Poels pounces in Pais Vasco queen stage

Dutchman Wout Poels (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) soloed to victory on Thursday’s queen stage by attacking a select group on the final Cat. 1 climb of the day. Poels’ performance bumped him up to 9th all around. Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) managed to chip away two seconds from race leader Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff-Saxo) and now sits 12-seconds behind “Bertie” with two stages to go.

A breakaway that formed before the first of five Cat. 1 and 2 ascents didn’t last much longer than the first “tooth” of the profile, but a new trio emerged on the second climb and reinforcements came from Europcar and Movistar. The hardest mountain of the day was the middle of the five, and it was on the Cat. 1 Alto de Ixua that one of the escapees, Lampre’s Croat Kristijan Durasek, scurried away from the others, but on the down slope the quintet reformed, this time with Benat Intxuasti replacing José Herrada as the Movistar man in the move.

The break rolled over the penultimate climb with first Tinkoff-Saxo and then Omega Pharma whipping the peloton behind it. The escape was captured just before the final climb, and once the road kicked up, a flurry of attacks began, including an early dig from Poels. However, the battle between Contador and Valverde was where the action was, with Contador surging on three occasions; each time Valverde answered the call.

Ryder Hesjedal didn’t find the Alto de Usartxa to his liking and went off the back as a pack of a dozen riders skirmished at the tip of the spear. Poels lit out with Thibault Pinot (France/FDJ) and Simon Spilak (Slovenia/Katusha) but Poels’ move with 3-km to go was the decisive one. He crested the Usartxa and dropped down to the finish line in Eibar.

Valverde and Sammy Sanchez (Spain/BMC) managed to gap the rest of the favourites by two seconds.

Damiano Cunego’s 9th place on the day lifted Lampre’s Italian to 3rd on GC, as Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland/Omega Pharma) faded in the final kilometre. However, Cunego is tied with three others including Cadel Evans (Australia/BMC) 36-seconds back of the race leader.

Hesjedal finished 29th, 1:57 back of Poels, while Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) placed 119th, coming in with l’autobus 22:18 after the Dutch winner. Hesjedal dropped a place from 25th to 26th on GC and Meier is 109th.

Friday promises more climbing for the peloton, with a Cat. 2 hill peaking 9-km from the finish line in Xemein.