CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious star Pello Bilbao came close to securing a podium yesterday in the fourth stage of the 65th Itzulia Basque Country in Spain.
Bilbao crossed the finish line after 167.2 kilometres of racing in sixth place – 14 seconds behind Alex Aranburu of Cofidis, who won the leg in three hours 55 minutes and 15 seconds.
Tobias Halladn Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility followed as runner-up four seconds behind, while Christian Scaroni of XDS Astana Team joined them in the top three a further two seconds back.
Attila Valter was Bahrain Victorious’s second-best rider in 92nd yesterday, while Roman Ermakov finished 106th and Antonio Tiberi came 111th. Rainer Kepplinger was 113th and Oliver Stockwell 114th to round off the squad’s members.
With the stage four results, Bilbao climbed two places to 11th on the general classification, where he remained just under four minutes behind the race’s overall leader Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM Team.
Ermakov, on the other hand, dropped one spot to 15th on the best young rider rankings, also still led by Seixas.
In this year’s Itzulia Basque Country, the peloton will cover a total of 810.1km from Bilbao to Bergara, tackling a total of 16,404m of climbing.
The race continues today with the fifth and penultimate stage, set to cover 176.2km, starting and finishing in the Spanish city of Elbar.
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