Vuelta al País Vasco (st. 6)

Kiryienka, Rui Costa make overall top-15, unable to complete their goal of reaching the best ten in a dangerous ITT marked by terrible weather

Movistar Team couldn’t crown its huge level in the Vuelta al País Vasco –a stage win and two days in yellow by JJ Rojas- by getting Rui Costa or Vasil Kiryienka within the top ten riders overall. The Portuguese and the Belarusian fought until the very last meter of the dangerous, 18.9-kilometer course deciding the race in Oñati -with both Blues clocking the same time-, just fifteen seconds short for the first ten in the Itzulia, where David López made the final podium as the first local rider of the race (pic above).

The unstopping rain marked the showdown of the race into a technical, tricky course where Kiryienka took 14th in the GC, while Rui Costa jumped into 15th spot as Samuel Sánchez (EUS) took the double before Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT) and Bauke Mollema (RAB). Movistar Team set their sights now on the two races coming up on Sunday: Paris-Roubaix (10.10 CET, 257km) and, above all, the Klasika Primavera in Amorebieta (9.15 CET, 171km), closing the biggest week in Basque cycling and which will be a great opportunity for the telephone squad to increase their victory account in 2012, now in eight.