Pais Vasco: Albasini wins stage 2

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Michael Albasini (Orica-Scott) scored his first victory of the 2017 season, taking out a chaotic bunch sprint on stage 2 of the Vuelta al País Vasco.

The Swiss rider timed his jump on the sinuous approach into Eltziego perfectly, countering a late attack from Lotto Soudal's Sean De Bie into the final turn and holding off a late charge from Quick-Step's Max Richeze.

De Bie claimed the third spot just ahead of overnight race leader Michael Matthews (Sunweb).

"I actually didn’t feel so great during the stage," Albasini said after his victory. "We had big chain rings on which I am not really used to riding but it was downhill and very fast in the end and it actually worked out very well."

"We decided around 25 kilometres to go that I would try the sprint today. I was looking before the race on the satellite pictures and for me it was pretty clear that we wouldn’t change position much in the final 300-400 metres.

"When the guys attacked in the final I went straight away and we didn’t change position much so that was the key to winning today."

Although there are no time bonuses awarded for the Basque race finishes, Matthews maintained the lead thanks to the count back. Richeze and De Bie are now second and third overall, respectively, on the same time.

How it unfolded

The 173.4km trek from Iruña to Eltziego never quite kicked off as is the usual mode for the Vuelta al País Vasco. Instead, the peloton chose to save their energy in the stiff headwind, letting Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Luis Angel Maté Mardones (Cofidis) bury themselves in a futile attempt to hold their four minute gap.

The pair traded off taking the points on the two classified climbs and in the intermediate sprints, while behind the battle for the mountains classification between Igor Anton (Dimension Data) and Yoann Bagot (Cofidis) provided a small amount of entertainment in what was otherwise a difficult-to-watch stage.

Anton managed to take three points across the two climbs, the category 2 Etxauri and cat 3 Aldeako, but Bagot narrowly kept his lead by picking up the last point on the more difficult ascent.

Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) had an issue after the final climb, but had plenty of time to chase back into the peloton with the help of his teammates.

As the leaders wound through Rioja wine country, a steady grade and the fatigue of racing two against the peloton brought the duo's lead down to a single minute with 31km to go. However, a pause to organise in the peloton and some extra determination from the leaders kept the advantage bouncing around that for the next 10km.

Finally, with the penultimate intermediate sprint behind and a gradual rise with 20 kilometres to go quickly brought Ferrari and Mate within sight of the peloton. Luis Mas (Caja Rural) jumped away to take the sprint bonus to keep his lead in the sprint classification intact.

Ferrari gave in to the chase with 18 kilometres to go, but Mate carried on in a clearly futile attack that the sprinters' teams were more than happy to indulge. He was finally caught as the road levelled off two kilometres later.

Quick-Step Floors amassed at the front to keep any further attacks at bay, but were swamped on the first of two small climbs before the downhill run to the line, setting up a swirling, massed peloton with riders constantly fighting for position.

Sunweb staged a full on lead-out into the base the final gradient for race leader Matthews, a surge that jettisoned a number of riders out the back.

The descent is where the peloton finally got lined out behind Orica-Scott, who seemed to be hoping to vault Simon Gerrans to the stage victory and possible race lead.

The peloton threatened to bunch back up again before Julian Alaphilippe came to the front for Quick-Step with four km to go, but the pace was too high for any gap to form.

FDJ took over with a four-man lead-out with two kilometres to go, followed by LottoNl-Jumbo, who led into the final kilometre.

Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal) attacked but was shut down by the Dutch team, and it was Albasini who chose the right point to open the sprint, attacking into the final turn and then staving off Quick-Step's Richeze, with De Bie holding on for third.

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