No complaints about the weather today as we kick off the last race in March. The heat, on the other hand, might be a problem for some riders, as it's really boiling down in the Basque Country today!
We start out slow right after the flagdrop, but the riders can't hold back for long. After just 5 km, a group of three has established an advantage of 45 seconds.
Yves Lampaert Oleg Chuzhda Mauro Da Dalto
Interesting to see Kappa with a man up front, having one of the main favourites in Scarponi. Possibly just a way to have a man up the road for him for later, but for now Da Dalto is happy to just help sharing the work in the group.
They haven't really managed to escape yet though, as many other teams want to place a rider in the group as well. This triggers chase mode for Gazelle and Iberia, who each sends up two domestiques to prevent new escapes.
The peloton eventually throws in the towel after around 20 km of unsuccessful attempts, and the front trio increases their advantage to four minutes.
The gap continues to grow over the next few kilometers, while nothing really happens - with the exception of an undramatic fall from Tsikhanau, who makes it back into the peloton without problems.
The lead group's advantage culminates at six minutes as we go through the halfway point of the race.
From here on it's downwards for them tho, as Rodriguez has ordered his Iberia team mates to start reducing the gap with full manpower.
Bongiorno Chaves Blazquez Toribio Valencia
The gap shrinks at a constant pace through the next few kilometers, but the peloton stays intact as we reach the first top of the two-part climb, 60 km from the end.
As Gazelle also starts helping, the escapees' lead is cut to less than 4 minutes.
It's down to 3'30 at the top of the second top, but Barrio doesn't think it's quite enough and attacks.
To the public's delight, he breaks the Iberia control and opens up a gap of 30 seconds over the top.
A daredevil descent sees him push the gap over the minute as he comes down on the flat again. Still over 50 km to go.
Apparently Barrio's strength wasn't what created the gap though, as Iberia have moved the foot away from the gas pedal - happy to let him try a long-range attack.
After just 10 km alone, Barrio catches the early breakaway. They're at the foot of the day's biggest climb, and the peloton is almost a full three minutes back.
Barrio immediately goes into the lead to shed the tired escapees, but they somehow manage to hang with the CSC man all the way to the top.
With just 35 km left, it starts to look like Barrio could actually pull this off. Lampaert wont pass on an opportunity like this, and starts helping out with the pacemaking.
Iberia have realised the danger however, and now goes into full chasing mode together with Kappa - while Gazelle stays remarkably quiet.
25 km remaining, and the peloton has made no gains. Grau therefore attacks to bring this back on his own.
The Catalonian can't open much of a gap over the Kappa-led field, but he does incredibly well to maintain his few meters for several kilometers. He also manages to bring the leading group within 1'30.
Kappa and Iberia just can't shut down Grau, so Sanchez decides to slip away in the descent down towards the final big climb. Barrio's group is now just over a minute clear.
Sanchez' plan apparently wasn't just to close down Grau, as he goes straight by his countryman and into first chasing position.
This brings us to the final 13 km, and the leading group starts the climb. Sanchez is already halfway across at 30 seconds, while the main field is another half minute down.
Barrio isn't looking for more company and ups the pace to keep Sanchez away, dropping Chuzhda and Lampaert immediately. He can't stop the Iberia man from coming across, though.
Sanchez goes straight into the lead, and when Da Dalto also cracks - Scarponi attacks from the peloton!
An active Grau is quick to respond, and so is Kim Kirchen.
This awakens the biggest names, as Weening isn't happy with Scarponi up the road and jumps across together with main rival Rodriguez.
Grau cracks under the pressure applied by Scarponi, so Weening is forced to accelerate himself to close the gap up to the leaders. Purito isn't allowing the Dutchman as much as a meter.
Meanwhile, the rest of the peloton seems to have given up. The speed drops completely after the attacks from Scarponi and Weening, leaving these riders over two minutes behind the leaders.
Most notably in here are Chaoufi, Furdi and Talabardon.
Up front, there's no such thing as slowing down though. Scarponi comes across to Sanchez and Barrio as they reach the top of the climb, with Kirchen, Weening and Rodriguez following a few seconds behind.
20s
30s
25s
1'00
Sanchez
--->
Kirchen
--->
Grau
--->
Da Dalto
--->
Peloton
Barrio
Weening
Scarponi
Rodriguez
The descent involves a lot of looking around, which allows Weening, Rodriguez, Kirchen and Grau back in the game as we reach the bottom of the last little hill before the climb up to the finish.
Furdi has meanwhile woken up in the main field and sets off in pursuit of the leaders.
Back up front again, with Scarponi applying pressure again as the climb kicks up in gradient. Sanchez, Weening and Kirchen follows.
It's a huge attack from the Italian, and Kirchen gets unhitched near the top of the hill. Rodriguez, Barrio and Grau meanwhile seem to have missed the decisive move, as this move leaves them trailing almost a minute back!
Further down the road, Nieve attempts to jump across to Furdi, who has caught Lampaert and Chuzhda.
Purito's group on the other hand, seems to have given up as even former breakaway member Da Dalto finds his way back to the group.
A little while later, Furdi and Nieve reaches the top too, while getting caught by the Air Kenya-controlled main field.
Now let's sweep back to the front, where Kirchen has latched onto the back again just before the final kilometer. Sanchez leads them through the turn ready to start the battle for victory, as the next group has lost over two minutes on them in the downhill.
And it's Sanchez who launches first under the kite!
Scarponi and Kirchen are quick to react, but Weening seems to have been caught completely off guard by the acceleration.
It only takes him a second to realise the mistake, but the other three have already put a bit of distance between themselves and him.
Scarponi goes past Sanchez as the road kicks upward again with 800m to go, while Kirchen is starting to lose ground.
Sanchez struggles to match Scarponi's speed as the slope gets steeper inside the final 500m. Kirchen is already out of the battle for sure, and now gets passed by a rocketspeed Weening!
Grau, Rodriguez, Da Dalto and Barrio meanwhile reaches the kite.
But it's Scarponi who wins!
Weening recovers impressively in the end, but can't make up for his amateurish mistake earlier and also misses out on second place to Sanchez. Kirchen is a distant fourth, but still probably very happy.
In the second group, Rodriguez kicks for home with Barrio trying to respond.
The others can't touch him as he comes over the line for fifth. He might even have been able to challenge Scarponi, but the lack of attention earlier costed him big time.
Barrio takes sixth, just about holding off a flying finish from Grau - who probably would've beaten Barrio if he hadn't positioned himself poorly behind a dead tired Da Dalto.
The latter still finishes 8th, which is rather impressive after the long day.
The main field now begins the climb and the battle for 9th, with the previously seen Furdi and Nieve among the first.
9th goes to a surprisingly dominant Nieve.
It's a photo finish for 10th, which the judges correctly allocates to Casimiro. Furdi, Gingsjo, Ronimois, Valencia and Abrekov complete the top 15 in this exciting race.
17th for Chaoufi is probably not what he was looking for, and neither is 30th for Talabardon. Other than that though, most of the big names performed somewhat similar to what you'd expect.
