The Spaniard of the Astana – Premier Tech team Ion Izagirre won the 4th stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, ahead of his compatriot Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and the American Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates) who took the opportunity to take the yellow leader’s jersey in Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).
One UAE Emirates runner can hide another! While Tadej Pogacar did everything in the last two days to make up for lost time on Primoz Roglic during the opening time trial of the Tour of the Basque Country, it was his teammate Brandon McNulty who took the yellow leader’s jersey. this Thursday, two days before arrival. Second in Monday’s time trial, the 23-year-old American was in ambush, thirty seconds behind Roglic on Thursday morning, and he succeeded perfectly to take the yellow jersey. The Phoenix native attacked on the last descent, 22 kilometers from the finish, along with five other riders (Chaves, Bilbao, Vingegaard, Izaguirre and Buchmann), and the six men hit it off and held on until at the end, to win with 49 seconds ahead of the Roglic-Pogacar group.
Izagirre at the photo finish
If McNulty, whose biggest race on the record is the Tour of Sicily 2019 (he finished 15th in the last Giro, however), takes the yellow jersey, the stage victory goes to Ion Izagirre. The Basque from the Astana – Premier Tech team narrowly won in this five-a-side sprint (Chaves came a little behind) ahead of another Basque, Pello Bilbao. The third of the last Paris-Nice signs his first victory since the 6th stage of the Vuelta 2020. At the end of this stage which will have seen Primoz Roglic accelerate from the 90th kilometer to return to Omar Fraile (things quickly returned to order) and Guillaume Martin form the breakaway of the day with Ben O’Connor, Jefferson Cepeda, and Juan Pedro López (they were caught 40km from the finish, in the penultimate pass), Brandon McNulty is now 23 seconds ahead of Primoz Roglic and 28 over the surprising Dane Jonas Vingegaard. Tadej Pogacar dropped to fifth place, 43 seconds behind his teammate. On Friday, 160 kilometers will be on the program, with three third category climbs.
WORLD TOUR / TOUR OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY
Classification of the 4th stage (Vitoria-Gasteiz – Hondarribia, 189.2km) – Thursday April 8, 2021
1- Ion Izagirre (ESP / Astana – Premier Tech) in 4h17’07
2- Pello Bilbao (ESP / Bahrain-Victorious) mt
3- Brandon McNulty (USA / UAE Emirates) mt
4- Jonas Vingegaard (DAN / Jumbo-Visma) mt
5- Emanuel Buchmann (ALL / Bora-Hansgrohe) mt
6- Esteban Chaves (COL / BikeExchange) at 2 ″
7- Patrick Bevin (NZL / Israel Start-Up Nations) at 49 ″
8- James Knox (GBR / Deceuninck-Quick Step) at 49 ″
9- Quinen Hermans (BEL / Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux) at 49 ″
10- Alejandro Valverde (ESP / Movistar) at 49 ″
…
General classification (after 4 out of 6 stages)
1- Brandon McNulty (USA / UAE Team Emirates) in 12h25’21
2- Primoz Roglic (SLO / Jumbo-Visma) at 23 ″
3- Jonas Vingegaard (DAN / Jumbo-Visma) at 28 ″
4- Pello Bilbao (ESP / Bahrain-Victorious) at 36 ″
5- Tadej Pogacar (SLO / UAE Team Emirates) at 43 ″
6- Adam Yates (GBR / Ineos Grenadiers) at 1’02
7- Emanuel Buchmann (ALL / Bora-Hansgrohe) at 1’07
8- Alejandro Valverde (ESP / Movistar) at 1’13
9- Ion Izagirre (ESP / Astana – Premier Tech) at 1’15
10- Mikel Landa (ESP / Bahrain-Victorious) at 1’23
…
