Markel Irizar joined a large 25-man escape group and for the fourth successive road stage Trek Factory Racing has represented in a breakaway at the Vuelta a España.

With a win (Fränk Schleck) and a second place (Haimar Zubeldia) to show for the team’s effort in the last four breakaway moves, Irizar grabbed the baton for his chance in stage 19 Friday.

There was not a huge fight for the breakaway to form in the 185.8-kilometer race and after only six kilometers 25 escapees were allowed to roll away. The gap quickly grew to a peloton disinterested in expending unnecessary energy, and it was soon apparent that the 25 men had their tickets punched to ride to the finish.

“The goal of the team was to have a climber in the break,” explained Irizar. “Yesterday was Haimar so the idea was to have Ricci (Riccardo Zoidl) or Fränk. Popo (Yaroslav Popovych) and myself were to cover the early moves, and I did and found myself in a large break. Yes, it would have been better to have a climber there with me, but it was not easy: Fränk and Haimar have been riding hard the last mountain stages, they are tired, and Ricci tried just before this move went….but okay, we had one of us there so that is good.”

The attacking began in the leading group after Tiago Machado (Katusha) created a gap on a descent with over 40 kilometers remaining.  Markel Irizar, sensing this was the time to make a move, took off in pursuit.

“We knew that there were strong climbers in the group, so Josu [Larrazabal, director] told me to try and attack before the last climb,” Irizar continued. “We were expecting to have a tailwind in the final, but it was the complete opposite, a headwind. I tried when there was one rider in the front already, and I think it was the right moment, but then I had a slow leak in the front tire.

"A group was coming from behind and I could feel the tire was losing pressure; I had no choice but to change the wheel as I could feel the tire was already touching the rim.  I changed the wheel right when they started to attack and whew! I spent a lot of energy just to come back to a group. I was suffering so bad just to be with this group. In the end, there was no chance.”

While Irizar lost time and any chance of a high result to the flat tire, Machado continued to forge ahead until two men made contact, followed by a few others as the breakaway group began its fight for victory.

From the handful of leaders the strongest proved to be Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale) as he dropped everyone on the final 8-kilometer climb that summited 19.5 kilometers from the end.  Gougeard crested alone and continued to build his lead to the line to take the win.

Irizar arrived in 15th place, tired, but satisfied that he gave his all, and proving again that Trek Factory Racing still has fight left and will battle to the bitter end.

“I am happy that I did my maximum, and that’s it. If I didn’t have the flat tire maybe things could be a little different and I would have finished more up front, but realistically with the finish today I was not able to fight for the win. But our goal was to try and be there. Now our goal will be to try and win with Danny [Van Poppel] on Sunday.

“I think we are doing a very good Vuelta and as a team we are performing to the level that deserves this team.

"It's getting very long, especially for those who come from the Tour. I think the team have been very good. We’ve won three stages and we kept trying. We failed but we still have Madrid, where we will try with Danny (van Poppel). I wanted to attack from far out.”