Matthews wins Pais Vasco opener

Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) won the opening stage at the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco from a small group sprint on the streets of Bilbao, Spain. The Australian sprinter made it through the hilly stage with a front group of roughly 50 riders to take the sprint ahead of world champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha).

“I was quite confident going into the stage,” Matthews said. “We did a recon of the final climb yesterday and I knew what I was in for, it just came down to what legs I had today. It turned out I had really good legs, got myself over the climb and I knew from that reduced bunch I had a pretty good chance of cleaning up the sprint.

“The Yates brothers were following a lot of attacks in the final five kilometres, which was great that I didn’t have to worry about any of them. There wasn’t any lead out trains, it was more of a grovel, so I just placed myself within the top five in the final and started my sprint a little earlier, rather than waiting like I did in San Remo, so I couldn’t get boxed in.”

The opening stage of Pais Vasco was a 162.7km stage in and around Bilbao. The stage had three categorized climbs on the Alto de Morga, and twice up the Alto del Vivero.

A breakaway of three riders formed that included Brian Bulgac (LottoNL-Jumbo), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), who had a gap of over five minutes, but that was reduced to 3:30 with roughly 60km to go.

Fraile made a solo attack from the breakaway on a smaller climb with just over 35km to go, leaving his companions to be swallowed up by the chasing peloton.

He held a gap of 2:13 minutes with about 25km left in the race, but that gap drastically dropped as the peloton behind made more of a concerted effort to chase. With 17km remaining, and on the last climb over Alto del Vivero, Fraile’s lead was down to 30 seconds largely thanks to the chase coming from Team Movistar.

Back the field, Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) was forced off his bike to deal with a dropped chain at the side of the road. It was bad timing as the attacking started with Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and then Lieuwe Westra (Astana), who was followed by Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep). The series of attacks were not enough to shake Matthews from the front group over the final climb and he remained the man to beat as the dwindled group created the climb and then descended toward the finish line.

Martin took the lead on the fast descent into Bilbao with a long, fragmented line of riders in single file behind. Although several riders attempted to breakaway, including Philippe Gilbert (BMC), they were no match for Martin’s lead-out into the final kilometre with Kwiatkowski on his wheel.

Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) was the first to start the sprint but Matthews jumped next and came around both Kwiatkowski and Gallopin at the line. Zakarin took third place and Reza fourth, leaving Gallopin in fifth.

"I'm happy with today's stage," Kwiatkowski said. "It was a hard final with the 2nd category climb where we didn't reach the summit until 13.5 km before the finish. It was not so easy to control because there were guys trying to escape on that climb, but the team rode perfectly. I had Tony, Carlos Verona, and Petr Vakoc with me in the front group. I also had my other teammates put me into perfect position going into the climb, as it was basically a sprint to get to the front before then.

“It was really nervous all the way to the line. Everyone wanted to show themselves as they usually do in the opening stage of this kind of race. I am happy with my 2nd place on a day like today. I waited a bit too long before launching, but sprinting is also not my top skill and Matthews is a strong guy for the sprints. He deserved the win.  I had good legs in today's stage, and that is the most important thing for me, especially considering I want to fine tune my condition prior to the Ardennes Classics. As for the next stages, we will take it day-by-day."

The Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco will continue with stage 2’s 175.4km race from Bilbao to Vitoria-Gasteiz on Tuesday.

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