Michael Matthews kept the Orica-GreenEDGE winning streak in Vitoria-Gasteiz alive when he won today's third stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in a bunch sprint. On an easy day for the peloton, the Australian held off Kevin Reza (Europcar) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in the final dash to the line to take the third consecutive win for his team in the city while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) safely defended his overall lead on the eve of the queen stage.

 

Since Orica-GreenEDGE started a little more than two years ago, the Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz has been a happy hunting ground for the Australian team. In 2012 and 2013, they launched Daryl Impey to a win on the Vuelta al Pais Vasco stage that ended there and today they took their third consecutive win.

 

With Impey not riding this year's race, the team put their focus on Michael Matthews in the bunch sprint that usually ends stages to Vitoria-Gasteiz. The team worked hard throughout the day to turn their preferred scenario into reality and couldn't have wished a better situation after yesterday's failure as the day's break was made up of just a single rider, Ruben Fernandez (Caja Rural).

 

The young Spaniard was caught 30km from the line and the pace on the final two climbs were kept so massively high that the expected attacks were never launched. Instead, it was a very big bunch that sped down the descent to the sprint in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

 

Belkin were the dominant team inside the final kilometres as they tried to set up Paul Martens for a sprint win but Orica-GreenEDGE timed their action to perfection. Simon Gerrans hit the front inside the final kilometre with Matthews on his wheel and left the other sprinters scrambling for position behind the Australian duo.

 

Daniele Ratto (Cannondale) and Ben Swift (Sky) both tried to launch their sprint but when Matthews took off the outcome was never in doubt. He opened up a big gap and had plenty of time to celebrate his win while Kevin Reza and Michal Kwiatkowski rolled across the line to distantly complete the podium.

 

After two hard days, Alberto Contador enjoyed an easy day in the saddle and so he defended his 14-second lead over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the general classification. He faces much bigger challenge tomorrow when he will be challenged on the race's traditional queen stage. The top of the category 1 Alto de Arrate comes just 1km from the finish and from there it is a technical descent to the finish.

 

One for the sprinters

After yesterday's failure, the sprinters were expected to get another chance in today's third stage of the Basque race when the riders headed over 194.5km from Urdax-Urdazubi to Vitoria-Gasteiz. Right from the gun, the riders went up a category 2 climb and the early part of the stage included another such ascent until the riders hit the long, flat roads on the Vitoria-Gasteiz plateau. In the end, the riders did a small loop with two category 3 climbs and then it was a fast 9.3km descent to the finish in the Basque capital.

 

For the third day in a row, the riders had the unusual experience of starting a Vuelta al Pais Vasco stage without just the slightest sign of rain as it was another beautiful day in the Basque Country. Lotto Belisol climber Bart De Clercq (Lotto Belisol) was the only non-starter.

 

A fast start

Several riders planned to use the opening climb to make some chaos and the race was very fast from the beginning as attacks were launched in both sides of the road. However, no one managed to get clear on the ascent and so things were still together when Benat Intxausti (Movistar) crested the summit in first position.

 

Moments later, a 6-rider group took off as Andy Schleck (Trek), Natnael Berhane (Europcar), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Ben King (Garmin-Sharp), KOM leader Davide Villella (Cannondale) and sprints leader Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r) managed to open a gap. At the 13km mark, their advantage was 25 seconds but toda they sprinters didn't want to take any risk by allowing such a big group to go clear and so it was shut down after 21km of racing.

 

A lone escapee

Instead, the sprint teams got their dream scenario when Tour de l'Avenir winner Ruben Fernandez (Caja Rural) took off on his own. As the peloton slowed down, the Spaniard was allowed to open up a big gap while Alberto Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo team just set a controlled pace.

 

At the 50km mark, Fernandez was a massive 10 minutes ahead which prompted Orica-GreenEDGE to kick into action. The Australian team had started their chase too late in yesterday's stage and didn't want to make a similar mistake today. The past two years they had won this stage with Daryl Impey and today they planned to do the same with Michael Matthews.

 

The chase starts

They brought the gap down to 7 minutes but have now again allowed it to grow slightly before they again allowed it to grow a little. Accelerating again, they had the advantage down to 6 minutes 91km from the finish.

 

The early work was done by Christian Meier and Adam Yates who swapped turns on the front while the rest of the peloton was happy to have an easy day in the saddle. The stage was characterized by a calm atmosphere and the riders had plenty of time to catch up with each other.

 

Sky join the fun

Laurent Didier (Trek) and Arthur Vichot (FDJ) both abandoned the race citing knee pain while Sky decided to join the fun as they asked Peter Kennaugh to contribute to the pace-setting. The more horsepower had its effect as the gap came down to 3.30 with 67km to go.

 

That was still too early and so the two team again slowed down, allowing the gap to constantly hover around 3.50. As they got closer to the first of the final two climbs, however, the battle for position started to intensify and this automatically increased the speed.

 

Fernandez is caught

Sky added a bit more firepower to the chase when they put Josh Edmondson on the front. With 40km to go, the gap was 2.15 and when they started the final climb it was less than a minute.

 

As they hit the first climb, Kennaugh finished his job, leaving it to Edmondson to ride hard on the front. The young Brit brought Fernandez back with 33km to go.

 

Sky remain in control

Edmondson set the pace all the way up the climb until Michel Koch moved ahead to lead Davide Villella out for the KOM sprint. No one wanted to challenge him and so the Italian was easily allowed to extend his lead in that classification.

 

On the descent, Tony Martin moved to the front with his teammate Kwiatkowski and he actually rode so fast that he got a gap. At the bottom of descent, however, Sky were back in control with Danny Pate and Edmondson setting the pace.

 

A battle for position

Lampre-Merida took over with Jose Serpa and for a long time the front of the peloton was dominated by competing trains from Europcar, Lampre and Sky. As the riders hit the lower slopes of the final climb, Pate used the last bit of energy as he brought Sky into the perfect position.

 

Xabier Zandio was the next Sky rider to get to work until OPQS decided to make things a bit hard. Tony Martin set a brutal pace up the climb that caused several riders to drop off.

 

Bad luck for Martens

Disaster struck for Belkin sprinter Martens and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) who both went down but as they were quickly back on the bike, they managed to rejoin the peloton and would even later finish the stage in the top 10.

 

When Martin had finished his job, his teammate Jan Bakelants upped the pace a bit further and he led the peloton over the top. Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Belisol) had a brief stint on the front but it was Bakelants who did most of the work in the downhill section.

 

Bakelants goes off the road

Unfortunately, he went off the road and never rejoined the peloton. Instead Movistar took over until the Belkin trio of Stef Clement, Jonathan Hivert, and David Tanner hit the front hard.

 

The Dutch team remained in control all the way to the flamme rouge where Tanner used his last bit of energy to set up Martens for the sprint. However, he was passed by an excellent Gerrans who brought Matthews into the perfect position. Gerrans swung off and when Matthews opened his sprint, he took a very convincing victory ahead of Reza and Kwiatkowski.