Spain’s small, narrow roads are unique.  This Friday, the Tour of the Basque Country made good use of them.  Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that with nine categorized climbs, some of which had gradients nearing 28%, were used to help launch Mikel Landa (Astana) for the stage win.  The Basque rider won at home by dropping Tim Wellens and Tom Danielson on his way over the Wall. 

For IAM Cycling riders, they received a reprieve from the bad luck that has plagued them the past several days.  Sébastien Reichenbach spent the day in the breakaway accompanied by 30 other riders.  Though he lost some time in the difficult finale due to the efforts he made throughout the stage as well as the previous days, his performance is encouraging in view of his upcoming program. As for Jonathan Fumeaux, he rode his best on the final climb, and finished with a large group four minutes behind the winner of the day.
 
Fumeaux, who comes from the Valais region, is accustomed to this kind of effort, and was happy to explain how his day unfolded. 

“It was another complicated stage, especially taking into account that we’re all tired from the previous days,” Fumeaux said.  “Fortunately we had Sébastien Reichenbach in the main break of the day, but behind him, the peloton was always in control.  In any case, the final was extremely hard with sections of more than 25% gradients, so we were really facing walls.  When you hit climbs like that, you really realize just how difficult cycling is.  After all, I live in a very mountainous region, so I am used to doing these sorts of extremely steep climbs, so they don’t really scare me.”
 
No one would blame the riders for having had a little bit of concern for this queen stage.  But at the end of the day, Kjell Carlström was satisfied with his riders on the Basque roads. 

“Once again it was a hard day; when looking at the profile of the climbs, they just came one after another.  From the beginning of the stage, a big break got away, and we had Sébastien in it, so he was able to do a good race.  In the car, we could see these huge ramps they had to climb for the final, and it was impressive.  There was one that touched nearly 30%, which is insane.  The Basque Country is always good preparation for the Ardennes classics, and I’m sure that will be the case this year, too ».