Tour of the Basque Country 2015: Dumoulin wins stage, Purito takes overall

The Tour of the Basque Country closes with a 18.3 kilometres climbing time trial with super-steep hills. That suits 'anti time trialist' Joaquim Rodríguez, who crushes his opponents and takes the GC. Tom Dumoulin is in a class of his own and wins the stage. (Slideshow route/profile)

Tour of the Basque Country 2015: Race results stage 6

1. Tom Dumoulin (nld)
2. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa) + 0.04
3. Ion Izagirre (spa) + 0.05
4. Sergio Henao (col) + 0.17
5. Benat Intxausti (spa) + 0.21
6. Fabio Felline (ita) + 0.23
7. Nairo Quintana (col) + 0.30
8. Rui Costa (por) + 0.34
9. Rein Taaramae (est) + 0.36
10. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) + 0.37
11. Tony Martin (ger) + 0.42

General Classification Tour of the Basque Country 2015
1. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa)
2. Sergio Henao (col) + 0.13
3. Ion Izagirre (spa) + 0.29
4. Nairo Quintana (col) + 0.38
5. Simon Yates (gbr) + 0.46
6. Michele Scarponi (ita) + 1.06
7. Rui Costa (por) + 1.14
8. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) + 1.15
9. Ilnur Zakarin (rus) + 1.25
10. Thibaut Pinot (fra) + 1.33

Race Report
Bob Jungels is fastest at the intermediate check-point – 10’51”, besting Tony Martin by 0’01”.

The climbs are in the second part of the ITT and it’s there Tom Dumoulin opens fire. Tom Dumoulin storm to the finish line in an amazing 28’46”. Tony Martin finishes in 29’28” and Bob Jungels doesn’t even come close.

GC men
Then it’s up to the overall contenders. Kwiatkowski is fourth at the intermediate check-point, which is good, and at the finish his time is 29’23”, which is not good enough.

Ion Izaguirre finishes in 28’51″ and since he is only 0’28″ down on Henao and for a moment a suprise seems possible.

But it is not going to happen. Quintana races to 29’16”, Yates 29’29”, Purito 28″50″ and Henao 29’03. That’s a brilliant performance by Joaquim Rodríguez and he wins the Tour of the Basque Country 2015.