Jonas Vingegaard ground his way up an incredibly steep climb to take victory on stage three of Itzulia Basque Country, returning to winning ways after suffering defeat at Paris-Nice.
The Jumbo-Visma rider picked his moment to attack up the climb to Amasa-Villabona, powering his way to his first win since February, putting him in control of the general classification.
Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) finished second to move up to second on GC, while Enric Mas (Movistar) finished just behind.
There was an odd situation in the vertiginous final 500m, where Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) appeared to ride into a pair of Shimano neutral service bikes on the road side, taking himself and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) out of contention.
The slow-motion sprint came at the end of an extremely climb-heavy day, with 2,799 metres tackled across the 162.8km course, including four uncategorised but seriously steep walls inside the final 20km.
James Knox (Soudal Quick-Step) and Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) entered the final climb out front, but were quickly swallowed up by a reduced peloton, which gave Vingegaard the opportunity to attack near the end.
The Dane now has a five second advantage over Landa on GC, which could be vitally important in a race which often finishes with tight gaps overall.
He said post-finish that he would keep “fighting” until the end of the race, and paid tribute to his teammates.
“I’m very happy to take the win today, to pay off all the hard work that my teammates have done,” the Not just today, but in the last two days. It’s nice to take a win here, it’s a big race here, one of my favourites.
“It was very tough, not only the last climb, but every climb almost. It was a hard day in general and I think I have to thank my teammates a lot, they worked their asses off.
“I will take it day by day for now, but hopefully I can stay in the jersey and I’ll fight every day I can. Even if I lose the jersey I will keep fighting.”
How it happened
The third stage of Itzulia Basque Country was talked up as the “wall” stage, with six category three climbs along its 162.8km route, and many more tough climbs where points would not be on offer.
The action kicked off practically as soon as the peloton left Errenteria, with Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Simon Geschke (Cofidis) establishing a small gap, with 148km to go.
This trio was soon inflated by three Frenchman joining them: Rémi Cavagna (Soudal…