In the aftermath of the Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier's crash, the FDJ team again lost a rider in the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. Arnold Jeannesson has been weakened for a few weeks ago by a mononucleosis and today he was forced to retire, completely empty. In the end, Kevin Reza sprinted to sixth and is fifth overall.

"Losing another rider is always sad," sports director Yvon Madiot said. "On Monday Arnold was not bad but now, even if he fought, he was powerless. And, as always in Spain, it is very fast. Five breakaway riders quickly got 9 minutes and the Movistar team really rode hard. At times, the peloton split into three or four groups. Once back on the escapees, Movistar calmed down."

Orica-GreenEDGE then took over to prepare the sprint for Michael Matthews who won the first stage in Bilbao and in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz last year.

"On the last climb, Thibaut Pinot did what he said at the briefing by accelerating before the summit to be at the front on a tricky descent that he does not like. His work has benefited Kevin Reza who is really good. In the sprint, he had the right approach, but he was disappointed. He never found a gap."

Felline (Trek Factory) won ahead of Matthews and Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal). Reza was boxed in with 150m to go and finished sixth.

"On Wednesday, the real fun begins with a series of challenging climbs," Madiot said. "Thibaut and Kenny Elissonde will be there. I hope Jeremy Roy has recovered well. Without knowing why, he did not sleep last night and he had a bad day. He still did the job by positioning Thibaut for the final climb before he sat up."