Tour of the Basque Country 2023 – Stage 1 [FULL STAGE]

April 3, 2023

Tour of the Basque Country 2023 – Stage 1 – Vitoria-Gasteiz – Labastida : 165,4 km

As half of the pro peloton hammers themselves over rain-soaked cobblestones in Flanders and Northern France, the other half seeks sunnier solace in the Basque Country with a six day long stage-race known by the locals as Euskal Herriko Itzulia. This unique area of Northern Spain is a playground for the climbers during the spring and one of the best places to hone their form ahead of the first Grand Tour of the season, which often falls just a month after. The race is characterised by its short and snappy stages over gruelling Pyrenean terrain. While the climbs may not be as high as those in the Grand Tours, they are a hell of a lot steeper with many climbs in the region reaching gradients of 20% and above. The race follows a six-day format with a series of mountainous stages around the Basque highlands and Pyrenees before a punchy individual time trial on the final day. It’s not just the leg-breaking climbs that set this race apart from others on the racing calendar, it’s also the fans that come out in their thousands to watch it. Every inch of the route is littered with adoring supporters, each one screaming on their heroes with the same unbridled passion as the next. If you’ve ever wondered where the home of cycling is, it’s here.

Ethan Hayter has blasted to victory and the first race lead in stage 1 of the 2023 Itzulia Basque Country, a rolling 165.4 kilometre stage from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Labastida which ended in a bunch sprint.

After Soudal-QuickStep massed at the front on a technical, slightly uphill finish, Ineos Grenadiers Omar Fraile stormed past and led out his British teammate for his first win of the season.

A trio of early breakaways was caught with 30 kilometres to go, bringing the stage down to a bunch sprint.

Second was Mauro Schmid for Soudal-QuickStep, with Jon Aberasturi (Trek-Segafredo) in third.

“The team really backed me, I wasn’t amazing in Catalunya” – his previous race – “but I’ve stepped up here,” Hayter said afterwards, “I just have to thank them.”

“Omar’s an expert in Basque Country racing and I only had to do the last 100 metres. It’s really nice to get this.”

“I broke my collarbone in the Tour Down Under and it took me a while to come back from that, hopefully, this will give me more confidence to keep going forward.”

Hayter certainly looked like a rider with no doubt in his ability in the twisting, narrow roller coaster finale, glued to Fraile’s back wheel and perfectly placed to move ahead exactly when it mattered.

Fraile dropped Hayter off with less than 150 metres to go, and from there on there was no doubt who would get the win, with Fraile raising his arm to celebrate the triumph even as Hayter tore across the finish line a good bike length ahead of Schmid.

HOW IT UNFOLDED
With a second category climb the one classified challenge of the day, close to the start of a rolling 165.4 kilometre, it was all but certain that a break would try and form early on, and so it proved.

Several larger attacks failed to stick, but on a warm, windless day the peloton seemed relatively happy with a move formed by three local riders: Cristian Rodriguez of Arkea-Sámic, Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Txomin Juaristi of local squad Euskaltel-Euskadi.

The trio built up a gap of around three minutes before Ineos Grenadiers, the team of defending Itzulia Basque Country champion Dani Martínez, began coming through at the front to keep the leaders under control.

After several hours of uneventful riding through the countryside of southwest Euskadi, the trio passed through the finish town of Labastida with 54 kilometres to go for a first time with a 90-second margin. But the mood in the peloton was beginning to gradually become more aggressive after what had been a notably placid start to the race, and the surge in tempo on the broad, well-surfaced roads suddenly produced a lined-out peloton on a series of gently rising climbs and descents.

Egan Bernal, interestingly enough, was one of the key team workers for Ineos Grenadiers along with Jonathan Castroviejo and as the race lead dipped under a minute Alpecin-Deceuninck also began to put their collective shoulder to the wheel.

A long drop down at 30 kilometres coming out of the town of Elciego finally saw the trio reeled in, with Barrenetxea having benefited the most thanks to his haul of top points in the mountains ranking, and teams beginning to mass across the road. The GC favourites suddenly began to show themselves on a climb to the intermediate sprint in Laguardia, and Martínez dashed ahead to claim a three-second bonus ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates).

A tense calm then rematerialised as Ineos Grenadiers, Astana Qazaqstan and Jumbo-Visma dealt with a seemingly interminable series of minor smooth climbs and descents. One top name that failed to survive the increase in pace was Bernal, finally finishing over six minutes down.

Ineos and Soudal-QuickStep remained in control on the complicated finale, which began with a fast steady drop along a straight length of ‘A’road with four kilometres to go. Australian National Champion Luke Plapp briefly led the string, before Soudal-QuickStep surged ahead in a well-timed move in the streets of Labastida. However, Fraile calculated the start of his lead-out to perfection and Hayter benefited to collect his first win since the Tour de Pologne last summer.

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