Tour of the Basque Country 2024: Crashes in the finale: Lapeira wins stage 2

After 160 kilometres between Irun and Kanbo, the 2nd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country saw a chaotic sprint from a thinned-out field. Frenchman Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took the win ahead of Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal - Quicke Step).

"I had already tried to attack a kilometre and a half before the finish. But then I pulled out again, went back into the slipstream of my team-mate and started my sprint from there. That was exactly the right decision," said Paul Lapeira in the winner's interview.

Tour of the Basque Country 2024: Primoz Roglic defends overall lead on stage 2

Bora-Hansgrohe captain Primoz Roglic finished in the first group and defended his overall lead. There were minor shifts behind him. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) made up one and two seconds respectively on Roglic thanks to bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint shortly before the finish. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), on the other hand, was 23 seconds behind the first group and had to cede his second place to Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).

His team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart was involved in a crash with several riders around four kilometres before the finish, reached the finish 3:41 minutes behind and had to bury his classification ambitions. A short time later there was another crash: Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) skidded off in a left-hand bend and skidded across the road. The Frenchman reached the finish line with a deficit, but was given the same time as the winner due to the three-kilometre rule.

Tour of the Basque Country 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 2

1. Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 3:42:28
2. Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00
3. Louis Vervaeke (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
4. Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) +0:00
5. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +0:00
6. Guillermo Thomas Silva (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) +0:00
7. Valentin Retailleau (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00
8. Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) +0:00
9. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
10. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00

The overall standings

1. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) 3:55:02
2. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:10
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:10
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:14
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:15
6. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:16
7. Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:16
8. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:23
9. Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:24
10. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:25

>> Results of the Tour of the Basque Country 2024 at a glance

>> All stages & the start list of the Tour of the Basque Country 2024

This is how the 2nd stage of the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country went

A quintet formed the breakaway group of the day: Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies), Enekoitz Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ivan Cobo (Equipo Kern Pharma), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Xabier Azparren (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) broke away shortly after the start. Bol secured the three points on the only mountain classification of the day at Saint-Ignace and will therefore wear the mountain prize jersey on Wednesday on behalf of Primoz Roglic.

Cobo was caught by the peloton 83 kilometres before the finish, while his three escape companions remained at the front with a lead of around 3:30 minutes. In the peloton, Bora-Hansgrohe controlled the race for overall leader Primoz Roglic. The German team later received support from Ineos Grenadiers, Groupama-FDJ and Soudal - Quick Step.

Crashes in the final of stage 2

With 13 kilometres to go, the four remaining breakaway riders were caught by the peloton. At the intermediate sprint, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) secured three bonus seconds, ahead of his team-mate Juan Ayuso and Remco Evenepoel. Four kilometres before the finish there was a crash in the peloton, in which Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) was also involved. The winner of the 2020 Giro d'Italia quickly resumed his ride, but was a long way behind (3:41 minutes).

Two kilometres before the finish there was another crash - Romain Gregoire of Groupama-FDJ slipped away on the wet road in second place in the peloton. Visma | Lease a Bike briefly took command of the thinned-out peloton before Lapeira launched his first attack around one and a half kilometres from the finish, which was countered by Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and others.

Chaotic sprint

The sprint for victory was chaotic. Lapeira came to the front with a team-mate 650 metres before the finish. There were a few bumps behind him. However, all the riders were able to stay on their bikes. Lapeira went into the wind 150 metres before the finish and won ahead of Battistella and Vervaeke.