The cycling world will take a break from the cobbles to go back to Spain for a week long of racing in the hilly Basque Country. This race is quite different from the other World Tour races in that most of the stages are hilly, with only one potential mass sprint finish in Vitoria. The iconic climb of the race is the Alto de Arrate, in Eibar, where the queen stage always finishes. The climb is not long enough that the climbers have a massive advantage, so the race is very open to all kinds of riders. The riders will also have the first time trial of the year in the last stage of the race.
The winners in the Basque race include riders that can handle both the hills and the mountains, such as the latest winner, Davide Rebellin. The Italian will be on the road trying to defend his crown, but it seems like Movistar might be working for Cadel Evans rather than Rebellin. One of the curiosities of the race is that Spaniards have always been second in the podium and Dutch have always been third. Surely David Lopez, racing in the local Euskaltel - Euskadi will want to change that pattern.
Favorites:
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): As it is to be expected Movistar wants to do a good job in Spanish soil and Cadel Evans has targeted the race this season. The Australian but he showed last year that with the right commitment he can be fighting for the podium in week-long races. Movistar in general brings a good team to the Pais Vasco, including Davide Rebellin, Michele Scarponi and Alberto Contador.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): The Spaniard was second to Davide Rebellin two years ago and riding in Euskaltel - Euskadi this has to be one of his main targets for the year. Lopez will need to put a bit of time between himself and the rest of the field in the hills as the last time trial does not particularly fit him.
- Matthias Frank (Garmin - Sharp): Garmin could not take anything from the Volta a Catalunya, where Matthias Frank was unlucky enough to crash and lose a lot of time. However, he will be back in Spain with the target of winning the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. The Swiss proved to be quite strong in Spain so it would not be a surprise to see him in the first places of the race.
- Rui Costa (Tinkoff - Saxo): Tinkoff has not had a great start of the season and neither has their leader, Rui Costa. The Portuguese only managed to get a 9th place in the Paris - Nice but the route in the Basque Country favors him given that he is a quite good time trialist. He will also have Tiago Machado and Pieter Weening supporting him, so he should be a major contender.
Other important riders that will have a chance of winning the Vuelta al Pais Vasco are Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale), Andrew Talansky (HTC - Highroad), Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC), Marco Pinotti (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Tejay van Garderen (Trek Factory Racing) and Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team).
Among the sprinters the Vuelta al Pais Vasco is not so popular and only the ones that can handle the hills have come to Spain, like Simone Ponzi (Team Katusha), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Michael Matthews (Lotto - Belisol), Jose Joaquin Rojas (HTC - Highroad), Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) and Tony Gallopin (BMC Racing Team).
The Vuelta al Pais Vasco starts with a stage that is typical in the race, a succession of steep but not too long climbs in a quite short stage. The first stage will do a couple of circuits around the town of Gueñes, with the Alto de Ubal being the toughest climb, but a bit too far from the finish line. The climb that should separate the good from the bad will be the Alto de San Cosme, only 7 kilometers before the finish line.
The break took a while to be settled but in the Alto de la Escrita, with 94 kilometers remaining, they already had a gap of 4' 45'' on the main bunch. The members of the break were Diego Ulissi (Lampre), Julien Simon (FDJ), Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Samuel Dumoulin (Belkin) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Ag2r). The pace in the bunch was being set by Cannondale, Euskaltel and Tinkoff, the teams of some of the favorites to take the overall win in the race. It says a lot about the confidence that Laurens Ten Dam has given Cannondale, a hopeless team only 2 seasons ago. Now they work in every race that Ten Dam is present.
The Alto de Ubal was next to the Alto de la Escrita and Discovery made a surprising move. Joaquim Rodriguez attacked before the climb, the hardest on the day, and is making Trek work at the front of the bunch not to let him go too far away. In the break, Diego Ulissi was ahead of Julien Simon and took the provisional lead of the KoM classification. Their gap to Purito was 5' 30'', while the peloton is trailing at 6' 25''.
Joaquim Rodriguez did not manage to make his first attempt work, but he joined another group that attacked closer to home. A group of 4 (Joaquim Rodriguez, Chris Froome, Anthony Roux and Joost van Leijen) attacked in the Alto de Beci. The riders reached the second intermediate sprint of the day, in Gueñes, with the race in a bit of a chaos. Julien Simon and Diego Ulissi had left behind the rest of the break and had 50 seconds of Froome's group. Meanwhile, the bunch is 2' 30'' behind with Trek, Cannondale and Euskaltel setting the pace. The surprise of the day is that Davide Rebellin is behind the bunch. The current race holder seems far from defending his crown.
The last climb of the day was the Alto de San Cosme and Froome's group managed to catch everyone ahead before the top. However, they were joined by Bjorn Leukemans after a very strong attack by the Belgian. Chris Froome was the first to cross the KoM sprint. The group is very strong but none of them are big favorites to take the overall win so maybe they will have the chance to take the stage win. The group of the favorites is 50 seconds behind, but no one tried a serious attack today.
Laurens Ten Dam led the chase in the descent towards Gueñes but he brought Dries Devenyns, Simone Ponzi and eventually all the group to the front group. With 4 kilometers remaining the front group has around 60 riders and the most probable outcome will be a sprint of this group. Among the sprinters that made it past the hills Simone Ponzi has to be the favorite to take the win today.
There were a couple of late attempts to attack in the closing kilometers but Pieter Weening kept it all together and with 2 kilometers remaining it seems like the group sprint will be the outcome of the stage. Weening is working for Rui Costa but it looks unlikely that he will fight for the stage. Dries Devenyns, Matthias Frank and Laurens Ten Dam are all well positioned at the front of the group. There are 60 riders in the front group.
Simone Ponzi quickly took the lead in the final sprint in the right hand side of the road and overtook Frank Schleck, who had been the first to start sprinting for the line in Gueñes. Behind them, Cameron Meyer, Pavel Brutt and Rui Costa look as inoffensive rivals for the Italian. It is surprising to see three Katusha riders among the top 10, as Rinaldo Nocentini is close to the front as well.
Simone Ponzi wins in Gueñes! It took a while for the Italian to take his first win of the year but it finally arrived in the Pais Vasco. Ponzi was the runaway winner in the sprint as he put a good gap on Frank Schleck, who managed to hold off Rinaldo Nocentini for the second place in the stage. The top 5 was completed by Jelle Vanendert and Cameron Meyer.
Ponzi will be the leader of the race only 1 second ahead of Julien Simon, as the French had won the two intermediate sprints. He could well keep the lead until the stage that finishes in Arrate, where he will probably not be able to hold on with the lead riders.
Although last year was a bit of a step backwards for Frank Schleck, the Luxembourgish has been one of the consistently best riders in the international peloton for the last 7 years. The last time I did a featured article about him he had already won the Tour de Suisse and the Criterium du Dauphine and had just been 4th in the 2012 Tour de France. It was a great year for him, as he got 3 stages in the Tour, 1 in the Dauhpine and 1 in the Tour de Suisse. Additionally, he had been second in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege.
However, Schleck has not quite achieved what was expected from him, especially in the Grand Tours. 2013 was a great year for him, as he finished 4th in the World Tour rankings, but nevertheless his targets were the Grand Tours and he only managed a 4th place again in the Giro d'Italia and an unremarkable 9th place in the Vuelta a España. Everything was not bad for him, as he added a second Tour de Suisse to his tally and 1 stage and was 2nd in the Tirreno - Adriatico. However, it was a clear that the 4th place in a Giro where Bauke Mollema and Mikel Nieve, the clear favorites, had been eliminated was an underachievement.
However, even with a bit of a disappointment 2013 had been a great year, unlike what would come in 2014. Frank Schleck was battling all the year for a 5th place in the Amstel Gold Race to be his most remarkable effort of the year. He targeted the Grand Tours again and the time trials hurt him in the Tour while in the Vuelta a España he was a poor 17th. After such a bad year the Radioshack structure and his leader decided to part ways after 6 years together, to rejoin his brother in Omega Pharma - Quickstep.
So far this year Frank seems to have come back to life. It might be that being in a team with his brother helps him recover his morale but at least he managed a 6th place in a Paris - Nice that did not particularly favor his abilities. He will target the Giro, also racing the Tour de France in a supporting role for his brother. In Italy we will be able to say whether Frank Schleck is back in business or not.
The stage between Gueñes and Vitoria is the closest to a flat stage that the organizers of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco have been able to produce. The stage has no less than 6 categorized climbs, the last of which is only 10 kilometers from the finish line, the Alto de Zaldiaran. It is no surprise that none of the main sprinters have shown up in Spain and only the ones that can go over the hills have any chances of success. Therefore, the favorites for today have to be the likes of Simone Ponzi, Francisco Ventoso and Michael Matthews.
