Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the uphill sprint win on stage 3 of Itzulia Basque Country, coming out on top in a hectic sprint in Altsasu after a crash-hit final.
The Belgian celebrated his first win with his new team after outpacing Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar) at the end of the 191km stage.
Earlier in the day, race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) looked dazed after a nasty crash before rejoining the peloton for the final 25km and finishing among the leaders. A crash just outside the flamme rouge saw GC hopefuls Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) hit the deck in a mass pileup.
After the late crash in the peloton, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, Movistar and Ineos Grenadiers hit the front to set up the sprint finish, with the Spanish team delivering Aranburu to the front in time for the last uphill run to the line.
What the local ended up doing, however, was handing a perfect leadout to Hermans, who came off the wheel inside the final 50 metres to nip past and celebrate his first win since the 2022 Baloise Belgium Tour. Zambanini came through for second just behind.
”It was unreal going to the finish line. The team did such an amazing job and believed in me that I could do it. I want to thank them big time because I did the sprint, but they brought me in a perfect position,” Hermans said after the finish.
“It was quite hectic going from the big road to the right corner. For me it was a perfect sprint because it was kind of uphill and that’s where I have my best push. Stan [Van Tricht] did an amazing job bringing me the last 600 metres and then I had to position myself a little bit.
“I was in the wheel of Aranburu and then if you have the stronger legs in the last 200 metres you can win. It’s amazing.”
Having survived the crash at 39km from the finish, Roglič remained in the race lead overnight. He holds a reduced lead of seven seconds over new second-placed man Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) after the Belgian scored three bonus seconds at the day’s final intermediate sprint.
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) dropped to second place, remaining 10 seconds off the lead, while at 14 seconds down Ayuso was now level on time with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who took a single second at the intermediate sprint.
How it unfolded
The third stage of Itzulia Basque Country would take the peloton on a 191km trip across six categorised climbs from Ezpeleta to Altsasu. However, with four of the hills coming inside the opening 90km and the final challenge coming 19km from the finish, the day would likely be another for the versatile sprinters.
That didn’t stop the climbers from going on the attack early on, however, with Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) and Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) among the riders going on the attack inside the opening 10km.
They battled over the six mountain points on the day’s opening climb at Otsondo (8.2km at 5.7%), right from the start, though the main break of the day wouldn’t go clear until Alain Jousseaume (TotalEnergies) made a move 137km out.
The Frenchman jumped away on the approach to the second climb of the day, another second-category test in Usategieta Gaina (11.2km at 3.2%), taking along Eric Fagundez (Burgos-BH), Tom Paquot (Intermarché-Wanty), and then, some 50km later on, James Fouché (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Jousseaume led the way over the top of the climb, also leading the way over the Uitzi (4.7km at 6.9%) 11km later to race into the virtual mountain classification lead with nine points.
As the break hit a maximum advantage of four minutes, Fagundez led Jousseaume over the day’s fourth climb at Zuarrarte (6.8km at 3.6%) as the Frenchman added to his now 11-point total.
With the likes of Ineos Grenadiers driving the peloton behind, the break wouldn’t survive to contest the remaining mountain classification points over the final two climbs of the day. Paquot launched one last solo attack at 48km out before the move ended for good 5km later.
A handful of kilometres down the road, at 39km out on the run to climb number five, the third-category Olaberria (1.6km at 7.5%), there was some drama in the peloton as race leader Roglič went down in a multi-rider crash.
Several of his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates immediately stopped to help the Slovenian back to the peloton, which was two minutes up the road even if the group wasn’t flying away on the attack. It would take 14km for Roglič and team to get back to the peloton, just in time for the 34-year-old to ride up the final climb of Lizarrusti (6.4km at 4.7%) hanging near the back of the peloton.
Up front on the second-category hill, it was time for Meintjes to put in another attack. The South African burst clear of the peloton and duly crossed the top alone to add another six points to his early-day haul and take him into the mountains jersey, a single point up on Jousseaume.
Meintjes only lasted 3km out in the lead before getting caught but could come away from the day with a nice reward for his efforts regardless. Next on the day’s menu was the final intermediate sprint of the stage, coming 9km from the finish at Etxarri Arantz, a chance for the GC contenders to squabble over a handful of bonus seconds.
Evenepoel nipped out to pick up three seconds across the line as Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) came through for two ahead of Vingegaard.
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Gorka Izagirre (Cofidis), and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) made a move off the front shortly after the sprint, causing a mix of teams – including Bora-Hansgrohe, DSM-Firmenich-PostNL, Lidl-Trek, and Visma-Lease a Bike – to spring into action in the chase.
The trio wouldn’t make it to the line, instead being brought back 3.2km from the finish. More late drama would see Ayuso and Rodríguez among multiple fallers just outside the 1km mark, leaving the pair’s future in the race possibly in doubt.
There was still the sprint to the line to contest, however, with Ineos Grenadiers riding for Ethan Hayter, Decathlon AG2R for stage 2 winner Paul Lapeira, and Movistar for Alex Aranburu on a finish suited to such punchy sprinters.
It was Hermans who proved the quickest finisher, however, positioning himself and timing his final burst of speed perfectly to come through and score the third victory of his career.
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