Jonas Vingegaard seals Itzulia Basque Country win as he takes epic solo win on the final day

Cycling
Saturday, 08 April 2023 at 17:43
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Jumbo-Visma had a strong week at Itzulia Basque Country. Jonas Vingegaard has attacked alone and won the final stage of the Basque race whilst comfortably sealing the overall classification.
The day had a difficult start and as expected a strong race went up the road. Esteban Chaves, Emanuel Buchmann, Steven Kruijswijk, Rein Taaramäe, Ruben Guerreiro, Bruno Armirail, Daniel Martínez, Eddie Dunbar, Harm Vanhoucke, Marc Hirschi, Attila Valter and Valentin Paret-Peintre formed a very strong group that endangered the stage's result, the overall classification and provided riders to bridge across to.
Bahrain - Victorious controlled the race throughout it's opening kilometers, with the gap at 1:30 minutes at it's maximum, as Jumbo-Visma had two riders in front. Vingegaard was in a comfortable position, continuing at Krabelin as Bahrain pushed the pace. In front the group was reduced to four riders, with Jumbo's Valter and Kruijwijk joining Ruben Guerreiro and Esteban Chaves.
The gap was always small and controlled. All the way into Itzua the group was joined by Mauro Schmid as Cofidis helped with the case behind. In that ascent the race finally blew up, as all the breakaway riders were caught. Ion Izagirre launched an attack, and over the top Jonas Vingegaard launched two accelerations which could not be matched by anyone. Enric Mas, Mikel Landa and Ion Izagirre were the closest chasers, but they were caught by other riders behind, and they joined others up front.
The large group had to pursue a solo Vingegaard however, and in the technical descent that was not possible. Everyone else was riding for second place as the Dane took risks in the descent and then kept the pace in the final ascent of the day. Vingegaard rode to a magnificent solo win, his third of the week, second in the yellow jersey, and the first with a long-distance move. He comfortably sealed the overall win.
The rolling terrain behind saw plenty riders attacking over each other but with difficulties to create further differences on the road. James Knox launched a late move to finish second in the day, whilst Ion Izagirre sprinted to third leading in the chasing group.

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