The hardest climb of the day was the Alto de la Barrerilla, but it was 122 kilometers from the finish line. A group of 4 was ahead: Janez Brajkovic (Quickstep), Simon Geschke (Giant), Michael Albasini (BMC) and Carlos Betancur (Sky). However, the bunch was not yet convinced to let them go and Miguel Angel Rubiano was chasing to try to connect. The gap of the break to the bunch sat at 2' 40'' at the top.
Simone Ponzi easily won the first intermediate sprint of the group ahead of Diego Ulissi. None of the rest of the sprinters seem keen to fight for the points jersey. At the sprint in Treviño (43 kilometers to go) the break had 2 minutes on the bunch but the quality of the riders was good enough so that it kept the fight interesting. Additionally, Katusha does not seem to have a strong enough team to control the race completely.
The penultimate climb was the Alto de San Martin, 26 kilometers to go. Carlos Betancur attacked in the break but Janez Brajkovic and Michael Albasini easily closed the gap that the Colombian had built. Meanwhile, in the main bunch Katusha has already had to resort to Pavel Brutt to set the pace and keep the difference decreasing. There is going to be a few riders that won't make it to the finish line in the bunch.
The riders had yet another climb before the finish line, the Alto de Zaldiaran, which top was only 10 kilometers to the finish line. Katusha had to finally put Rinaldo Nocentini to work at the front to reduce the gap to the break and he managed to reel back in everyone but Janez Brajkovic. The Slovenian attacked from the break halfway through the climb and managed to hold a gap of 35 seconds on the main bunch. Among the quick men that crossed the KoM banner in the leading positions were Simone Ponzi, Oscar Freire and Francisco Ventoso.
The teams of the sprinters saw a chance of a win and they worked to chase Janez Brajkovic back, which they did with 5 kilometers to go. The two teams that formed sprint trains today were HTC and Trek. HTC had Jonathan Tiernan-Locke to work for Jose Joaquin Rojas, who in turn had the Lotto rider Michael Matthews on his wheel. It would be Simon Gerrans leading out Giacomo Nizzolo for Trek, with Joost van Leijen behind. Oscar Freire, Peter Sagan and Simone Ponzi are all right behind the leading trains.
The sprinters were taking their time at preparing the sprint and with 1 kilometer to go it was still Simon Gerrans who led the group for Trek. The two leading trains are well matched so we could have a very interesting fight for the stage when they decide to go. Some riders who were not very well positioned, like Cameron Meyer and Luca Paolini are trying to make up for the lost ground next to the left hand side barriers.
Cameron Meyer pushed very hard and took the lead of the sprint with 500 meters to go. However, that triggered a reaction from the rest of the sprinters, who jumped on the wheel of the Australian. Jose Joaquin Rojas was second on the road at that stage ahead of Michael Matthews, Joost van Leijen and Simon Gerrans. Simone Ponzi seems to be too far behind to fight for the stage today, even though he should be the hot favorite for the win again.
Michael Matthews wins in Vitoria! The Australian is the fastest again in a sprint this year, adding to his wins in Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche and Belleville in the Paris - Nice. He is the first rider to accumulate 3 wins this season. It is not a surprise anymore to see the Australian win at the top level, even after his lonely win in the Tour of Beijing last year.
The sprinters were mixed with different riders today, as Joost van Leijen was second ahead of Francisco Ventoso. Robert Kiserlovski and Jose Joaquin Rojas completed the top 5. It is not surprising to see the Croatian to join the sprint in difficult stages and he has a few good places in stages doing that. The race heads tomorrow towards the most difficult stage of the week as the stage finishes at the top of Arrate.
The third stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco is the toughest of the race and the final climb to Arrate should produce some differences in the GC. However, the stage does not only have the last climb, as those are scattered across the whole length of the route including the climb to Ixua, which shares most of the climb with Arrate. The winner today should have a mixture of mountain and hills abilities.
The break of the day was small in size but dangerous given that it was formed by Julien Simon (FDJ), Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (HTC), Johan Vansummeren (Quickstep) and Sylvain Chavanel (Giant). In the climb to the Alto de Karabieta (68 kilometers to go) they had a gap of 4 minutes in the main bunch. However, Lotto does not want them to grow much of an advantage and they have Rigoberto Uran and Sep Vanmarcke working to chase them.
The climb to Ixua is not irrelevant in the main bunch aa Joaquim Rodriguez attacked but Lotto brought him back thanks to the work by Sergey Firsanov and Rigoberto Uran. The narrow road in the climb means that there is a big risk of break in the bunch in the climb and David Lopez and Dries Devenyns are not in the front positions. Cannondale and Euskaltel are getting ready to work at the front of the pack. Meanwhile, Julien Simon got first again to the top of the climb and he is accumulating lots of points in the KoM classification.
The breaks that were predicted in the group happened and the race is completely broken in the Alto de San Miguel (18 kilometers to go). The break was reeled back in when Chris Froome attacked at the bottom of the climb. The British ended up going on his own after Mikel Nieve and Rob Ruijgh tried to follow but failed. He had 30 seconds on a group of 34 riders including the leader. Meanwhile, Dries Devenyns was losing 1' 50'' and another group including Rui Costa, David Lopez and Simone Ponzi was losing 2' 15''. It is going to be difficult for them to come back.
Andy Schleck tried to attack with Tejay van Garderen and Mikel Nieve with 5 kilometers to go but they were quickly brought back to the group of the leader. Rob Ruijgh is also trying to break away. However, the one that is increasing his gap is Chris Froome, as the British is already 1' 10'' ahead of them. It will be interesting to see if the Sky rider can hold on to the lead of the final climb. David Lopez and Dries Devenyns are already losing 2' 55''. It will be difficult to gain back that time for them.
Chris Froome seems to have wasted all his energy opening his gap and he was easily caught with 3 kilometers remaining after Robert Kiserlovski attacked from the group. The Lotto rider attacked once it was clear for Lotto that Michael Matthews was not going to be strong enough to keep up with the best in Arrate. Oliver Zaugg, Peter Stetina and Mikel Nieve are ahead in the group and they seem keen to attack anytime.
Peter Stetina attacked and it was the hardest in the climb so far. With 2 kilometers remaining the American could only be followed by Matthias Frank and Rob Ruijgh. They quickly opened a gap of 40 seconds on the group of the leader, where the attacks are coming one after the other. Tejay van Garderen and Frank Schleck tried to follow but they could not make it. The three at the front are a very strong group and it will be hard to bring them back.
Matthias Frank attacked on the leading group with a bit more than 1 kilometer to go and quickly left Peter Stetina behind. The American is 20 seconds behind, while Rob Ruijgh, who had lost contact before the attack, is losing 40 seconds behind. Cadel Evans and Jelle Vanendert are about to join the Dutch and Laurens Ten Dam is close behind. It looks like the gaps are going to be much bigger at the finish line than previously expected.
Matthias Frank wins in Arrate! This is a very welcome win for the Garmin team, who had had a very difficult start of the season. The luck of the Swiss had been quite bad during the early part of the season and today he showed that he has made a lot of progress since he took the podium in the Tour de France. Peter Stetina was second in the finish line, 27 seconds behind.
A group of 5 riders arrived 57 seconds behind the winner, including Jelle Vanendert, Cadel Evans, Rob Ruijgh, Laurens Ten Dam and Andy Schleck. The gaps after the stage are quite large compared to what was expected before the stage and Matthias Frank is now a big favorite to take the overall win. Among the disappointments, David Lopez lost more than 2 minutes and Rui Costa and Andrew Talansky was even further back.
For the second day in a row, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco will finish at the top of a hill. This time it is the turn of the Alto de Ibardin, close to the town of Bera. The riders will again climb the final hill twice, not going through the finish line the first time but taking a detour for a 30 kilometers circuit before the finish line. Even though the favorites were the climbers yesterday today seems better suited to the puncheurs.
Six riders formed the break of the day halfway through the stage: Wout Poels (Belkin), Alexandre Vinokourov (Sky), Miguel Rubiano (Ag2r), Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Stefano Garzelli (Lampre) and Greg van Avermaet (Vacansoleil). They had a gap of 7' 15'' over the bunch at the Alto de Aritxulegi (61 kilometers to go). In the main bunch it was Garmin that set the pace but they were not pushing to bring them back yet.
At the first passage through the Alto de Ibardin the gap had not come down but it had increased to 8' 30''. Garmin is chasing but only for the gap not to grow out of control, rather than really chasing down the break. The whole team is relaying, including the white jersey, Romain Bardet. With 32 kilometers remaining it seems clear that they are going to make it to the finish line. Stefano Garzelli seems to be the keenest to take the KoM points and is increasing his tally, but still far behind Julien Simon.
