Tour of the Basque Country: Schachmann wins another on stage 4

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Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) secured a third stage victory and retained his overall lead at the Tour of the Basque Country in Arrigorriaga on Thursday. The German all-rounder was part of a late-race breakaway of four, ignited by Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) over the final Zaratoma climb, and then sprinted to the stage 4 win ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana). Yates finished fourth.

The four-kilometre climb over Zaratoma had a max grade of 11 per cent and peaked with just five kilometres to the finish line. Mitchelton-Scott led the reduced peloton up the climb, setting up Yates for a searing attack over the top. He cleared the field but was joined by Schachmann, Fuglsang and Pogacar on the wet-and-twisty descent.

Once onto the city streets of Arrigorriaga, Pogacar made the first attack, but Schachmann was quick to respond and connected with his back wheel. Pogacar continued to lead the breakaway into the final 200 metres until Schachmann pulled up beside him and then sprinted for the stage win.

Fuglsang and Yates were no match in the breakaway sprint and finished one second behind in third and fourth place, respectively.

Schachmann, who also won stages 1 and 3, now leads the overall classification by 51 seconds over teammate Patrick Konrad and an additional second to third-placed Ion Izagirre (Astana).

How it unfolded

The fourth stage of Tour of the Basque Country was a tough one with four categorised climbs: category 3 Campa Hafade (55km), category 3 Garate (90km), category 1 Bikotz (120km) and then a category 3 climb over Zaratoma that peaked with just five kilometres from the finish line in Arrigorriaga.

A breakaway of seven hit out early over the first ascent.n the move were Carlos Verona (Movistar), Stephen Williams (Bahrain-Merida), Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal), Tsgabu Grmay (Mitchelton-Scott), Alessandro De Marchi (CCC Team), Michael Storer (Team Sunweb) and Mikel Iturria (Euskadi-Murias).

Bora-Hansgrohe, with overall leader Schachmann, held the gap at under three minutes.

As the rain came down, the roads became slick, and there were several crashes among the main field that included Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), who was forced to abandon. Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb), Ricardo Vilela (Burgos-BH), Daan Olivier (Jumbo-Visma) and Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Caja Rural) also crashed, and they all had to pull out of the race with unknown injuries.

As the breakaway approached the second climb of the day over Garate, only 1.5km but with a max grade of 10 per cent, their gap came down to 2:30 and then slashed by another 30 seconds with 45km to go.

The category 1 climb over Bikotez Gane loomed ahead at 4.9km long with an average gradient of 8.6 per cent and maximum ramps of 13 per cent. Bora-Hansgrohe, along with teams Jumbo, Movistar, Astana led the way up the climb, cutting the gap to the breakaway down to a minute.

Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) was the first to attack, but Mitchelton-Scott took over the pace-setting at the front of the field and pulled him back in over the top. They also caught the remnants of the original breakaway who had fallen of pace as the roads got steeper.

Up in the breakaway, De Marchi and Verona were the last two riders to hold a 45-second lead but they, too, were caught with 13km to go.

Mitchelton-Scott continued to set the pace heading into the final climb over Zaratoma, and teams Katusha-Alpecin, Astana and FDJ moved forward. Astana's Alexey Lutsenko slipped out through a slippery corner and crashed, as did several other riders, but the main group hit the final climb together.

An untimely puncture derailed Adam Yates' GC hopes on stage 2, but the team still worked hard to set him up for a chance at the stage victory. Yates made his move near the top of Zaratoma, but Schachmann and then Pogacar and Fuglsang followed, and the four men continued to launch individual attacks down the descent an into Arrigorriaga.

Pogacar jumped first and led the breakaway into the final straight, but Schachmann gave him no leeway. The German launched his sprint off of Pogacar's wheel inside the final 150 metres, and the two riders drag raced to the line with Schachmann taking the win.

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