Ben Swift (Sky) proved that he is much more than just a sprinter when he won today's very tough penultimate stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. The Brit dug deep to make it over the late climbs with the best climbers in the race and finally produced a powerful sprint to hold off Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) to take the biggest win of his career. Albert Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) responded to Valverde's attacks and defended his leader's jersey.

 

For the 2014 season, Ben Swift took the deliberate decision to skip the cobbled classics and instead put his focus on hilly stage races where he could use his combination of great climbing legs and a very fast sprint to target stage wins. He specifically pointed to the Vuelta al Pais Vasco as an obvious opportunity and today it all paid off for the versatile Brit in the Basque race.

 

Swift had to dig really deep on the final climbs of the stage as Movistar had shown their intentions to win the stage with Alejandro Valverde. The Spanish team set a brutal pace to catch a very strong 16-rider breakaway that included most of the greatest escape artists in the world and whittle the peloton down to just around 20 riders by the time they crested the summit of the final climb.

 

At that point, Valverde had already taken off and race leader Alberto Contador seemed to be struggling to close the gap to the Movistar leader. However, the duo crested the summit together and were joined by yesterday's winner Wout Poels (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) on the upper part of the descent.

 

With Contador only taking a brief turn, the work was left to Valverde and as they hit the bottom of the descent, he refused to continue his riding on the front. Behind, BMC were in fierce pursuit to protect the chances of their GC captain Cadel Evans and so it all came back together inside the final 3km.

 

Tony Martin hit the front to set up his teammate Michal Kwiatkowski for the win but the Pole had probably not expected Swift still to be in the group. When he launched his sprint, he was easily passed by the Brit and even though Valverde came fast at the end, Swift's win was never in doubt.

 

Having responded to Valverde's attack, Contador defended his 12-second lead over Valverde and it will now all come down tomorrow's final time trial in Makina-Xemein. The 25.9km course is a hilly affair with two major climbs and with the GC still being close, all is still to play for in the Basque race.

 

A lumpy stage

After yesterday's queen stage, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco continued with a 160.2km stage from Eibar to Markina-Xemein that seemed to be a very lumpy and unpredictable affair. After a rolling start with just one categorized climb, the stage ended with four ascents. The top of the latter came just 8.4km from the finish from where it was downhill or flat down to the finish.

 

Prior to the start, there had been some talk about potential rain but by the time the riders left Eibar, it was dry. At just 11 degrees, however, it was significantly colder than it had been the last few days.

 

A few non-starters

Carlos Verona (OPQS) who crashed yesterday, and Alessandro Vanotti (Astana) were the non-starters and very early in the stage, Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida) - another of yesterday's crash victims - threw in the towel. His withdrawal was probably prompted by the very fast start to the stage that saw the riders ride very fast over the rolling terrain.

 

The stage was seen as a great chance for an early escape and so it was no surprise to see many riders fo on the attack in the early part of the race. The first significant move got clear after 11km when 13 very strong riders took off.

 

A dangerous break

Benat Intxausti and Ion Izagirre (Movistar), Rui Costa (Lampre), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE), Amael Moinard (BMC), Josh Edmondson (Sky), Koldo Fernandez (Garmin-Sharp), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol), Pieter Serry (OPQS), Amets Txurruka and Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) got up the road but hat move was too dangerous to allow any leeway. At the 20km mark it was back together.

 

The attacking continued over the day's first climb but as they crested the summit, no one had managed to get clear. On the descent, Bob Jungels (Trek) took off but he was quickly reeled in.

 

Another dangerous group

Finally, the elastic snapped when 16 riders went up the road and at the 44km mark they had a gap of 1.20. Albasini, Jungels, Fernandez, Wellens, and Serry were again part of the action and they were joined by Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Xabier Zandio (Sky), Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Davide Malacarne (Europcar), Daan Olivier, Warren Barguil (Giant-Shimano), Omar Fraile, and Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural).

