Stage 5 was another hilly day at the Tour of the Basque Country - but not difficult enough for the classification riders. Accordingly, this stage looked promising for an escape group. In the end, Ben Healy (EF Education - Easy Post) - and he did so in impressive style: 56 kilometres before the finish, the Irishman broke away from a breakaway group and then kept the peloton at bay as a soloist. At the finish line after 172 kilometres, his lead was 1:47 minutes.

Lipowitz with several increases in speed in the final

However, the peloton caught up with the remaining breakaway riders in the finale. On the last uncategorised climb of the day, 15 kilometres before the finish, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) attacked with three bursts of speed, but failed to pull away from overall leader Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates - XRG). In the end, the classification riders crossed the finish line together in Gernika-Lumo - only Alex Laurence (INEOS Grenadiers attacked in the final kilometres and secured second place, one second ahead of the competition. Third place in the sprint went to Simone Velasco (XDS Astana Team).

In the overall standings, Almeida thus defended his lead of 30 seconds over Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step) and 38 seconds on Lipowitz.

"We had two riders in the leading group and wanted to take a risk. We also had a tailwind and I had good legs. I then pushed through to the finish line. My form is good and I came here with GC ambitions. But the heat over the past few days has shocked my body a bit. Luckily it cooled down a bit today," said Healy in the winner's interview.

Tour of the Basque Country 2025 - Results of stage 5

>> Results of the Tour of the Basque Country 2025 at a glance

>> Tour of the Basque Country 2025: route, stages, TV coverage & start list

>> Tour of the Basque Country: Schachmann wins the opening race by a matter of seconds

This is how the 5th stage of the Tour of the Basque Country 2025 went

On the first climb of the day after 17 kilometres in Las Campas, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) as well as Ben Healy and Alex Baudin (EF Education - Easy Post) initiated the day's escape group. A few kilometres later, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon - Ag2r La Mondiale), Warren Barguil (Picnic - PostNL) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) caught up with the trio. Meanwhile, the group did not get much of a lead, the maximum gap to the field was initially 2:30 minutes.

Bruno Armirail takes the mountain jersey on his birthday

The four categorised climbs (all 3rd category) of the day were all within the first hundred kilometres, which was enough for Armirail to take the lead in the mountain classification again. The Frenchman also celebrated his 31st birthday on this stage. However, the terrain remained undulating without a mountain classification.

With 56 kilometres to go, Healy then broke away from his companions and quickly opened up a one-minute lead on his chasers Bilbao, Barguil, Alaphilippe and team-mate - Armirail dropped back. And as a soloist, Healy even increased the gap to the peloton to 2:45 minutes before, in particular INEOS Grenadiers and Cofidis were endeavouring to increase the pace at the front. But 35 kilometres before the finish, this endeavour came too late.

Ben Healy hardly loses any time as a soloist

Healy's lead over his pursuers also grew steadily to over two minutes - 20 kilometres before the finish, the remaining escapees were swallowed up by the peloton. However, Healy defended his lead and, remarkably, hardly lost any time.

On the last categorised climb of the day, Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) and especially Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) tried to break away from the other classification riders and isolate the overall leader Joao Almeida with several attacks. However, everything always rolled back together. A group of around 30 riders formed. However, it was no longer possible to catch the leader Healy.