Ruben Plaza attacked from the break in the penultimate climb of the day. The Spaniard knows that some of the riders with him in the break are much better puncheurs than him and needs to surprise them to be able to take the stage. He built a gap of 30 seconds at the top of the hill, with only 10 kilometers remaining in the stage. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina attacked during the descent of a previous hill and opened a small gap. Frank Schleck is trying to join forces with him.
David Lopez joined Frank Schleck in the chase for Peter Stetina at the top of the penultimate hill. They had 10 kilometers to go and were losing 20 seconds to the American rider. The group of the leader is currently losing 50 seconds with the American rider and Davide Rebellin, Jean-Christophe Peraud and Laurens Ten Dam are leading the chase. Even though it is difficult to open any gaps on this stage Peter Stetina is showing very good legs in this start of the season. In the break, Ruben Plaza is taking the turn right that leads to the climb towards Ibardin again. He has slightly more than 5 kilometers remaining.
Ruben Plaza is keeping his gap constant at 20 seconds at the 3 kilometers mark. The Spaniard is holding on at the front much more than expected when he attacked. It is maybe contributing to his lead the fact that not everyone seems to be chasing hard in the group. Back among the favorites, Peter Stetina is starting the climb with 1 minute over the group of the leader. Laurens Ten Dam and Matthias Frank tried to attack in the descent but they could not get away with it. They will have to push to bring back Stetina, who knows that he will have it difficult to gain time on Frank in the time trial.
The last climb was finally too much for Ruben Plaza and the Spaniard got caught with only 1.5 kilometers remaining. That was the point when the attacks started in the break and the best puncheurs in the group tried to leave the rest of the break behind. Alexandre Vinokourov was leading the way entering the last kilometer ahead of Stefano Garzelli, Miguel Rubiano, Wout Poels and Greg van Avermaet. Any of those could still win at the top of the climb. Meanwhile, Chris Froome has attacked in the main bunch and the group is breaking apart.
Miguel Rubiano wins in Ibardin! The Colombian fought hard early in the morning to get into the break after it seemed that it was settled but did not pay that effort in the final climb, where he took the win narrowly ahead of Stefano Garzelli. The Colombian had been close to stage wins from breaks last year in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España but he finally made it here in the Pais Vasco. Rubiano and Garzelli were followed by Alexandre Vinokourov and Wout Poels, while Greg van Avermaet and Ruben Plaza could not follow the late attacks and lost 25 seconds at the finish line.
The race among the favorites continued once the stage win had been decided. Chris Froome attacked and only 8 riders were now chasing Peter Stetina, including Matthias Frank and Jelle Vanendert. They are following Peter Stetina 20 seconds behind the American with 2 kilometers remaining. The second chasing group is 50 seconds behind the BMC rider and it notably includes Rob Ruijgh, Cadel Evans and Mikel Nieve.
Peter Stetina could not make his attack work until the finish line but was only overtaken by Laurens Ten Dam in the last meters of the final part of the hill with percentages above 20%. The Dutch gave time to a group of only 8 riders including the leader, Matthias Frank, who never showed any hints of fatigue and closely followed the final move. He showed great confidence in Stetina not making it to the end. Jelle Vanendert and Andy Schleck also made it in that group.
However, there were several important riders that lost 34 seconds in the end, including Rob Ruijgh, Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck and Mikel Nieve. Schleck was probably playing for his brother but for the rest of them it is an important amount of time to be lost in this stage. Matthias Frank has showed that he is a solid leader and that he is ready to win his first stage race on Saturday. However, he still has to prove himself in the two demanding stages that remain.
The penultimate stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco is again another opportunity for the puncheurs. The stage is not as short as the previous ones and the first part is plagued with small hills. However, in the second part of the stage the riders will have to tackle harder climbs, like the Alto de Elosua and the Alto de Asentzio. The top of the last climb is 22 kilometers from the finish line but almost half of them are descent.
Garmin could not control properly the race in the first kilometers and the break of the day was quite strong. The group of 8 riders included Julien Simon (FDJ), Davide Rebellin (Movistar), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery), Carlos Betancur (Sky) and Steven Kruijswijk (Belkin). In the Alto de Elosua (71 kilometers to go) they had built a very good gap of 9 minutes over the main bunch, which gave them a good chance to make it to the finish line. Garmin and Quickstep are working at the bunch, but they are not doing it hard enough to chase.
