Matthews wins stage 3 of Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco

Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) won stage 3 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco from Urdazubi to Gasteiz after a perfect leadout from his teammate Simon Gerrans. The pair hit the front of the peloton in tandem inside the final 800 meters, with Matthews coming through to dominate the sprint and finish ahead of Kévin Reza (Team Europcar) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step).

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) had a relatively easy day and retains his overall lead with Alejando Valverde in second place, 14 seconds down.

Matthews, who won two stages in the Vuelta a Espana last year, clearly enjoys racing in Spain, and this was his second win of the season here, after he won the Vuelta a La Rioja earlier this month.

Clearly in form, he allowed Gerrans to drop him off with almost 250 meters to go and despite challenges from Ben Swift (Team Sky), and a late surge from Reza, he was able to hang on.

A day for the sprinters?

The Basque Country doesn't do typical sprint stages. While the likes of Marcel Kittel, Alessandro Petacchi and Sam Bennett locked horns in Scheldeprijs - a more sprint-friendly race you'll never find - a different set of fastmen battled in Spain. Nothing is easy for them here. A mere glimpse at the road book would have induced eye-rolling and sighs as they scanned a stage profile that included two second category climbs in the first 40 kilometres of racing, the first of which came after only eight kilometres.

Andy Schleck (Trek), currently a shadow of the rider he once was, and over 12 minutes down on GC, was one of the first men to attack. He linked up with Natnael Berhane (Europcar), Ben King (Garmin-Sharp), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-RGA), Davide Villela (Cannondale) and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale).

Despite their efforts, the peloton were unwilling to let the move establish a serious threat and they were quickly reeled in.

Rubén Fernández (Caja Rural-RGA) was the next opportunist, although he would have hoped and expected some support when he attacked after roughly 40 kilometres of racing. It wasn't forthcoming and the Spaniard, after a long gaze back in hope, was forced to plough on.

One lone rider with no GC footing meant that the peloton were willing to give the Caja Rural man over eight minutes, and although it proved to be a generous head start, it was never going to be enough.

With 50km to go Fernández's lead had dropped to 3:37 and he was already flagging so badly that by the time he reached the penultimate climb with 35km to go, the lead was holding at just a minute.

The sprinters' teams, aware that opportunities to win here don't come around too often sensed blood. They had allowed a rider of Tony Martin's calibre too much room the previous day but on the Gasteiz climb they finally silenced Fernández's last hopes.

Team Sky, Movistar and Lampre drew themselves towards the front, and with the pace so high any attacks would have been futile.

On the Zaldiaran, a 2.8km lump inside the final 15km it was more of the same. Tony Martin took over the pace setting at the foot of the climb, churning a huge gear as a grateful Kwiatkowski hung tight. Contador and Valverde looked at each other and then slipped back - they have more serious battles over more testing terrain ahead of them - before Jan Bakelants took over from Martin. Here was another one of QuickStep's men from the previous day's break on song once more, and as the peloton crested the final climb, the sprinters prepared for the run-in.

With the majority of the best leadout trains at Scheldeprijs or fragmented either here or at home, the final kilometres came down to a frantic, uncontrollable game of who could make the least mistakes.

Swift looked in the ideal position when he bustled his way onto Matthews' rear wheel as Paul Martens and Daniele Ratto moved out the right after the peloton had safely navigated the tricky last kilometres. Gerrans' leadout was so good that it may have been harder for Matthews to lose rather than win, but he still had to be strong enough to hold on.

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