Day 2 in the Basque Country is here. It’s another flat one, although a far cry from pan flat stages we might see in, say, any Dutch race. The final few climbs should not be hard enough to really eliminate any sprinter from contention, but lots of up and down may wear some out. Also, there are a lot of KoM points to be scored, so we might see a shakeup in that classification.
Today’s attacker-who-we-thought-would-be-a-GC-rider is Hugentobler. He attacked on the first slopes of the opening climb, Andersen is trying to catch up but is no match as a puncheur. Sagadin, who had already collected 4 mountain points yesterday, is trying to get away from the peloton in the background.
Hugentobler pockets the first 6 points easily and Andersen stays ahead of the pack as well, but there it’s Brockhoff who jumps past Sagadin at the last second.
Brockhoff made the jump to the front after a somewhat lengthy chase, so we again have a trio up front. They have three minutes of a lead as they head into today’s main attraction, the Alto de la Barrerilla.
Not unexpectedly, Andersen has to let go fairly early after Brockhoff’s initial attack. Who of the other two is the strongest?
Again not a surprise, it’s Hugentobler who comfortably takes the full 10 points. He’s at 16 now compared to Bystrom’s 22 and if everything proceeds as normal, we would expect the Swiss to take over the polkadots by the end of the day. Their gap to the peloton has balooned to over 5 minutes at the summit, the pack taking it very easy here.
The same three teams as yesterday - Crabbe, HelloFresh and Volcanica - take care of leading the peloton and the gap quickly comes back down to under 3 minutes. Not participating up front is Trans Looney Tunes, who keep both of their jerseys including McEvoy’s yellow one curiously far at the back of the pack. We’ll see how that turns out throughout the rest of the day.
At the front, we have the same order through the third …
… and fourth KoM sprint, though it’s really close on that one. Hugentobler takes the lead in the classification and Brockhoff has a chance to tie Bystrom with another 2nd place over the next climb - or overtake him by winning it, of course. The two have left Andersen behind on this climb, he's trailing by 45 seconds, with the peloton another two minutes behind.
Brockhoff finally gets the better of Hugentobler at the first of two intermediate sprints. The gaps to both Andersen and the peloton have remained steady of the past few kilometers. A bit more than 40 to go.
Andersen is caught with 33 kilometers to go, the spinter teams turn on the screws. The gap to the front stands at 1’40 now - and the yellow jersey still hasn’t shown itself in the first third of the peloton.
Both of our leaders were really struggling up this penultimate climb of the day, but Hugentobler dug deep and managed one last acceleration to take maximum points for the fifth time today. He’s at 34 now, Brockhoff tied for second at 22.
Coming over the top of the summit, we actually have some splits in the peloton! The top three teams got their sprinters Vanderbiest, Kump and Boivin in the first group and McEvoy showed awareness at the exact right moment to make the jump, but all other sprinters are behind this first group of 27! This will come back together in a bit, but it’s a warning sign for the next climb.
Brockhoff and Hugentobler still contest the second intermediate sprint, but one can’t help but think that it might be wiser to conserve that energy for the upcoming climb. 8 kilometers until the summit, 1’10 on the peloton.
Similar question to these guys, but they don’t care about resource management either. Kump takes the two points and seconds ahead of Boivin and McEvoy, who’s now truly in the thick of things.
After the intermediate sprint, the peloton needed some time to reorganize the pursuit - enough for Brockhoff to set one final acceleration and make it over the summit at the front. It’s not enough for the polkadots - that belongs to Hugentobler, who’s being caught on the right side there. But it secures him second place at least. Now, it’s 10 kilometers to the finish line for the peloton.
Unlike before, the peloton does not break this time, but it’s stretched pretty far. And there are not a lot of domestiques left at the head by now: Boivin is already in third position in the peloton, marked closely by Favilli. Jans, Bauhaus and McEvoy are close, Ranneries and Losch only a bit further behind.
But Vanderbiest, riding alongside Abdul Halil here, has a long way to go if he wants to make it to the front in time! They are two of the guys who we’d expect to have the most difficulties uphill. Green jersey Kump, who’s currently on the radio with his sporting director, is also not perfectly positioned, but still a good bit ahead.
Inside the final 3 kilometers, we have Barbero leading Boivin with basically every sprinter on one long line behind them, ending with Vanderbiest, Archbold and Rathe. The one exception is Kump, who’s being brought to the front by Walls on the right.
Indeed, it is that long line against the lone HelloFresh duo with 2,2 kilometers to go. But Kump will have to hit the front soon, and it’s still way too early now.
Problem solved - you just have to squeeze yourself onto the wheel of your big rival! But with Barbero running out of steam early, Boivin has a similar issue, which he solves by just slowing down, and so does everyone behind him. Who’s flinching first?
Bauhaus makes the move! He hits the front followed by Jans, Ranneries and McEvoy. Kump and Boivin off to the side for now.
Boivin can’t immediately get up to speed and has to play catch up. Bauhaus still in front with 800m to go, McEvoy makes his move on the left!
There’s a very slight downhill slope on this finishing straight which helps Bauhaus, but everyone’s coming closer!
300 meters and Bauhaus still leads! But Kump and Favilli are accelerating again on the right!
It looks like it’s Bauhaus or Kump, who will take it? And will everyone survive the mess that are these barriers?
The answer to the latter is, luckily, yes. The answer to the former is Phil Bauhaus! Spectacular effort from more than a kilometer out, he has really taken advantage of that negative slope! Kump finishes second but is rewarded with the yellow jersey as McEvoy misses out on further bonus seconds in 7th place.
The final podium spot goes to Favilli, who comes from behind to just barely pip Ranneries at the line. 5th and 6th to Jans and Losch, Boivin once again with suboptimal timing finishes 8th.
Big disappointments for Abdul Halil and Vanderbiest, who finish 9th and 11th (with Videika 10th). Like I mentioned before, they surely suffered in the uphill sections, but if Bauhaus and Ranneries were able to compete, they perhaps should have been as well.
A group of 22 comes in with a deficit of just under one and a half minutes. Among them are decent puncheurs such as McCormick and Tsatevich, as well as white jersey Noia.
That white jersey now goes to Walls by stage placements, so it’s HelloFresh’s turn to have three jerseys after Kump took over yellow and green. All jerseys changed hands today and we might see something similar tomorrow. Tune in to find out!
Euskal Bizikleta 
