Tour of the Basque Country 2024: Rodriguez takes the one-day win, Ayuso the overall victory

With 17 kilometres to go, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) attacked on the final climb after a strong lead-out by his team-mate Marc Soler and left the previous overall leader Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) standing. Only compatriot Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) was able to follow the Spaniard, and the two then went on to decide the day's victory between themselves. In the end, the two riders had a lead of over 40 seconds on Mattias Skjelmose and overtook the Dane in the overall standings. This is Juan Ayuso's first overall victory in a World Tour race.

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

>> All stages of the Tour of the Basque Country 2024 at a glance

Tour of the Basque Country 2024: Results - the top 10 of stage 6

1. Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) 3:37:13
2. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
3. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +0:41
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:41
5. Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:41
6. Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) +1:31
7. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +1:31
8. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:31
9. Esteban Chaves (EF Education EasyPost) +1:33
10. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) +1:41

The final standings in the overall standings

1. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) 15:56:50
2. Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:42
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:43
4. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +1:23
5. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +1:46
6. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:48
7. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) +2:15
8. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +2:38
9. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) +3:06
10. Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +3:07

>> How the 5th stage went

This is how the 6th stage of the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country went

On the 138-kilometre final stage with start and finish in Eibar, a breakaway group of over 20 riders formed shortly after the start of the race. Among others, Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Esteban Chaves (EF Education EasyPost) and Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) were in this group. The peloton gave the leading group a maximum lead of four minutes.

With 70 kilometres to go, Marc Soler came out of the peloton and, with a show of strength, managed to catch up with the now decimated leading group, in which the lead over the peloton dwindled more and more.

It was then Mattias Skjelmose who launched his attack 29 kilometres from the finish and managed to distance himself from the runner-up in the overall standings: Maximilian Schachmann was unable to follow and had to bury his hopes of overall victory - in the end he finished 13th overall. Other classification riders around Ayuso and Rodriguez, however, were able to stay on the Dane's wheel. Ayuso then even launched a counterattack himself and opened up a gap to the previous overall leader. A short time later, however, Skjelmose managed to catch up with Ayuso again on a descent.

With 17 kilometres to go, Ayuso then launched his decisive attack with the help of his team-mate Soler, leaving Skjelmose behind and gradually widening his gap with Rodriguez on his wheel. Although the Ineos Grenadiers rider took the stage win at the finish, the overall victory in the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country went to Juan Ayuso.