Itzulia Basque Country: Honoré, Cerny give Deceuninck-Quickstep a 1-2 on stage 5

Image 1 of 34

Mikkel Honoré won stage 5 of Itzulia Basque Country, crossing the line arm-in-arm with his teammate Josef Cerny in a memorable one-two for Deceuninck-QuickStep.

The pair were part of the day’s main six-man breakaway and reduced it to three on the final climb before dropping Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) on a short rise inside the final 5km.

Daryl Impey (Israel Start-Up Nation) won the bunch sprint but it was only for fourth place, 28 seconds down on the QuickStep duo, on a day where the escapees foiled the sprinters’ teams.

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the peloton to retain the overall lead ahead of Saturday’s decisive stage.

The 160km stage 5 from Hondarribia along the coast to Ondarroa was the only real opportunity for sprinters at the Itzulia, but even so, the climbs of Gontzagaraiagana and Ukaregi on the inland finishing loop made it far from clear-cut. Impey’s team, along with Magnus Cort’s EF Education-Nippo and Dion Smith’s BikeExchange teams, all contributed to an increasingly frantic day-long chase but, despite never giving the break more than two-and-a-half minutes, came away empty-handed.

Honoré and Cerny decided to force the issue on the Ukaregi (5km at 4.8 per cent) with 30km remaining. Andrey Amador (Ineos Grenadiers), Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) were all swiftly dropped, while Bernard only clawed his way back over the top.

The trio negotiated the descent and collaborated on the flat until 10km to go, whereupon Bernard stopped pulling through. That was cue for an attack, and when the road pitched up on a short incline, Honoré ripped clear. Cerny was initially on marking duties but, sensing Bernard was in trouble, quickly decided to attack him, too.

The Deceuninck-QuickStep pair linked up and swapped turns until the final kilometre, where they started fist-bumping safely in the knowledge the 1-2 was in the bag. As for the order, there was no discernible conversation but Honoré was allowed to nudge his wheel in front as Cerny, nevertheless, punched the air in delight by his side.

“He deserves the same to be here, but unfortunately only of us can be,” Honoré said.

“It’s super special, especially the way we did it – that makes it an even more important victory for me.”

How it unfolded

There were two non-starters, both Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-Citroën) and Victor de la Parte (Total Direct Energie) suffering with knee pain, and there was soon another abandon as Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) was one victim of some early crashes in the hectic opening kilometres.

After around 15km, the breakaway went clear. At first, there were only five in there, but Leknessund produced a remarkable solo counter-attack to make it six. The Norwegian spent some 30km alone in no-man’s land, chasing what seemed to be a lost cause before being vindicated for his efforts.

Israel, EF, and BikeExchange controlled the peloton in the early phases, with Spanish second-division teams Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and Euskaltel-Euskadi also pitching in. They kept the gap to a very modest 2:30 for much of the day, with the situation seemingly well under control.

However, the complications began once they passed through Ondorroa for the first time and took on the first of the three climbs: Medexa (1.7km at 7.7 per cent). The gap started to fall, but not quickly, and the leaders ticked off the long approach to the Gontzagaraiagana with just under two minutes still in hand.

Leknessund was dropped on that second climb but – again, remarkably – fought his way back to the break. EF Education-Nippo piled on the pressure on that climb and reduced the deficit to 1:30 by the top with 45km to go.

The break didn’t lose any time on the descent, and hit the Ukaregi with 33km to go and 90 seconds still in hand. Leknessund was swiftly dropped – for good this time – and after a couple of kilometres Honoré and Cerny decided it was time to go all in. 

Amador and Schelling were quickly dropped, while Bernard was distanced but not definitively. The Frenchman dragged his way back but it was a sign he was vulnerable.

In the peloton, there was a brief attack at the top from Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) as they crested 1:15 in arrears. However, a bigger move came on the descent when Astana-Premier Tech’s Basque duo of Omar Fraile and Alex Aranburu attacked on the descent.

They hit the flat 50 seconds down on the leading trio but lacked the horsepower and never made any further inroads. Meanwhile, when the peloton hit the flat, with around 20km to go, there was a lull, allowing the gap to go back out to 90 seconds.

The teams who’d been working all day returned to do so but by then it was too little too late. With 10km to go, the gap was still 1:15 but they only took off five seconds in the subsequent 5km, at which point it was the escapees’ to throw away.

By that point Bernard had stopped contributing, but he was powerless against the QuickStep duo. When Honoré attacked, he simply had no response, to the extent that Cerny thought on his feet and skipped away to make it a memorable one-two.