Tour of the Basque Country: Schelling wins for Bora-Hansgrohe in Leitza

The 2nd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country took the riders over 193.8 kilometres from Viana to Leitza. In the end, Ide Schelling from Bora-Hansgrohe in the sprint of a thinned-out peloton ahead of Matteo Sobrero (Team Jayco-AlUla) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) through.

Second win of the season for Bora-Hansgrohe

For Bora-Hansgrohe it was only the second win of the season after Sam Bennett's success on stage 1 of the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina - the first at World Tour level.

>> All stages of the 2023 Tour of the Basque Country at a glance

The last mountain classification of the day on stage 2 of the Tour of the Basque Country was reached around five kilometres before the finish. From there it was a rapid descent to Leitza. Schelling cleverly took the lead early on the winding last kilometre and could no longer be caught. The Dutchman also took the lead in the overall standings of the 2023 Tour of the Basque Country.

Schelling criticises UCI

After the stage, however, the Dutchman criticised the finale of the stage and the cycling world governing body, the UCI, for allowing it. "It's a bit strange that the UCI authorised this finale. It was pretty dangerous. I started my sprint 500 metres before the finish and knew that nobody would be able to get past with all the bends," said Schelling.

Tour of the Basque Country 2nd stage results

1. Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) 4:53:33
2. Matteo Sobrero (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:00
3. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
4. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +0:00
5. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
6. Andrea Bagioli (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
7. Rigoberto Uran (EF Education EasyPost) +0:00
8. Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00
9. Simon Guglielmi (Arkea-Samsic) +0:00
10. Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) +0:00

The overall standings

1. Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) 8:54:47
2. Matteo Sobrero (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:04
3. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +0:06
4. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:07
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +0:08
6. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +0:10
7. Andrea Bagioli (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:10
8. Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:10
9. Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) +0:10
10. Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) +0:10