Tour of Basque News
Update from the second stage of the Tour of Basque.
The second stage of the Tour of Basque covered 217 kilometers today and ended in rather mixed fashion for Canadians Ryder Hesjedal and Christian Meier, both racing for Garmin-Transitions.
In the last kilometer, Hesjedal jumped and looked to be honing in on the win, but the run into the finish was a bit long. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) took the win and Hesjedal finished in 6th position.
Meier was having a good ride until he was unfortunately taken down on one of the last climbs of the race. Meier still leads the sprint classification points race, also known as the Meta Volante classification.
Meier sent along a few words about today’s stage:
Today went pretty well, a long day in the saddle, but the team rode well and helped get the intermediate sprint points that were left on the road, extending my lead in the Meta Volante classification (don’t actually have the KOM jersey). I was hoping to be there to help Ryder and Dan in the finish but unfortunately crashed on the last climb. Nothing serious but it was a crucial moment and the director said to just save energy and wait for the group behind. The main goal for the team here is definitely the general classification with both Ryder and Dan on very good form. I think we can do something good this week. Tomorrow looks to be a somewhat tame day but here in the Basque country no day is a walk in the park and sometimes the easiest days can turn out to be the most difficult.