Simone Ponzi beat Francisco Ventoso and Michael Matthews in the intermediate sprint in Bergara with 35 kilometers to go but they had only a few points remaining. The break had increased their gap to 9' 45'', so it was now clear that with only the Alto de Asentzio remaining, they would take the stage win. However, BMC started to chase along with Garmin because Julien Simon is only 9 minutes behind in the general classification and the gap they have is quite dangerous.
David Lopez was quite aggressive today and attacked from the bottom of the climb to the Alto de Asentzio. Even though he is a bit back in the GC the Euskaltel rider is very dangerous, so Cameron Meyer and Jerome Coppel started chasing and the group of the leader decreased to only around 65 riders. The main riders in the GC are still holding off well to the pace of the bunch.
Julien Simon was first in the KoM sprint of the Alto de Asentzio, with only 22 kilometers remaining, and certified his win in the KoM classification. It is a bit surprising that the break hasn't still lost any riders in the various climbs, although the pace set by Davide Rebellin in the closing stages of the last climb has made some riders suffer. Meanwhile, David Lopez is 30 seconds ahead of the main bunch halfway through the climb. Lopez was 2' 12'' behind before the start of the stage so he is not a big threat to the men on the podium yet.
Cadel Evans attacked close to the top of the climb, seeing that the group could not bring back David Lopez, and dragged with him Peter Stetina, Rob Ruijgh and Matthias Frank. The top 2 in the general classification are proving that they have very good legs this week. David Lopez was still ahead at the top of the climb, 35 seconds ahead of the group of the leader. A bigger group of favorites including Jelle Vanendert, third in the GC, was 55'' behind the Euskaltel rider. However, the gap seems not enough to hold off a group with many domestiques still around.
It took a while for the attacks in the break to get started but with 12 kilometers remaining Chris Anker Sorensen attacked and it generated doubts among the rest of the members of the break over whether they should work. Pavel Brutt is the rider that is most interested in bringing the Tinkoff - Saxo rider back. With 6 kilometers to go he had 20 seconds on the remaining 7 riders. Meanwhile, in the group of favorites only David Lopez remained ahead and his gap had reduced to only 25 seconds. There are no riders missing in the group of the leader from the top 15 in the GC.
Chris Anker Sorensen was not lucky and got caught within the last 2 kilometers of the stage. Davide Rebellin was the last to push to catch the Dane and was leading the sprint entering the last kilometer of the stage. The Italian should be the quickest of all the break riders but a few of them are fairly matched so it is difficult to guess who the winner will be. Carlos Barredo was trailing Rebellin ahead of Jean-Christophe Peraud, Julien Simon and Carlos Betancur. Meanwhile, David Lopez had been expectedly caught back by the group of the leader.
Jean-Christophe Peraud wins in Oñati! The French was clearly the fastest in the final sprint, showing that he was one of the strongest men in the break. Peraud had won a stage in the Tour de France last year and was supposed to have a more important role in the Discovery Channel team. However, he has his targets set for later in the season and had to find a win through a break. The second place was for Carlos Betancur, who has had a good season so far, ahead of Julien Simon. The top 5 was completed by Steven Kruijswijk and Davide Rebellin.
Andrew Talansky and Bjorn Leukemans attacked and opened a gap with the group of favorites but were reeled back in before the final sprint. However, Matthias Frank and Simon Gerrans were on the attack with 2 kilometers to go and started the final sprint with a few meters over the bunch. The leader is looking to increase his difference in the GC before the final time trial tomorrow, although he should not have problems defending his lead with the gap he has.
Frank and Gerrans did not manage to arrive in front, as they were overtaken by a few riders before the finish line. Rinaldo Nocentini won the sprint of the group ahead of Rob Ruijgh and Peter Stetina. David Lopez had used so much energy in his break attempt that he almost lost track with the group in the sprint but in the end he was awarded the same time.
The first two spots of the general classification seem to be settled ahead of the final time trial but the third spot of the podium will probably be fought among the three chasing riders. Laurens Ten Dam seems to be the best placed to take the final spot of the podium. Cadel Evans is a good time trialist but it seems difficult for him to regain so much time.
