Tuesday saw a mixture of fortunes for the BMC riders at Vuelta al País Vasco as Tejay van Garderen moved into 10th place overall while teammate Dominik Nerz was the BMC Racing Team's best finisher on the stage in 12th place and Brent Bookwalter failed to make it to the start due to illness.

Nerz said it was not his intention to contest the sprint, but more of the game plan to help world road champion Philippe Gilbert at the end of the 170.2 km race.

“I can do a good lead out, but I'm not a sprinter,” Nerz said on the BMC website. “I was actually searching for Phil and it was more a case of getting across the line and not really a sprint today.”

Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) won the stage as Francesco Gavazzi (Astana Pro Cycling) claimed the overall lead. The BMC Racing Team worked hard to chase down a late breakaway of three riders in the final 15 km.

That work, assistant director Yvon Ledanois said, was a warm-up for Wednesday's mountain-top finish. “Tomorrow [Wednesday] is very hard on the last climb – 21 percent grade for the last 400 meters – so it will be one for the race favourites," he said. "I trust the team will be good again for Tejay after the work we saw them do today.”

Brent Bookwalter was a non-starter for the stage, due to a sinus infection, BMC Racing Team Dr. Giovanni Ruffini explained.

Starting at 14.45 you can follow the action from the Vuelta al País Vasco live here on Cyclingquotes.com