Honoré, Cerny (DQT) triumph from early break in Ondarroa as GC remains untouched -Valverde still in 8th- prior to Saturday's seven climbs on its final, crucial stage.
The Itzulia Basque Country saw the early break taking the spoils in Ondarroa on Friday, at the end of the 160km stage five, with Deceunincks Mikkel Honoré (1st) and Josef Cerny (2nd) beating the peloton and his escape companions after a day where the three Cat-3 climbs did not witness any attacks from the GC contenders. Young American Brandon McNulty (UAD) remains in the yellow jersey, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) in 8th place overall.
The work by Caja Rural, Israel, EF-NIPPO, BikeExchange or Euskadi weren’t able to catch the strong, six-man breakaway, with three riders -the two DQTs and their ‘victim’, Julien Bernard (TFS, 3rd) staying away after San Miguel (Cat-3), and the Astana duo of Alex Aranburu and Omar Fraile also unable to bring them back despite their furious descent. Behind them, the Telefónica-backed squad did not suffer any incidents, as they kept ‘Bala’ well protected into the descents and technical sections prior to Saturday’s big mountain battle.
The stage six route will be a short, 112km trek, with no less than seven ascents: Arribinieta (Cat-3) at the very start, Elkorrieta (Cat-3), Azurki (Cat-1), Elosua (Cat-2), Krabelin (Cat-1; Arrate through its Azitain), Trabakua (Cat-3) and Usartza (Cat-1) en route to the Santuario de Arrate, the best known climb in modern Basque cycling.
Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport