Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) stole away from the day's decisive breakaway on an uncategorised climb and raced alone for 55km into the stage 5 victory at the Itzulia Basque Country.
The Irishman crossed the finish line 1:47 ahead of the solo chaser Axel Laurance (Ineos-Grenadiers), and 1:48 ahead of the reduced group sprint won by Simone Velasco (XDS Astana Team) in Gernika-Lumo.
"I had good legs today and glad I could finish it off in the end like I did," Healy said in a post-race interview. "We had two guys in the breakaway and it was a strong group, and we didn't want to risk it, so I went in the tailwind, had good legs today, keep a gap and made it stick to the line."
In the overall classification, Joāo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continues to lead the race by 30 seconds ahead of Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-QuickStep) and 38 seconds ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), all having finished safely in the reduced group.
How it unfolded
The peloton reached the penultimate stage 5 of the Itzulia Basque Country, tackling a 172.3km route from Urduña to Gernika-Lumo. The route was hilly, with four category-three climbs at Las Campas, Sarasola, Aretxabalgane, and Errigoiti. But that wasn't the end of the climbing because in the last 40km of the race, they still covered three more uncategorised ascents and smaller pitches before a run into Gernika-Lumo.
Attacks over the Las Campas ascent early in the race thinned out the peloton and led to a few short lived breakaways, but it wasn't until the 20km mark that a breakaway of six set off that initially included Healy and his teammate Alex Baudin, and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), who were later joined by Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling).
Barguil was the highest-placed in this group's GC standings, but at nearly five minutes behind, the move did not threaten race leader João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
UAE Team Emirates-XRG managed the pace at the front of the field and the gap to the breakaway, which hovered between two and three minutes, as the race approached the halfway point. Groupama-FDJ and Movistar added a few riders to the front, too, bringing the gap down to under two minutes with 60km to go.
The breakaway reached the first of the late-race uncategorised climbs, 55km out, where Healy attacked out of the move and raced over the top pushing his lead out to a minute ahead of Bilbao, Barguil, Alaphilippe and Baudin sitting on the back, while Armirail fell off pace.
He gained time on the four chasers, he also gained 2:30 on the field led by Ineos-Grenadiers, later joined by Cofidis and Equipo Kern Pharma.
The reduced peloton picked up Amirail and slashed the gap to Bilbao, Baudin, Barguil and Alaphilippe to under a minute as they reached another uncategorised climb with 35km remaining.
With speed and skill, Healy bombed the next descent, extending his lead to nearly three minutes over the field, while the four chasers were reabsorbed into the group across the valley roads and into the final ascent of the stage.
The reduced group behind included all of the major general classification riders, who watched one another for any attacks. Axel Laurance (Ineos-Grenadiers) accelerated and briefly cleared the field, but a quick pace from Enric Mas (Movistar) brought him back into the fold.
Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) was the next to go, followed by Floria Lipowitz (Red Bull-Hansgrohe). As the pair were reeled in, Aranburu went again but this time the Spanish Champion was joined by race leader Almeida and then the rest of the group.
Healy descended again and raced through the valley roads with six kilometres to go and into one last, smaller pitch, holding his gap at more than two minutes, the victory sewn up.
Over the small climbs on the run-in to the finish, Laurance attacked again, this time gaining a few seconds on the field that seemed marginally content to let him go. The Frenchman held on to finish second on the day, crossing the line just one second ahead of the sprint for third, won by Velasco.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
