Race leader Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) secured a hat-trick of victories at Itzulia Basque Country, beating Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in a two-up sprint at the end of an attacking stage 5.
On the race’s Queen stage, the attacks, ignited by Seixas and Lipowitz, started early on the eight categorised climbs, and the pair finally went away together on the Trabakua climb with 30km.
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From the chase, Javier Romo (Movistar) – who had been with the leaders but crashed over the top of the penultimate climb – jumped out of the pursuing group to claim third on the line.
With his win, Seixas extended his lead over everyone except Lipowitz – bar four bonus seconds – by nearly a minute and continues to lead the GC by 2:30 with one final stage remaining on Saturday. Lipowitz leapfrogged teammate Primož Roglič into second overall.
“I tried to go all-out in the climb, but I was struggling a bit, I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that I couldn’t go all-in. Maybe it was because of the day, of course, it was a hard stage today. Then I felt the legs coming back after the downhill.
“With Florian, we rode well until the finish. He was really strong today, and also the other guys. Today was a close battle. Chapeau to everyone, it was a really hard day, and I’m happy to win for the team.”
How it unfolded
The race’s Queen stage packed in no fewer than eight categorised climbs across 176km, with the first coming after 10km and the road going up and down all day after that. It took 20km of attacks for a break to form, but when it did, a large group went up the…
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