Tour of the Basque Country 2024: After Roglic's crash: Hermans wins stage 3

On the 191 kilometre long 3rd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country from Ezpeleta to Altsasu, there was a bunch sprint in the finale. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) opened the sprint early on. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) then latched onto his rear wheel, who shortly afterwards came out of the slipstream, passed the Spaniard and ultimately won by more than a bike length. Aranburu was no longer able to complete his sprint, meaning that the Italian Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain-Victorious) was also able to catch him.

Roglic crash ends lightly

On a long descent, overall leader Primoz Roglic fell 39 kilometres before the finish. The captain of the German team Bora-Hansgrohe quickly got back on his feet, but then conferred with the team officials at the team car. He had abrasions on his hip and kept holding his head, but then decided to continue the race anyway. Well over two minutes behind the peloton, he got back on his racing bike and was led back to the peloton by his team-mates Matteo Sobrero and Emanuel Buchmann in a show of strength. In the end, the Slovenian did not lose any time in the overall classification and remains the overall leader.

"It was fantastic to cross the finish line in first place. The team did an outstanding job. They believed in me that I could win today and put me in the perfect position." - Quinten Hermans in the winner interview

>> The results of the Tour of the Basque Country 2024 at a glance

Tour of the Basque Country 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 3

1. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4:40:59
2. Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
3. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +0:00
4. Davide de Pretto (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:00
5. Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
6. Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00
7. Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
8. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:00
9. Vito Braet (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
10. Valentin Reatilleau (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00

Tour of the Basque Country 2024: the overall standings

1. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) 8:36:01
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:07
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:10
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:14
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:14
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

>> How the 2nd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country went

This is how the 3rd stage of the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country went

There were numerous attacks from the peloton at the start of the race. Riders led by the German Felix Engelhardt (Team Jayco-AlUla) and later also Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty) and Quinten Hermans tried to break away from the peloton - but this endeavour failed. As a result, the race was bumpy for a long time and it took 62 kilometres before four riders were finally able to break away: Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies), Tom Paquot (Intermarche-Wanty), Eric Antonio Fagundez (Burgos-BH) and James Fouche (Euskaltel-Euskadi) formed the leading group of the day

Breakaway without a chance on stage 3

Among others, the German team Bora-Hansgrohe took care of the chase in the peloton. The peloton did not really let the breakaway go on the tough stage with a total of six mountain classifications, and the leaders had a maximum lead of four minutes. 42 kilometres before the finish, the four riders were swallowed up by the peloton on a descent.

A short time later, the overall leader Primoz Roglic crashed. Thanks to a show of strength from his helpers Emanuel Buchmann and Matteo Sobrero, he was escorted back into the peloton 25 kilometres before the finish.

Meintjes secures the mountain jersey

Louis Meintjes pulled away a little on the final climb and the South African managed to open up a gap to the peloton. He won the final mountain classification and can wear the mountain jersey tomorrow. Meintjes was then dropped again. Shortly afterwards, Remco Evenepoel took three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint.

Hectic finale

Events then came thick and fast in the final kilometres: First Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Gorka Izagirre (Cofidis) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) broke away from the peloton, but were caught again three kilometres before the finish. Moments later, there was a big crash in which Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) also went down. The Spaniard crumpled on the ground, but was eventually able to continue the race.

In the finale, Quinten Hermans proved to have the best instincts, riding to victory from behind Alex Aranburu in a bunch sprint. The best German on stage 3 was Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) in fifth place. Despite the crashes of Roglic and Ayuso, there were only minimal shifts in the overall standings.