Itzulia Basque Country: Basque rider Aranburu wins stage 2

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Alex Aranburu claimed victory on stage 2 of Itzulia Basque Country, giving Astana-Premier Tech their first victory of the 2021 season.

The local Basque rider was one of the expected contenders on the sharp uphill dash to the line but he opted against waiting for a sprint and instead attacked the reduced group of favourites on the descent of the final categorised climb.

It was all about timing, as he immediately followed an attack from his teammate Omar Fraile on a plateau before opening a lead of 40 seconds over the hesitant group on the rest of the descent.

Fraile himself led home the chase group at 15 seconds to make it a memorable one-two for Astana, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) third after an attacking display on the earlier climb.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) finished with Pogačar to retain his overall lead, although Aranburu’s gap and 10 bonus seconds for stage victory catapulted him from ninth to second overall.

After Monday’s short opening time trial, the riders were treated to typical Basque weather, with plenty of rainfall along the 154.8km route that intensified with the late climb of La Asturiana - 7.4 kilometres at 6.5 per cent.

Pogačar and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) kicked off the attacks on the steep lower slopes, as Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) slipped out on a hairpin and ended up losing more than a minute. Pogačar took a step back when his teammate Brandon McNulty, second overall, joined Roglič and Sergio Higuita (EF Education-Nippo) in responding to an attack from Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) towards the top.

They were caught once the steep and slippy top section of the subsequent descent levelled off to a plateau, at which point Astana launched their punch and counter-punch. Fraile was brought to heel by Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) but no one responded when Aranburu went immediately after.

He made light work of the rest of the descent - wide and well-surfaced but with no shortage of hairpins - to pen a lead of 40 seconds. However, as impetus fed back into the chase and the road flattened out in the last 2km, it started to fall and any hope of the leader’s jersey evaporated. 

Still, Aranburu had time to soak it up once he’d applied the final few pedal strokes on the uphill finish. He’s now second overall, five seconds behind Roglič. McNulty is third at six seconds, followed by Pogačar in fourth at 24 seconds.

How it unfolded

The riders set out under leaden skies, with typical Basque rain soon to fall. They faced an undulating 154.8 kilometres taking the riders from Zalla to Sestao, north of Bilbao. The route went through the finish line after 50km before tackling three minor climbs en route back to where it started in Zalla, and then back to Sestao via the Asturiana climb.

A breakaway formed early, containing Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Martijn Tusveld (Team DSM), Ben Gastauer (AG2R-Citroën), Jon Irisarri (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Oscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH), and Mikel Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Kevin Vermaerke was late to the party but bridged across after 25km to make it two for DSM and seven in total.

They opened a lead of four minutes as Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma did the early controlling work, before Movistar came along later to ignite the chase. The gap started to fall with 75km to go and by the time they were back in Zalla with 40km to go, it was down to less than two minutes.

The pace intensified on the downhill run to La Asturiana, and there were moments of panic for Kelderman and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis). The former was able to get back on after a crash but the latter had a mechanical right before the foot of the climb and never recovered.

Cabedo attacked the break on the steep lower slopes but by then the gap was just 20 seconds and the peloton was about to explode. Gaudu kicked things off, with Pogačar immediately responding, and Carapaz slipped out while in third wheel just as they were accelerating away through a hairpin. 

Gaudu and Pogačar pressed on until Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) dragged a line of 30 riders back 4km from the top. Pogačar responded to an acceleration from Ion Izaguirre (Astana-Premier Tech) before accelerating himself, but Schachmann, after an initial tester, succeeded in prizing the group apart with his second attack. Roglič responded immediately, while McNulty and Higuita were slower to get on terms, but a gap quickly opened to the rest as Pogačar sat back. 

The quartet took 10 seconds over the top of the climb with 14km remaining but the wet roads made the steep, narrow, and twisting descent particularly treacherous. Roglič and Schachmann were caught on one particularly nasty section while Higuita and McNulty were brought back once the road had opened up and flattened out for a kilometre or so. 

Fraile was quick to attack, but Kelderman was quick to shut it down. Almost immediately, Aranburu took off, and no one responded. He negotiated the hairpins well and the gap yawned out to 40 seconds before Bora started to really push on towards the bottom. 

By that point, the stage win was pretty much in the bag, and Aranburu finished it off on the final kicker before looking over his shoulder and celebrating his victory - his first for Astana and the biggest of his career.