The Frenchman Romain Grégoire won the fifth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Friday at Amorebieta-Etxano, marked by a new fall, notably involving the Spaniard Mikel Landa, the day after the abandonments of the favorites Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel.
The Groupama-FDJ rider won in the sprint on the line, ahead of the Venezuelan Orluis Aular and the German Maximilian Schachmann, to sign a first victory on the World Tour circuit, at 21 years old.
This is the second French success on Basque roads after that of Paul Lapeira during the second stage.
“It was a pretty crazy stage, very fast all day and it feels really good to win” reacted Romain Grégoire on Eurosport.
“I was really ideally led by Quentin (Pacher), he really put me in a perfect position at the 500 meters. I really had to push myself to the line and for a minute or two after the finish I didn’t know if I had won! he added.
The French hope carried out the good operation of the day by taking fifth place in the general classification, upset since the withdrawals on Thursday of the favorites Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel after a heavy fall.
The Dane Vingegaard is the most affected with a pneumothorax and a pulmonary contusion, fractures to the clavicle and ribs, and could see his goal of winning a third consecutive Tour de France seriously complicated.
On Friday, it was the Spaniard Mikel Landa who was forced to abandon after another fall, just like his teammate Gil Gelders, a day after losing his leader Evenepoel, who fractured his shoulder blade and collarbone. RIGHT.
Transported to hospital, Landa also suffered a broken collarbone according to his Soudal Quick-Step team.
The Dane Mattias Skjelmose, runner-up to Roglic before his retirement, retains his yellow jersey and the lead of the race for two short seconds ahead of the German Schachmann, third in the stage and four over the Spaniard Juan Ayuso.
Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin is still well placed at the foot of the podium, six seconds behind Skjelmose.
Everything should therefore be decided on Saturday on the sixth and final stage around Eibar, with seven climbs listed on the program including three first category passes, which could have been the scene