Juan Jose Lobato took a rare Euskaltel win when he repeated his 2011 win in the Circuito de Getxo which was the third and final event in a week of racing in the Basque Country. The sprinter was the fastest in the tough uphill finish and convincingly held off Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne) and Egoitz Garcia (Cofidis) on a hot day in the home region of his team.

Euskaltel whose future is under threat if a sponsor is not found in the near future, has not had much to celebrate this season but today the team's sprinter Juan Jose Lobato gave team management a rare opportunity to crack a smile. Already a winner in 2011, the fast Spaniard repeated his 2011 win in the Circuito de Getxo which was the third and final race in the series of Basque one-day races that always follows in the weeks after the conclusion of the Tour.

Lobato showed his strengths as a climber by holding off Armindo Fonseca and Egoitz Garcia in the tough uphill finish that came at the end of the 170km race. In 37-degree temperatures, he showed that he had gained extra power by recently finishing his maiden Tour de France and put 4 seconds into his rivals when he crossed the line.

Earlier in the stage, a big 19-rider group had threatened to deny the sprinters their chance but a concerted effort from first Euskadi and Burgos and later Euskaltel brought it all back together for a final dash to the line. Lobato didn't disappoint his teammates and took his second and his team's sixth win of the season.

An aggressive start

The 170km race consisted of 10 laps on a 17km circuit that included two tough climbs. The most difficult of those was the muro Txomintxu-Arkotxa  which has an average gradient of 8-10% and a 14% stretch and whose top was located just 150m from the finish live.

The race was off to a very fast start and already on the first lap, Benat Intxausti, Jose Ivan Gutierrez (both Movistar), Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel), Omar Fraile, Enzo Moyano (both Caja Rural), David Lelay (Sojasun), Vegard Stake Laengen (Bretagne), Mikel Aristi (Euskadi), Oscar Santamaria (Burgos), Ever Rivera (4-72 Colombia) and Riccardo Chiarini (Androni) moved clear but as they crossed the line, only Azanza was still ahead. Instead, a 25-rider group got a small gap until 19 riders finally made up the early breakaway.

19 riders in the early break

Pablo Lastras, Jesus Herrada (both Movustar), Ricardo Garcia, Pablo Urtasun (both Euskaltel), Fraile, Moyano, Stephane Pouhlies (Cofidis), Fabrice Jeandesboz, Rony Martias, Evaldas Siskevicius (all Sojasun), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne), Aritz Bagues (Euskadi), Luis Mas, Ander Arranz (both Burgos), Sergey Shilov (Lokosphinx), Chiarini, Patrick Facchini and Marco Frapporti (all Androni) built up a gap of 3.57 but despite having riders in the front group, Euskadi and Burgos refused to allow the gap to grow any bigger. Those two continental teams did much of the early work to stabilize the gap between the 3 and 4 minute marks.

Fraile emerged on the strongest on the climbs, often gapping his companions when he sprinted for the points on the tops, and he secured the win in the KOM competition. However, it appeared as though that would be all he would get as the gap had come down to 2.24 when 2 laps still remained.

Euskaltel start to chase

Mas and Bagues both attacked which meant that Euskadi and Burgos stopped chasing. Instead, Euskaltel took over and they continued when the breakaway came back together. With 2 laps to go, the advantage was just 1.11.

On the penultimate lap, Facchini attacked and he was chased by Jeandezboz and Poulhies. The big break now splintered to pieces and Facchini ended up being caught by Poulhies, Bagues and Perichon.

Movistar add firepower to the chase

However, Euskaltel continued their hard chase work and as they crossed the line, the gap to the leaders which had now lost Poulhies, was down to 11 seconds. Movistar now added firepower to the chase as Jonathan Castroviejo showed his time trialling skills on the front of the peloton and that acceleration finally brought it back together.

Instead, Azanza, Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne), Emanuele Sella and Antonio Parrinello (both Androni) got clear but that group was never allowed much leeway. With 2km to go, Parinello was the last to get caught and all was set for a sprint on the final tough climb to the finish.

Lobato proved that he is more than just a pure sprinter by taking a convincing win while Fonseca and Garcia denied Danail Petrov (Caja Rural) and Diego Ochoa (4-72 Colombia) a spot on the podium 4 seconds later. The win rounds off a beautiful performance by his team that has featured at the pointy end of all three recent races in the Basques Country.

Result:

1. Juan Jose Lobato 3.51.08

2. Armindo Fonseca +0.04

3. Egoitz Garcia

4 Danail Andonov Petrov

5. Diego Antonio Ochoa

6. Fabio Felline +0.09

7. Ruben Perez

8. Erwann Corbel +0.14

9. Alessandro Malaguti

10. Eduardo Sepulveda