Fall didn’t stop stage winner Izagirre
Daniel Felipe Martinez (right/Ineos Grenadiers) and Jon Izagirre (Cofidis) celebrate their success on the final day of the 2022 Tour of the Basque Country | Photo: Cor Vos
04/09/2022 | (rsn) – Daniel Felipe Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) secured overall victory at the 61st Tour of the Basque Country on the final stage won by Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) which could not have been more eventful and exciting. Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) lost contact with his opponents in the 135 kilometers of the sixth stage between Eibar and Arrate with five kilometers to go and finished fourth in the classification. The overall podium was completed by Izagirre in second and day’s second Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora – hansgrohe) in third.
“I suffered too much today. When there was a crash on the descent, I was really worried because I knew there were still contenders left for the general classification. I suffered a lot, but in the end I was able to do one of the most beautiful races in the world,” said Martinez in the winner’s interview, who perfectly executed his team’s tactics. Martinez: “It was an extremely tough day. The idea was to make the race hard on the climbs so that Remco could come up empty on the last climb.”
So it was! On the hardest climb of the day, Evenepoel ran into problems for the first time after an attack by Primoz Roglic (Jumbo – Visma), as gradually all of the classification riders, with the exception of the Belgian, dropped into an elite group. The Quick-Step pro was given another chance after a fall from Nelson Oliveira and Enric Mas (Movistar), who split the group. While Mas, due to the crash, only reached the finish line in 14th place, 3:18 minutes behind, Evepoel caught up again.
In the final climb, however, the youngster went too fast again. Shortly thereafter, Izagirre fell on the climb after a clumsy maneuver by fifth-placed Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo – Visma), who finished sixth. The Spaniard got back on his bike and fought his way back into the leading group shortly before the mountains classification.
“I’m overjoyed. The fall made me think everything was lost,” Izagirre looked back after the stage. “Winning here in Arrate is a great way to end the Tour of the Basque Country. It was in front of my family and friends and as always I had a lot of support from the fans. I’m very happy to have finished the race”, he could hardly believe his success.
From now on, Izagirre didn’t let anything get in the way. On the descent to the finish, he was the first to react when Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) attacked, who was third on the day and moved up to seventh place. Just before the last corner, the Basque sprinted past his compatriot to celebrate his first win for his new team – and his first win since last year’s Tour of the Basque Country.
Felix Gall (AG2R – Citroën) convinced as tenth of the final stage. The Austrian finished the tour in a very good twelfth place. The best German was Simon Geschke (Cofidis) in 20th place. No compatriot was better in the standings than the 36-year-old, who was 27th.
Evenepoel defended the youth jersey. By finishing fourth in the stage, Martinez took the points jersey from Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl). The mountain jersey conquered Cristian Rodriguez (TotalEnergies).
This is how the race went:
Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Cristian Rodriguez (TotalEnergies), Tony Gallopin (Trek – Segafredo) and Xabier Azparren (Euskaltel – Euskadi) pulled away from the field after nine kilometers. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) was able to catch up a little later and swapped places with Azparren, who fell back into a group around Lennard Kämna (Bora – hansgrohe). However, these pursuers could never endanger the leaders and had to realize that they were on a potato hunt.
Rodriguez diligently collected mountain points but was no longer able to follow his companions after around 50 kilometers, he fell back into the Kämna group, which was caught 66 kilometers from the finish. As a result, Formolo could still pose a threat to him in the battle for the mountain points.
With around 75 kilometers to go, the pace of the field picked up. Ineos Grenadiers in particular increased the number of strokes and so the maximum gap of 5:30 minutes fell by more than three minutes over the next 20 kilometers.
At the beginning of the Krabelin, Gallopin could no longer follow his two companions. Shortly thereafter, Oliveira also had to acknowledge that Formolo’s pace was too high. With 42 kilometers to go, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo – Visma) attacked. Martinez, Vingegaard and Vlasov followed. Evenepoel had problems, he was able to rectify the situation in the meantime, but after an attack by Mas, seven of the ten best drivers in the classification pulled away. Evenepoel, Roglic and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) were absent. Formolo won the mountains classification and was within two points of Rodriguez.
On the downhill from Krabelin, 28 kilometers from the finish, Oliveira fell and was caught by the Martinez group. He tore his captain Mas with him. Martinez and Soler were also handicapped and fell back into the Evenepoel group. Before the start of the penultimate climb, Formolo was caught by the Bilbao group, who was now virtually yellow.
The next category 3 climb was achieved by Bilbao, Izagirre, Vlasov, Vingegaard and Formolo 20 seconds ahead of the Evenepoel group, with the Italian renouncing to sprint for points and therefore the mountain jersey.
With 14 kilometers to go, Evenepoel and Martinez made it to the first group without their companions. Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious) also came forward. 5000 meters later Evenepoel gained three bonus seconds in the last intermediate sprint with an extremely long sprint. Martinez and Bilbao secured the remaining seconds.
In the final climb, Formolo broke away eight kilometers from the finish. The pace of the favorites fell asleep, at the first increase in pace three kilometers later Evenepoel burst. 4.5 kilometers before the finish, Vlasov attacked. Martinez, Vingegaard, Izagirre, and Soler were able to follow the Russian. The quintet caught up with Formolo with 3.7km to go when Vingegaard touched Izagirre’s front wheel, causing the Basque to fall. Izagirre rejoined the lead a kilometer after his fall, although Vlasov kept the pace very high and even left Bilbao behind. Soler attacked in the last kilometer, but in the last corner Izagirre sprinted past his compatriot and won the downhill sprint in front of Vlasov and Soler.