The time trials have been non-existent until the fourth stage race of the season, after the Tour Down Under, Paris - Nice and Volta a Catalunya have not presented any in their routes. However, the one in the Basque Country is not exactly one for the specialists, as its 18 kilometers are a continuous of small hills and turns. Almost the whole distance is completed inside the town of Oñati. Therefore, it is a stage that favors the strongest riders rather than the specialists.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) is the main favorite today as in almost every time trial he races. The Australian, 23rd in the GC before the stage, made the predictions good so far and set the best time in the stage so far, 18 seconds better than Tejay van Garderen. Even though he put time on the riders surrounding him in the GC this only served Meyer to progress to the 21st place in the GC.
Andrew Talansky (HTC) was another of the pre-stage favorites but his performance today was a bit lacking. The American was the 6th provisional time in the finish line, 24 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. He could not even be the best HTC rider today, as Juanjo Cobo was 5 seconds quicker than him today. Nevertheless, Talansky managed to jump to spots in the final GC to 17th but he would have rather had a good time trial to close the race.
Quickstep is full of good riders against the clock and they had another of the favorites for the win, Marco Pinotti. The Italian started the day 15th in the GC and delivered a good performance that put him 3rd in the stage provisionally, 18 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. Pinotti has been a bit lackluster this season and maybe this good performance, only 1 second shy of Tejay van Garderen will give him some confidence for the future.
Rui Costa was the hope for Tinkoff to maybe grad a podium in the Pais Vasco but it was not the best week of the Portuguese in the bicycle. Costa was just outside the top 10 before today's stage and he was targeting a final top 10 place after the time trial. His time trial was actually very good compared with the legs that he had in the previous days and he set the 2nd best time only 15 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. In the end he managed to meet his target but a 10th place overall is not a great result for him.
The last of the main favorites for the stage to start was Cadel Evans (Movistar). However, a surprising David Lopez managed to beat Cameron Meyer's best time by a good 7 seconds. The Spaniard is now the hot favorite to take the stage win. The conditions might have improved a little bit in terms of the wind in this final part of the time trial as Cadel Evans set the third best time 17 seconds behind David Lopez.
Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale) started the day 5th in the GC but he could potentially finish in the podium given that the two riders ahead of him, Andy Schleck and Jelle Vanendert, are both terrible time trialists. The Dutch was actually really good today and managed to record the 3rd best time of the day only 9 seconds behind David Lopez. Unless one of them does a miracle run Ten Dam is going to take a podium in the Pais Vasco.
Andy Schleck (Quickstep) did no miracles today and could not threaten the podium place. The Luxembourgish finished his day 22nd provisionally, 37 seconds behind David Lopez. This puts him at least safely 13 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans in the GC. Considering the pre-race expectations, a 4th or 5th place for Schleck is actually not a bad result for him but he had the podium so close that it has to hurt to lose in the last stage.
Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) is a great rider both in the hills and the mountains but he always have trouble when facing a time trial. The Belgian was no better today and only managed to record the 51st time, losing 52 seconds to David Lopez. Not only did he lose the podium place that he was holding before the stage but he also dropped to the 6th place in the GC 1 second behind Cadel Evans. Nevertheless, the bad result in the time trial should not hide the great season that Vanendert has had so far, especially after winning the Paris - Nice.
Peter Stetina (BMC) had a good cushion on the third place of the podium and his second place in the GC seemed secure ahead of the stage. However, the American almost lost it to Laurens Ten Dam. He finished the stage in the 20th place, 35 seconds behind David Lopez, and his gap in the GC over Ten Dam was only 6 seconds in the final classification. In truth it has been a great performance by Stetina this week as his targets are mostly later in the season and the podiums he got in Catalunya and Pais Vasco are a nice bonus for him.
Matthias Frank (Garmin) had a very quiet stage today to settle his win in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. The Swiss was by far the best overall in the race and today proved that he did not need to be among the best time trialists to take the fourth place in the stage, only 14 seconds behind the stage winner, David Lopez. In the end, the winning margin for Frank was 51 seconds, the biggest in a stage race so far this year.
The stage winner was a surprising David Lopez, probably hurt by the fact that he will only finish 8th in the GC. On the other classifications the most surprising result is probably the fact that Julien Simon took both the points and mountain classifications. Two of the stages of this Vuelta al Pais Vasco finished with break wins and that made it very difficult for sprinters or GC men to take the points classification. It is also remarkable that both Laurens Ten Dam and Peter Stetina are again in the podium after featuring in the podium of the Volta a Catalunya.
, but my prediction was oh so close to coming true 
