Frenchman Paul Lapeira took his third victory of the season today, winning the second stage of the Vuelta Ciclística al País Vasco, held between the Spanish town of Irun and the French town of Cambo-les-Bains.
Lapeira, of the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, needed 3:42.29 hours to ride the 160-kilometer segment and beat Italy’s Samuele Battistella (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Belgium’s Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-Quick Step), second and third, respectively, in a long sprint.
In a peloton of about 30 riders, selected by two crashes in the last four kilometers, the Frenchman imposed his strength to get the partial victory.
For Latin America, Uruguayan Guillermo Thomas Silva (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) finished sixth, with the same time as the winner.
Among those affected by crashes were the British Tao Geoghean Hart (Lidl-Trek), the Colombian Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), the Frenchman Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) and the Spaniard Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma).
In the general classification, Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) remains in the lead, now 10 seconds ahead of Danish Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and 11 seconds ahead of Belgian Remco Evenepoel (BEL/Soudal-Quick Step).
Another favorite, Danish Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) appears in fifth place, 15 seconds behind Roglic.
The breakaway of the day was led by a quintet, which reached a lead of more than four minutes over the peloton and its adventure lasted 141 kilometers (km), until 12.9 km to the finish. Although in one of his units, the Spaniard Iván Cobo (Kern Pharma) was left much earlier, 69 km from the finish.
From there to the final straight, the highlights were an attack by Evenepoel in search of the bonus in the intermediate sprint and two crashes that left at 30 the number of cyclists able to fight to conquer the stage, a success that corresponded to Lapeira.
Classification of the second stage:
1-Paul Lapeira (FRA/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 3:42.29 hours.
2-Samuele Battistella (ITA/Astana-Qazaqstan) m.t.
3-Louis Vervaeke (BEL/Soudal-Quick Step) m.t.
4-Pau Miquel (ESP/Kern Pharma) m.t.
5-Alex Aranburu (ESP/Movistar) m.t.
6-Thomas Silva (URU/Caja Rural-RGA) m.t.
7-Gonzalo Serrano (ESP/Movistar) m.t.
8-Valentin Retailleau (FRA/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) m.t.
9-Brandon McNulty (USA/UAE Emirates) m.t.
10-Quinten Hermans (BEL/Alpecin-Deceuninck) m.t.
Ranking general:
1-Primoz Roglic (SLO/Bora-Hansgrohe) 3:55.02 horas.
2-Mattias Skjelmose (DIN/Lidl-Trek) a 10 segundos.
3-Remco Evenepoel (BEL/Soudal-Quick Step) 11.
4-Jonas Vingegaard (DIN/Visma-Lease a Bike) 15.
5-Kevin Vauquelin (FRA/Arkea-B&B Hotels) 16.
6-Juan Ayuso (ESP/UAE Emirates) m.t.
7-Maximilian Schachmann (ALE/Bora-Hansgrohe) m.t.
8-Brandon McNulty (EEUU/UAE Emirates) 23.
9-Bruno Armirail (FRA/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 24.
10-Pello Bilbao (ESP/Bahrain-Victorious) 25.
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico