After the TTT yesterday, we’re on the road for the first time. Like every other road stage of this race, it’s pretty hilly with some longer climbs spinkled in between, but a long-ish descent to the finish may prevent time gaps between the favorites. Lots of mountain points on offer for the breakaway though, let’s see who makes it in there:
Under a clouded sky, a group of 8 quickly gained around three minutes on the peloton and there are some surprisingly strong riders in here. Kanerva and Dowsett are the biggest names, both listed as notable riders in the race preview. They’re accompanied by Dowsett’s teammate Archibald, time trialist Predatsch - easily the worst rider for this type of terrain -, Ropero, Majoral, Vichot and Le Court.
Vichot takes the first intermediate sprint ahead of Kanerva and Dowsett. The GCN guys trail in the GC by 26 seconds after yesterday, Kanerva by 30. Predatsch is of course the best placed rider in this group following Mapei’s stage win, but again, don’t expect him to stick with the others for terribly long.
Dowsett tried to go with a 2km long attack at the first mountain sprint, obviously to no avail as he almost loses touch with the others here. Instead, Le Court takes six points, with four and two going to Vichot and Kanerva, respectively. But a whole lot of points are still left to be distributed.
The breakaway took it remarkably slowly on the downhill towards the second climb, and as we see Predatsch falling behind, the gap to the peloton is down to around a minute and a half from what was more than four only a few dozen kilometers ago.
Continuing her strong performance, Le Court wins the second mountain sprint as well to bring her total up to 16 points. Dowsett moves up to 8 points as the closest challenger, but another 16 points await at the upcoming category 1 climb alone. Archibald couldn’t keep up with that acceleration, he would soon be caught by the peloton.
The two Andorra riders do most of the work up said category 1 climb, the peloton still only around 90 seconds behind them. But the group should make it to the summit at least.
Majoral opened the attacks towards the summit, apparently in preperation for his teammate Ropero to take over, but we’re still a long way from the top, this feels a bit premature.
The Moldovan holds on for a while, but with the summit in view, Le Court takes over once again! Ropero tries to stay in her slipstream, as do Vichot and Kanerva.
This time, Le Court may have gone a bit too early! The line is coming closer and Vichot and Dowsett reach her with high speed!
And the Brit has the best timing. He takes 16, Le Court gets 8 …
… which leaves us with a tie for the moment atop the mountain classification. Three more category 3 climbs to go.
A colorful mix of teams lead the peloton over the top. The gap is back up to around 2’20, so we will likely see at least one of those climbs as a tie breaker up ahead.
The second intermediate sprint is still hotly contested. Vichot takes it again, Dowsett collects more potentially valuable bonus seconds. Kanerva, who fell behind at the previous climb, still hangs on between the group and the peloton, but doesn’t quite manage to catch up again - he’ll be back in the pack soon.
The peloton has upped its pace and is now within a minute of the breakaway, so this climb could be the last chance to take the mountain jersey - but Dowsett seems to be struggling! Good news for Le Court, who easily follows Ropero’s initial acceleration.
Ropero is the strongest on this one, but Podium Ambition will likely have at least one Podium Appearance today!
In the early parts of the second to last climb, Vichot and Dowsett are caught. Especially for the latter, it’s now all about holding on and not getting dropped immediately - this is what happened to Kanerva, who is by now almost 5 minutes behind the 75 riders that constitute the peloton at the moment, leaving any GC ambitions he had on the road today.
Around 1.5 kilometers from the summit, it’s over for Le Court and Ropero as well after a strong performance. Majoral had been caught just moments earlier. Campari continue to show their colors at the front, maybe Slagter has a good day here?
Dowsett does fall behind pretty quickly, more and more riders are shed from the peloton on this climb. No major contender is among them, but a few strong domestiques like Teklit and Landa struggle.
Around 50 riders make it over the summit together. At the very top, we see Claeys and Schreurs with problems, and Prevar a little further behind than his team would like either. But they stay with the group and now have some time to recover.
The final climb is just over 5 kilometers long. Interestingly, Ulissi takes it head-on, leading the peloton in the early portion. Russo is just two positions behind him, though.
Into the final kilometer, Oomen has taken over, but there are no attacks to really control. Gesink, Buchmann and Yates are among the major contenders who keep themselves close to the front, the latter a big favorite in the now likely event of a bunch sprint.
No attacks to control? Then why not launch one of his own? Oomen accelerates a few hundred meters from the summit!
It was a valiant effort, but a combination mostly of Goh and De Luna ended that endeavor quickly. The move split the group with guys like Schreurs or interestingly Ulissi on the wrong side of it, but that wouldn’t last either.
Claeys fell behind though, and that looks like it’s permanent. Unless Hirschlein and Romero suddenly decide to ride for him, it’s going to be tough to close that one-minute gap.
The peloton enters the final 3 kilometers at high speed. Desigual is already positioned at the very front, Errazkin leads out Yates. Houle is also among the first five positions! Other than his teammate Meurisse, the first half of the pack contains mostly slow GC riders or teammates, this could be a very clear duel for the stage win.
Fast-ish riders further behind include Gallopin, Gautier, Selander and Ulissi, but they have a lot of ground to make up. Meanwhile, Schreurs is just desperately trying to hang on.
Errazkin still leads into the final kilometer, almost getting away from Yates a little bit. Meurisse is now in third position, Houle is positioned a bit awkwardly to the left. Gallopin has moved up considerably, now among the first 15 riders.
A bit of a weird situation here as everyone just looked at each other, not wanting to be the first to sprint. Finally, Yates goes out of the saddle with 600 meters to go. De Luna and Meurisse are closest, then Buchmann, Goh and Paulinho. Houle still hesitant on the left-hand side.
Yates gets some seperation but Meurisse has good speed as well! Buchmann and Paulinho are next, and towards the barriers, Oomen comes to the front!
Ulissi comes from far behind with the highest speed at the moment, but the Top 2 seem to be out of reach. Can Meurisse topple Yates?
It’s close, but no! Yates wins stage 2 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco!
Following Meurisse and Paulinho, Buchmann holds off Ulissi to finish fourth. The German will take over yellow.
Oomen comes in sixth ahead of a resurging Schreurs. Bonnin, Haga and Gallopin complete the Top 10, Houle never really got going and finishes on a disappointing 20th place.
Vuelta al Pais Vasco 
