2022 Itzulia Basque Country Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 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
The start is immediately fast, with several riders trying to break away in the first few kilometers. After having covered seven, a squad of four men manages to take a slight margin: they are Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Cristian Rodriguez (TotalEnergies), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Tony Gallopin (Trek-Segafredo) , who manage to gain 20 "on the platoon at the foot of the first climb of the day, Elkorrieta. From behind, however, the attacks do not stop, with Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Tsgabu Grmay (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), then joined by Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH), quite active in trying to get back on the pacemakers, which remain in three, Azparren, in fact, loses contact due to a mechanical problem and is later overtaken by Oliveira, who has detached the other two counterattackers. Romain Combaud (Team DSM) and Igor Arrieta (Equipo Kern Pharma) and, shortly after, Lennard Kamna (Bora-hansgrohe), Kenny Elissonde (Trek) emerge from the group, whose delay has in the meantime increased to one minute. -Segafredo) e Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech). a squad of seven men with a delay of 1'10 ". The platoon, on the other hand, travels at a calm pace, facing the next uphill stretch (not valid as a GPM) with a delay of more than four minutes. Over the top of this last difficulty too, Oliveira and Azparren return to Formolo, Gallopin and Cristian Rodriguez, while the team of seven pursuers fails to get close, further losing ground and entering the last 100 kilometers of the race with a delay of 1'45 " . Even the group, pulled by Ineos Grenadiers, sees the delay increase and reach a maximum of 6'20 ", but later, along the second GPM of the day, the gap falls again. race, while behind are Combaud and Grmay to break away from the group of seven pursuers, who shortly after goes to pick up and detach Azparren (who will eventually be taken up by the group). In the subsequent ascent, that of Azurki, the pursuers also lose Kamna, Madrazo and Arrieta, while in front it is Rodriguez who struggles to maintain the pace of the other three, definitively losing contact a couple of kilometers from the brow. The group, where it is always the Ineos Grenadiers who do the bulk of the work, instead recovers a lot of ground in this phase, passing through the GPM with a delay of 3'43 ". Along the descent, some of the pursuers (specifically, Houle, Kamna , Elissonde and Arrieta) come together and go to reabsorb Rodriguez, while Madrazo, Grmay and Combaud are taken up by the platoon. Facing the fourth GPM of the day, Gorla, the five pursuers however see their delay grow to exceed 2'30 " , while the leading trio continues steadily throughout the climb.
At the top of Formolo, Oliveira and Gallopin pass with an advantage of 2'36 "over the group, which in the meantime has also taken up the squad of five pursuers. The situation remains the same. also during the subsequent descent and the flat stretch of 15 kilometers before the fifth roughness of the day, the terrible ascent of Krabelin, where the race explodes. In front, in fact, first Gallopin and then lose contact Oliveira, but it is above all in the group that things get interesting. In fact, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) accelerated just over 40 kilometers from the end, immediately followed by Martinez, Vlasov and Enric Mas (Movistar), while Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) initially did not react, preferring to climb the his step. Shortly afterwards, Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo), Vingegaard and Izagirre also return to the aforementioned riders, but Evenepoel later manages to get back on them, together with other riders. immediately hook Vingegaard, Vlasov, Martinez, followed by Soler and Izagirre, who pass the GPM with about fifty seconds of delay from Formolo (in turn passed with 29 "on Oliveira) and with about 15" of margin on Evenepoel. With the Belgian there are also Roglic, Lopez, Felix Gall (Ag2r Citroen) and Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious), while in front of them Bilbao and Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost) manage to return to the Martinez squad, which shortly after goes to reabsorb Oliveira, who immediately goes to work for Mas. The Spaniard himself, however, is the protagonist of a downhill fall, which essentially breaks the group in two: remaining in front are Bilbao, Izagirre, Vingegaard and Vlasov, who at the end of the descent return to Formolo. The others, excluding Mas and Oliveira, are instead taken up by the Evenepoel group, which begins the ascent of Urkaregi 30 "late by the five leaders. in pursuit, while at the head of the race the agreement still looks good. However, the pacemakers are unable to take off: at the GPM the yellow jersey group has only 27 "from the head of the race. Evenepoel is unleashed, then, downhill, managing to get back on the head of the race 15 kilometers from the end. At that point Izagirre and Martinez try to surprise him again, but the Belgian on the pass is unbeatable, so much so that he tries in turn to go on the attack. Eight then show up in Eibar, to approach the final climb. Here Evenepoel goes to make the sprint to the flying finish line, passing in front of Martinez and thus gaining only 1 "of rebate on the direct rival.
At about 8 kilometers from the conclusion, Formolo tries to stretch again, while Mäder, returned to the group of the best , sets the pace in favor of his teammate. The former Italian champion shows up at the foot of the final climb with an advantage of 9 ", which increases, however, up to almost a minute in the first ramps: in the group of there is, in fact, a lot of uncertainty. This allows Juan Pedro Lopez to return to the yellow jersey group and try the extension. The change of pace puts Evenepoel in difficulty, who definitively loses his wheels from the group of the best who have returned to the Cofidis man. Vlasov and Vingegaard try to go on the attack, but no one seems able to make a difference. Formolo is at the expense of this situation, who is caught by the group of the best, of which Izagirre is no longer a part: the Basque, in fact, ended up on the ground after a contact with Vingegaard's wheel. The Spaniard manages, however, to return in view of the brow. In the two kilometers of descent leading to the finish line, therefore, five of them are ready to compete for stage success: with Martinez now certain of success in the general classification there are, in fact, Vlasov, Vingegaard, Izagirre and Soler. The latter tries to anticipate the sprint, but Izagirre immediately goes to close on the compatriot and then goes to seize the stage success.
Get our full coverage of the Itzulia Basque Country and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
