Radstar Primoz Roglic from the German Bora-hansgrohe team successfully defended his overall lead in the 63rd Tour of the Basque Country.
One day after his victory in the individual time trial, the Slovenian reached the finish line in the peloton on the second stage over 160 kilometers from Irun to Cambo-les-Bains, thus keeping his two big rivals Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) and Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) further behind him . The day’s victory in the sprint went to the Frenchman Paul Lapeira ahead of the Italian Samuele Battistella.
Roglic is now ten seconds ahead of Dane Mattias Skjelmose. Time trial world champion Evenepoel, who was slowed down by a fall the day before, and Vingegaard are third and fourth, 11 and 15 seconds behind. Berlin’s Maximilian Schachmann is still doing well in the race in seventh place overall.
The Basque Country tour, which ends in Eibar on Saturday, has a top-class line-up. Only the two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar is not among the top tour riders. On Wednesday it will be much more strenuous for the riders on the third stage. There are six mountain classifications on the 160-kilometer route from Ezpeleta to Altsusa.
