Tour of the Basque Country 2019: Schachmann cements lead with win in 3rd stage

Pre-race favourite Alaphilippe crashes in the finale of the 3rd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country before Schachmann powers to victory on the 2 kilometres uphill at 4% to the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Estíbaliz. Ulissi comes in second, Battaglin in third. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 3rd stage Tour of the Basque Country 2019

1. Maximilian Schachmann (ger)
2. Diego Ulissi (ita) s.t.
3. Enrico Battaglin (ita) s.t.
4. Marc Hirschi (swi) s.t.
5. Ion Izagirre (spa) s.t.
6. Jon Aberasturi (spa) s.t.
7. Adam Yates (gbr) s.t.
8. Bauke Mollema (nld) s.t.
9. Carlos Quintero spa) s.t.
10. Grega Bole s.t. (slo) s.t.

GC after stage 3
1. Maximilian Schachmann (ger)
2. Ion Izagirre (spa) + 0.33
3. Patrick Konrad (aut) s.t.
4. Daniel Felipe Martínez (col) + 0.48
5. Daniel Martin (irl) + 0.49
6. Emanuel Buchmann (ger) + 0.51
7. Pello Bilbao (spa) + 0.54
8. Dylan Teuns (bel) + 1.11
9. Mikel Landa (spa) + 1.16
10. Sam Oomen (nld) s.t.

11. Jakob Fuglsang (den) + 1.17
20. Adam Yates (gbr) + 1.41
34. Enric Mas (spa) + 2.21
62. Geraint Thomas (gbr) + 6.38
70. Michal Kwiatkowki + 9.48
77. Julian Alaphilippe (fra) + 12.24

Race report
It takes 15 kilometres for Bernard, Skujins, Sessler, Hernandez and Rojas five riders to open up a gap. King, Armiral and Bravo bridges across to make it eight at the front and they race to a lead of 4 minutes before the peloton brings it back to less than 3 minutes.

A crash with 6 kilometres remaining takes down Alaphilippe, Thomas, Martínez, Kwiatkowski and Mas. A little later the last escapees, Skujins, Rojas, King and Armiral, are reeled in.

Lutsenko and Ulissi opens the uphill sprint to the Santuary, but have no answer when Schachmann overhauls them with a powerful sprint to add to his overall lead.

As a result of the crash numbers two and three, Alaphilippe and Kwiatkowski, fall down on GC, while fourth placed Martínez also loses time, although he is still in contention. Ion Izagirre now sits in second at 33 seconds with Schachmann’s team-mate Patrick Konrad in third on the same time.

Another interesting read: route 3rd stage Tour of the Basque Country 2019.