Tour of the Basque Country: Alaphilippe wins in Gorraiz

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Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) charged to the stage 2 victory on the short, steep uphill finish in Gorraiz at the Tour of the Basque Country. Bjorn Lambrecht (Lotto Soudal) attacked at the bottom of the climb but was caught and passed by Alaphilippe with roughly 100 metres to go. Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) finished third.

Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) tried to make a move at the bottom of the climb but was no match for Lambrecht or Alaphilippe. The German finished sixth on the stage and kept his overall lead by five seconds over Alaphilippe and 10 seconds over Kwiatkowski.

Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) had an untimely puncture that left him chasing the front group during the final 15km. It ended up costing him valuable time in the overall classification, as he crossed the line 1:12 behind Alaphilippe.

How it unfolded

The second stage of Tour of the Basque Country was 149km between Zumarraga and Gorraiz. The race offered two categorised ascents at in the first half: Olaberria (23km) and Lizarrusti (42km), and there were two intermediate sprints for bonus seconds, 3, 2 and 1 in Ibiriki (100km) and Sarrigueren (125km). But it was the nearly five kilometres of dirt roads in the final 50km that were the most decisive parts of the race.

Three riders kicked off the race with an early breakaway: Darwin Atapuma (Cofidis), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) and Garikoitz Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi) attacked after 12km and quickly opened a gap. Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural) tried to bridge and wound up stuck between the trio and the peloton for quite some time before finally making contact.

The four men raced over the first two ascents with Bernard taking first-place points over the Lizarrusti, but their gap dropped to 2:30 on the descent.

Organisers cancelled the first of six dirt road sectors. The five remaining gravel roads ranged between 400m to 1.8km long: Olatz-Xalduko (50km to go), Azpa (42km to go), Ustarroz (40km to go), Olaz (22km to go) and finally Egues (16km to go).

Astana led the race off the main roads on onto twisting country lanes, and caught the breakaway before the first gravel sector with 52km to go.

The peloton made it through the first gravel stretch intact, but split into two large groups over the Muro de Badostain ascent and into second stretch of dirt, which was much longer at 1.8km.

Movistar and Astana were the two driving forces at the front of the field, making it hard for dropped riders to catch back up.

Stage 1 winner and overnight leader Schachmann sprinted for the intermediate bonus seconds in Ibiriki, picking up three seconds, while Ion Izagirre picked up the full bonus seconds at the second sprint in Sarriguren.

Alaphilippe had a flat tire, but his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates were quick to help him get back into the race. As Astana and Team Sky put the pressure on at the front of the field, however, Adam Yates punctured and needed to take a spare bike, all with only 16km to the finish line in Gorraiz.

Three of his Mitchelton-Scott teammates dropped back to help Yates, but he lost more than a minute. The speed was so high up front that even the lead group was splitting apart.

Heading into the final uphill kick before the finish line, Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe, along with UAE Team Emirates’ Dan Martin stood in good position to contest the stage win.

Astana, Sky and Bora-Hansgrohe led the reduced front group into the last kilometre. Schachmann and Lambrecht jumped at the same time, at the bottom of the hill, but the Lotto Soudal rider opened several metres on the overall leader.

It looked Lambrecht he might hold on all the way to the finish line but he might have burnt too many matches too soon, and Alaphilippe pushed around to take the stage win.

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