Hesjedal and Meier at Tour of Basque

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) was awarded third place in the first stage of the Tour of Basque today. After reviewing the sprint, officials relegated Oscar Freire (Rabobank), moving Hesjedal up on the results sheet.

The 50th edition of the Tour of Basque features six stages that include a number of challenging climbs and ends with a 22 kilometer time trial. Today’s first stage started and ended in Zierbena, Spain. This 152 kilometer stage featured five climbs all ranked either category two or three.

Hesjedal’s team mate, Christian Meier, spent the early part of today’s race in a five-man break. Meier is leading the King of the Mountains points race. About today’s race, Meier posted the following comments on Twitter: “Ryder and Dan in the front group, 3rd and 8th, good day for the team today I would say” and “Spent my day in the break, and they gave me a cool blue jersey for it, that’s cool..”