus second(s) respectively. Immediately after the sprint, there was a moment of silence. Marc Soler saw his moment and took off. The Spaniard from UAE Emirates was accompanied by Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Gorka Izagirre (Cofidis). The three made a nice gap.

It was BORA-hansgrohe, Alpecin-Deceuninck and dsm-firmenich PostNL who led the chase. Later, Lidl-Trek also came to help. Together they brought Oliveira, Izagirre and Soler back three kilometers from the finish, meaning the stage still ended in a bunch sprint. In the run-up to the sprint there was a heavy crash involving Brandon McNulty, Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso. The Spaniard in particular was in bad shape, but he did step up again. He finished the stage and because the crash occurred in the last three kilometers, he lost no time on the competition.

Hermans the fastest
Then to the sprint. He was attracted by Michał Kwiatkowski, employed by Ethan Hayter. However, it turned out to be Quinten Hermans who had the fastest legs. The Belgian from Alpecin-Deceuninck came out with a lot of speed and won ahead of Edoardo Zambanini and Alex Aranburu.

photo: Cor Vos