Almeida does just enough, then outsprints furious Mas to win stage and GC in the Basque Country

João Almeida won the sixth and final stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, and with it, he confidently secured his position as leader. The Portuguese rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG did no favors on the final day to the strong Enric Mas, who was riding for Movistar and was frustrated by Almeida's passive racing. Mas did, however, finish second in the sprint.

The final stage of the Tour of the Basque Country usually guarantees a spectacle. Of course, there is no single flat meter in the Basque Country, and the last test was also quite difficult. Three thousand seven hundred meters of climbing can always make a difference. Just ask Mattias Skjelmose, who lost the lead to Juan Ayuso last year in the very last stage. João Almeida would have hoped it wouldn't happen to him because the Portuguese had a nice margin on paper. His team had already proven strong, but anything could still happen in the final stage!

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Front group falls apart on difficult hills

Such a large front group means that things are going fast. Soon, the group fell apart. They were dropped one by one, and soon, only about ten were left. Mollema was no longer among them, but the front group saw the peloton quickly catching up as the finale progressed. With two categorized climbs left to go, the difference had been reduced to 1:40 minutes: probably too little for any of the breakaway riders to make a real difference. On the second-to-last climb, the tough Izua (also featured in stage 4), the race completely exploded.

Healy once again pulled away. He again managed to ride away solo from his fellow breakaway riders, but leader Almeida felt very strong in the peloton. He went on an adventure of his own but could not break away from his biggest competitors. At the top of the second-to-last climb, his teammates Isaac Del Toro and Marc Soler were still with him, as were Enric Mas (Movistar), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), and his powerful teammate Thibau Nys. They picked up breakaway rider Jordan Jegat, but the other favorites were not far behind them except for Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). He was third in the GC but quickly lost more than a minute.

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Mas gets no gifts from Almeida

On the last climb of the day, in wet conditions, Almeida and Mas rode away from the rest of the pack, picking up Healy as an early breakaway rider. The three seemed to be riding away, but the chasing group was never far behind. Del Toro managed to catch up in the last ten kilometers after the Mexican had narrowly avoided Mattias Skjelmose, who crashed in the last descent.

UAE now had two men in the lead, but Almeida had no time to play nice with Del Toro. Mas attacked again in the hilly and soaking-wet final and was only joined by the Portuguese. Healy and Del Toro had to hope that the front would come to a standstill, but Mas continued to ride despite being annoyed by the passive Almeida in the green and yellow. Almeida took over a few times and outsprinted Mas for the victory. This also made him the overall winner in the Basque Country. Healy finished third.

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