"I lost my stability and hit the barriers" - Sergio Higuita explains Itzulia Basque Country incident near finish

Sergio Higuita had the strength yesterday in the third stage of the Itzulia Basque Country to have disputed the race with Jonas Vingegaard. He looked good in the final ultra-steep ramps of stage 3, but he had a mishap that made him stop and lost any chance of victory.

The key was that Higuita chose to go on the inside to overtake Juan Pedro Lopez who was a few meters ahead and was losing power. The Spanish rider was practically stopped due to the high gradient of the final climb and Higuita found himself without a gap between the Trek-Segafredo rider and the fences, which almost caused a crash and left the victory on a plate to Vingegaard. Higuita and then Richard Carapaz had to put a foot down, and Enric Mas was touched as well in the moment.

This is how the Colombian BORA - hansgrohe rider explained what happened after the stage: "I wanted to set the pace in the last 300 meters. So I tried to attack then and I moved on the right side to pass and then I lost my stability and hit the barriers. It was bad luck, it was a very good opportunity for us."

He finished the stage in 15th place 20 seconds down on Vingegaard, but remains an outsider for the overall classification.