Tour of the Basque Country 2023 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

April 6, 2023

Tour of the Basque Country 2023 – Stage 4 – Santurtzi – Santurtzi : 175,7 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.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) beat Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) to win a second consecutive stage at Itzulia Basque Country and extend his overall lead.

The Tour de France winner broke away with Landa on the late La Asturiana climb and then they dived down the descent together. They opened a 25-second gap, enough to survive until the finish in Santurtzi.

Vingegaard lead Landa into the final corner and then sprinted to the line to win the stage. There were no gifts to his Basque breakaway companion as Vingegaard wanted to win and take maximum bonus seconds.

Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-Alula) brought home the chase group, eventually finishing just two seconds down, but Vingegaard extended his overall lead to 12 seconds on Landa and 31 seconds on David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

“I’m very happy to take the win, I didn’t expect that,” Vingegaard said.

“I felt good on the last climb, people were attacking and so I decided to try myself. Mikel Landa came with me and then we worked together. They came close in the end but I was still able to win the sprint, so I’m happy about it.”

Vingegaard appears in control of the Basque stage race but was still cautious about his overall chance of victory.

“There are a lot of strong guys here, there’s a super strong peloton. I felt great today, so why not try? We would have liked to have the 30-second lead we had at one point but that’s bike racing,” he explained of the GC fight.

“Now we have to look to tomorrow. It’s another tricky day. For sure everyone will try to attack. This race is about seconds, I took three other bonus seconds during the stage and they could be valuable in the end.”

HOW IT UNFOLDED
The early part of the stage headed out of the coastal town of Santurtzi near Bilbao and inland through the hills of the Basque Country. The start was extremely fast, with the riders averaging nearly 50 km/h in the first hour.

The peloton finally let a break the day form after 40km when Harm Vanhoucke (Team DSM), Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Natnael Tesfatsion (Trek-Segafredo), Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies) and mountains classification leader Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) got away.

Barrenetxea was interested in scoring points on the series of third category climbs that filled the stage profile.

The peloton was happy to let him and his comrades go clear and at one point the gap rose to 6:35, making Vanhoucke the virtual leader on the road.

However, Ineos Grenadiers were clearly on the hunt for a stage win, with Jayco-AIUIa also keen to see if they could secure a result.

On the long ride back from the hills of the southern Basque Country towards the coast, the five rider’s lead began to plummet as the terrain hurt.

Barrenetxea grabbed another few points on a last third category climb, the Bezi, and on the first time through the finish area at Santurtzi Tesfatsion grabbed some points. But it was clear the break was doomed as Jayco-Alula also worked hard on the front to set-up Simon Yates.

A crash saw several go down with 40 km to go and soon after Jumbo-Visma confirmed that Rohan Dennis had abandoned.

The break was swept up with 27 km to race, just in time for the overall contenders to contest an intermediate sprint. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) kicked hard but Vingegaard was aggressive too and managed to beat the Basque rider to the line, to take three seconds.

The La Asturiana climb started soon after, with EF Education-EasyPost going on the front on the steepest early gradients. Soon after Rigoberto Uran tried an attack and then Richard Carapaz tried a dig.

Vingegaard was not happy and responded and then attacked himself to draw out his rivals with five kilometres to climb and 20 km to race. Only Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) was able to go with him, as everyone else formed a desperate chase group. Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mas, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) were there with others joining on the descent.

The twisting, helter-skelter descent proved as important as the climb but Vingegaard and Landa took turns on the front, took some risks and maintained a gap of 25 seconds on the hairpins down to Santurtzi.

They worked together on the flat ride to the finish to stay away, with no apparent deal on who would win the stage.

The chasers closed the gap to a handful of seconds and could see Vingegaard and Landa but they couldn’t catch them.

Vingegaard carefully pinned Landa close to the barriers as he opened his sprint and so won by a bike length.

Results :