The Vuelta al País Vasco ended with a really hard TT of 18,3km that would be decisive for the GC. The parcours was identical to the last 18,3km of yesterday’s stage, including the very steep climb, with percentages up to 28%, on the final. Bauke Mollema, TRek's main GC-contender, decided not to take the start after his bad crash yesterday. He’s getting some rest now in order to recover as soon as possible for for the Ardennes Classics coming soon.

Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) took the stage win while Joaquín Rodríguez (Team Katusha) took the overall classification. Fabio Felline, who earlier this week showed his good shape by winning the second stage in Vitoria, threw down a really nice TT and even had the best time for a few minutes. With all the riders finished, he took hold of the 6th place at 23” of Dumoulin, leaving a specialist such as Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) behind him.   

“During a TT, it’s hard to evaluate how you feel because you go always à bloc. At the start I said to myself I wanted to go full gas and try to do the best I could. I soon realized I was really fast in the downhill and that gave me an advantage to start the climb. But you know, the last few minutes today were the craziest in my mind. Really, it felt almost like dying (laughs)”, claimed Fabio Felline. “This race was a good experience for me, I won a stage so I can only be happy. And with the team, I have a really good feeling and I’m looking forward to the next ‘appointment’, in the Ardennes Classic. ”

If Felline was good on the downhill, Bob Jungels did even better. He did the fastest time of the whole bunch in the descent. “It was a pretty hard TT. We knew the parcours from yesterday’s stage and we decided to change the bike (from TT-bike to normal racebike) before the uphill part, after about 11km. We were definitely not the only ones to do so. It was the first time for me doing that but it went really well”, explained Bob Jungels at the finish. “I didn’t have the best legs today, I was a little tired because I gave a 110% for Bauke this week and that’s how we have to act as a team. And then today, the TT is one my specialties. And I was really good indeed in the downhill and lost a bit in the uphill, but hey, that’s okay. Overall I’m very happy, the condition is good and that is promising for the coming weeks.”

DS Kim Andersen is also quite happy about this week: “I have to say the team did a really nice job. It’s a pity Bauke crashed yesterday because without that we would still have been fighting for the top 3 GC today. But we won a stage and Fabio and Bob showed today that they are really in shape. We had some ups and downs this week, but most of the time it went up, so I am really glad.”