Tour of the Basque Country 2016 – Stage 5 [FULL STAGE]

April 08, 2016

Vuelta al País Vasco 2016 – [Stage 5] – Orio – Arrate (Eibar) – 159 km

Edition 56 of the Tour of the Basque Country leaves Monday, April 4, to finish on Saturday, April 9. The race is a feast for climbers and puncheurs, as the Basque Country is teeming with steep hills and mountains. The 2016 edition will start in Etxebarria, while the last stage is an individual time trial in the mountains of Eibar.

Diego Rosa (Astana) had plenty of time to consider his celebration as he took an impressive solo victory on stage 5 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. The 27-year-old Italian threw his arms up in victory as he entered the final 250 metres before coming to a complete halt before the line and walking across it with the bike held aloft.

The strongest chase down of the Italian was by the Lotto-Soudal pairing of Sander Armee and Maxime Monfort but they were unable to do enough to make any real dent in the advantage. Rosa took his first major victory at Milano-Torino last year but his victory into Eibar is the biggest of his career.

Behind him, the battle for the overall classification took hold with Wilco Kelderman hoping to retain the leader’s jersey he claimed on stage four. LottoNL-Jumbo did much of the pace setting over the early climbs, but it was down to the Dutchman to fend for himself as they hit the last two ascents of the day.

Mikel Landa was the first to strike out from the group of favourites, linking up with his teammate David Lopez who had been in the break early in the day. They picked up Simon Clarke (Cannondale) too and forged a small lead, putting Landa back into the race lead on the road. It didn’t hold and they were reeled in on the final climb of Arrate. As the final Tinkoff rider peeled off the front of the group, Alberto Contador took it up for himself and immediately made a gap on the other favourites.

Only Sergio Henao was able to stick with him and the two began their own duel for the overall classification. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) led the chase with Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha), who had looked strong on the previous ascent. Pinot’s teammate Sebastien Reichenbach was joined him, as did – at first – the race leader. Kelderman looked in trouble early on in the final climb but dug deep to try and keep in the wheel tracks of Pinot. He finally popped with two kilometres to go and paced himself to the finish along with Landa.

Ahead, Contador and Henao pushed on and built up a gap of a minute over Kelderman. The two seemed happy to work together until Henao attacked with two hundred metres to go. He didn’t make any time on Contador but ensured he moved into the race lead, with a six-second gap to Contador. Rodriguez and Pinot had the pair in their sights and lost just two seconds to them in the end.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) had a very quiet day in the saddle and rolled in 27 seconds down on Contador and Henao. Former race leader Kelderman lost more than a minute and slid down the overall classification to eighth place.

It is still all to play for in the final 16km time trial with just over 30 seconds separating the top 5.

Results :

1 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana Pro Team 4:19:19
2 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 0:03:13
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team
4 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:15
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ
6 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:03:40
7 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:03:41
8 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:03:56
9 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre – Merida 0:04:12
10 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data
11 Simon Spilak (Slo) Team Katusha
12 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ 0:04:14
13 Pierre-Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:17
14 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:04:24
15 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Team Sky
16 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge 0:04:41
17 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
18 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
19 Jan Polanc (Slo) Lampre – Merida
20 Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Lotto Soudal
21 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:04:47
22 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 0:05:03
23 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:05:56
24 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
25 Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
26 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:06:22
27 Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky 0:06:52
28 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team
29 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:07:50
30 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Tinkoff Team 0:08:39
31 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:08:44
32 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
33 Frank Schleck (Lux) Trek-Segafredo 0:09:06
34 Michael Valgren (Den) Tinkoff Team
35 Simon Clarke (Aus) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:09:25
36 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:09:47
37 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Cannondale Pro Cycling
38 Amets Txurruka (Spa) Orica-GreenEdge
39 Carlos Verona (Spa) Etixx – Quick-Step
40 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ
41 Darwin Atapuma (Col) BMC Racing Team
42 Jonathan Lastra Martinez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:10:06
43 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ 0:10:23
44 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:10:35
45 Andre Cardoso (Por) Cannondale Pro Cycling
46 Laurens De Plus (Bel) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:10:42
47 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:12:02
48 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky 0:12:04
49 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:12:06
50 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:13:52
51 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff Team 0:14:14
52 Davide Villella (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
53 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
54 Stefan Denifl (Aut) IAM Cycling 0:14:17
55 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:15:31
56 Simone Petilli (Ita) Lampre – Merida
57 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
58 Egor Silin (Rus) Team Katusha
59 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Team Katusha
60 Steve Morabito (Swi) FDJ
61 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
62 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
63 Fabricio Ferrari Barcelo (Uru) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
64 Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
65 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:15:52
66 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:16:40
67 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:17:07
68 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
69 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
70 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-GreenEdge
71 Marcel Wyss (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:22:22
72 Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Team Katusha
73 Evgeny Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Team
74 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin
75 Peter Velits (Svk) BMC Racing Team
76 Miguel Angel Benito (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:22:25
77 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Dimension Data
78 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
79 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Movistar Team
80 Eduard Prades (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
81 Angel Vicioso (Spa) Team Katusha
82 Domingos Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
83 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
84 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
85 Bertjan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
86 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Team Katusha
87 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
88 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team
89 Christian Meier (Can) Orica-GreenEdge
90 Peter Stetina (USA) Trek-Segafredo
91 Pieter Serry (Bel) Etixx – Quick-Step
92 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Orica-GreenEdge
93 Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri) Dimension Data
94 Ruben Plaza (Spa) Orica-GreenEdge
95 Caleb Fairly (USA) Team Giant-Alpecin
96 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
97 Alex Howes (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling
98 Rudy Molard (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
99 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ
100 Amaël Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing Team
101 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
102 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:22:50
103 Fredrik Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:23:14
104 Marcel Aregger (Swi) IAM Cycling
105 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 0:23:19
106 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:24:24
107 Laurent Didier (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
108 Cédric Pineau (Fra) FDJ
109 Paul Martens (Ger) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
110 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
111 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:25:13
112 Natnael Berhane (Eri) Dimension Data
113 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Movistar Team 0:25:15
114 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) Dimension Data

General Classification after Stage 5 :