Daniel Martínez wins Itzulia Basque Country as Ion Izagirre takes final stage win

Cofidis have struck a big win as Ion Izagirre put on a stellar performance to take the win in the final stage of Itzulia Basque Country. The Basque handled all the attacks that devastated the queen stage, and despite crashing in the final climb, he returned to the GC group and took the win in the downhill sprint.

The early kilometers of the stage saw several groups go up the road, with the race never achieving a stable position. Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team), Cristian Rodríguez (TotalEnergies) and Xabier Azparren (Euskalter-Euskadi). Several riders were intermediate, but that was the head of the race which got a maximum gap of 6 minutes.

INEOS took control of the race until the Krabelin ascent where fireworks were expected. Soon they did as Primoz Roglic attacked, blowing up the GC group and seeing Remco Evenepoel dropped. Mas and Vingegaard attacked towards the top making for a small group which was chasing Formolo who went solo on the climb.

As Martínez was dropped, disaster struck Movistar as Mas and Oliveira crashed in the descent, leaving the GC group scrambled again as Martínez and Evenepoel worked together to reach the front, and even attack in the run-up to the final climb as there was a lull in the pace, leading to a flurry of moves.

Formolo was caught but attacked before the final ascent, and lead most of the final ascent to Arrate, but attack from Izagirre and mostly Vlasov closed the gap. Ion Izagirre tumbled as he hit the wheel of Vingegaard in there, and a small group went over the climb in front paced by Martínez who was consolidating his GC win.

A group of five went into the finish, and experienced proved crucial as Ion Izagirre hit the front at the right time and held the front across the dangerous finale in Arrate. Aleksandr Vlasov and Marc Soler completed the podium, followed by Daniel Martínez who took enough time on Evenepoel to snatch the yellow jersey.