Fabio Feline of Trek Factory Racing has won the second stage of the Tour Of The Basque Country.
Following the bad crashes on stage one, the riders held a protest before the start of a second 174,5km stage from Bilbao to Vitoria Gasteiz.
Without the likes of Peter Stetina of BMC who suffered A broken right leg, kneecap and four broken ribs, the stage got underway five minutes late and saw Reichenbach, Vervaeke, Txurruka, De Weert, Hupond.go clear, taking a lead of 10.36 after thirty kilometres.
The gap had dropped by a minute twenty kilometres later and was down to 5.37 to the peloton which included race leader Micheal Matthews with 74.2kms to go and after Amets Txurruka had taken the ten points for the first climb.
On the Zaldiarán climb with 45kms left, the gap was at two minutes with only Vervaeke, Reichenbach and Txurruka left out of the original five escapers.
Over the Alto de Vitoria and their lead was at forty four seconds but it was down to fifteen seconds on the descent.
With the peloton in view, Reichenbach and Txurruka, who had taken over from Fraile as the leader in the King Of The Mountains competition, attacked but it was to no avail and they were engulfed by the peloton with less than fourteen kilometres to go.
Another climb of the Alto de Zaldiarán and BMC were on the front before Sky and FDJ picked up the pace.
Cannondale-Garmin sent Tom Jelte Slagter up the road at speeds of 73km/h before things got technical with a number of roundabouts.
Lotto Soudal came up and got past the roundabout just after the flam rouge and then the next round about.
There was a bunch sprint with race leader Michael Matthews but it was Fabio Feline of Trek Factory Racing who won in 4.32.32 ahead of Matthews, Gallopin, Kwiatkowski, Gilbert and Reza.
Michael Mattews continues to lead the race ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski and Fabio Feline.
"i have not won for a long time but I am in decent shape," Feline said about his win. "I came here with the idea of winning something. Here was my opportunity and I took it.
My team mates supported me and i started before Matthews and I was right. I am so happy."
Source: DSG
