2022 Itzulia Basque Country Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 of the 2022 Itzulia Basque Country is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
First seal in career for Carlos Rodriguez, winner of the fifth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country 2022. The young talent of the Ineos Grenadiers crowns in the best way a day spent in the attack, thus conquering the second consecutive success in the Spanish race for his team , who also celebrates for the second place of Daniel Felipe Martinez, winner yesterday. Third place for Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), who, thanks to a not brilliant Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), managed to gain an advantage in the final together with a group of runners including Martinez, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) , Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorios), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), the other protagonist of the breakaway of the day. The Belgian, who has gained more than a minute on Roglic, thus leaps to the top of the general classification with a 2 "advantage over Martinez on the eve of the last stage. However, no one is able to make the difference in this first phase, full of ups and downs. The group climbs almost compact at the first GPM, Paresi, continuing in this way also in the following very fast descent. The first hour of the race ends with 40 kilometers covered and still no escape, while the riders who had broken away previously manage to rejoin the platoon. Shortly after, Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) try to do so, the latter already very active in earlier, with the British remaining alone after a few kilometers, although he was later joined by Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious).
First try to take advantage of a group of 21 men, then, after having entered the last 100 kilometers of the race, there are seven to go on the attack. These are Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo), Lucas Hamilton (Team BikeEchange-Jayco) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), with Roger Adrià (Burgos-BH) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain Victorious) trying unsuccessfully to join this squad. The group initially concedes 1'20 "to these forwards, but later gets closer to 45"; the presence of Bilbao, which is only 19 "behind the leader of the general Roglic, does not allow to leave too much room for the attackers, among whom there is a bit of nervousness, probably due to the presence of the Basque player. and Samitier then try to relaunch, taking a little margin over the others, while Bilbao understands that his presence would not allow the attempt to be successful, so he gets up and gets caught up by the platoon. Kuss, Soler, Rodriguez and Elissonde they go back to Hamilton and Samitier, thus overcoming the half of the stage with an advantage of 1'15 "and approaching the third climb together. On the Gantzegaraigana GPM, where the group decides to slow down, Hamilton and Soler try to lengthen, being quickly joined by Elissonde and Rodriguez, while Kuss and Samitier fail to do the same, yielding 30 "to the brow. The subsequent descent, however. , sees Hamilton protagonist of a fall in a curve, with the Australian who overturns over the guard rail, luckily landing among the bushes. Despite the apparent absence of physical problems, the BikeExchange-Jayco rider decides to retire anyway, so three remain in front with a margin of 30 "over the immediate pursuers and 2'50" over the platoon.
With the road going up again towards the Trabakua GPM, Elissonde loses contact from Rodriguez and Soler, while Samitier manages to detach Kuss, he was later taken up by the group, which however continues to lose ground from the pacemakers despite the work of Jumbo-Visma and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl. now four minutes, while that of Elissonde, subsequently joined by Samitier, is over one minute. Entering the long final circuit, the ups and downs continue, but the leading couple continues to maintain just under 4 'of margin despite Rodriguez stops collaborating with Soler for flagship orders. After the intermediate sprint in Mallabia and after another uphill stretch (not valid as a GPM), the platoon, however, accelerates again thanks to the arrival in the lead of men from Bahrain Victorious, whose pace allows them to go and catch Samitier and Elissonde and to lower the gap by about thirty seconds.
The real acceleration of the group, however, occurs in the stretch of slight slope that precedes the last GPM of the day, Karabieta, which the two attackers approach with an advantage of just over two minutes. The work of Bahrain Victorious and, later, of Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) allows to get even closer to the leading couple and to skim the group, where about 20-25 men remain. At that point, with still 15 kilometers to go, to accelerate is Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), immediately followed by Daniel Felipe Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) , Enric Mas (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorios) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), while Roglic, who appears not particularly bright, does not react. This squad quickly manages to gain 30 "on the Yellow Jersey group, reaching half a minute from the two leaders.
At this point, Rodriguez (who has continued not to give changes to Soler) decides to accelerate and detaches his companion, climbing the hill with 30 "on the chasing squad, who shortly afterwards went to absorb Soler, and thus entered the last 13 kilometers of the race, half of which were downhill. Despite the quality of his pursuers, the young Spaniard always manages to keep an advantage of about half a minute even once the descent has finished and the final uphill stretch towards the arrival of Mallabia has begun. Only in the last 500 meters, where the road rears up reaching slopes of 16%, does the Ineos Grenadiers runner go into difficulty, however managing to be the first to cross the finish line with a 7 "advantage over his teammate Martinez and with 9" over Evenepoel , respectively first and second of the sprint of the beaten. The Roglic group, whose delay from Evenepol had increased in the previous kilometers, instead arrives at the finish with 1'15 "from the winner of the day, with the Slovenian who must thus hand over the symbol of primacy to the Belgian.
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