 

Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) tried to bridge across but he had to give up and fell back to the peloton. However, the peloton was in no mood to let this big group take off and they brought the gap down to 55 seconds after 54km of racing.

 

Gilbert bridges across

BMC had missed the move and so it was no surprise that it was no surprise that the American team was leading the chase. With the break within shouting distance, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) took off and he bridged across to make it 17 riders in the group

 

On a small descent, the two Europcar riders Sicard and Malacarne went down in a crash that also briefly held up Fernandez. The latter and later also Malacarne managed to rejoin the front but Sicard fell back to the peloton.

 

Tinkoff-Saxo set a steady pace

In the bunch, the work was now left to Tinkoff-Saxo and for a long time, Bruno Pires set the pace. He allowed the gap to reach 1.40 but at the bottom of the second climb, he had it down to 1.20.

 

There was no great cohesion in the front group and so the lone Portuguese had manage to keep the gap at 1.40 by the time, Sanchez led the front group over the top.

 

Movistar show their intentions

Pires finished his job and left it to his teammate Sergio Paulinho to keep the break under control. The gap came up to two minutes and it seemed that the break would have a good chance if no team started to chae very soon.

 

That happened on the day's third climb when Gorka Izagirre, Benat Intxausti and Jose Herrada significantly upped the pace for Movistar. As Sanchez led the front group over the top, the gap was down to just 40 seconds and the peloton had exploded to pieces. Zandio had fallen off the pace and was brought back just at the top.

 

The break splits up

Oliveira used his descending skills to get a small gap but before he had started the penultimate climb, he had been caught by the escape group. Intxausti, Herrada, and Izagirre continued their hard riding on the flat section and when they hit the ascent, Izagirre took one final massive turn.

 

Oliveira and later Fernandez were dropped from the break while Jungels decided that it was time to take off. Mollema, Wellens, Serry, and Sanchez joined him while Albaini, Iglinski, Olivier and Fraile fell off immediately. Malacarne, Plaza, Gilbert, and Barguil tried to rejoin the group but were struggling.

 

Three riders left

Sanchez and Serry fell off the pace, leaving just Mollema, Jungels, and Wellens in the front group. In the peloton the work was now done by Plaza who had fallen back to the main group and he caught Serry, Barguil and Sanchez as the final escapees to leave just three riders up the road.

 

Mollema led the front group over the top of the climb but on the descent Jungels took off. He stayed away for a little while but on the flat section he was brought back by his two companions.

 

Kreuziger starts to chase

In the peloton, Plaza and the Izagirre brothers set a had pace and as soon as they hit the final climb, it was Ion Izagirre who upped it even further. Jungels attacked from the front group and this spelled the end of the day for Wellens.

 

Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked from the peloton and he quickly passed Mollema and Jungels who fell back to the main group which was now led by John Gadret (Movistar). However, Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) made an acceleration to up the pace even further and his fast pace significantly whittled down the main group and brought Weening back into the fold.

 

Valverde takes off

As Kreuziger swung off, Martin took over to set up Kwiatkowski but this was the signal for Valverde to take off. Contador responded immediately but had to dig deep to close the gap.

 

As they slowed down on the first part of the descent, Poels managed to join them while Martin led the chase group over the top, 10 seconds behind. No one wanted to chase while Valverde rode hard down the descent.

 

BMC chase it down

Things changed when BMC hit the front with Samuel Sanchez and the Spaniard kept the gap stable at 10 seconds all the way down the descent. Contador and Poels refused to work with Valverde and so Sanchez and Tejay van Garderen closed it down inside the final 3km.

 

Martin went straight to the front to control things for Kwiatkowski and he closed down an attack from Weening just before the flame rouge. He delivered his Polish teammate in the perfect position and he could start his sprint from the fron with Cunego, Swift and Valverde on his wheel. When Swift put down the hammer, however, the outcome was never in doubt, with the Brit taking the biggest victory of his career in convincing fashion.