Tour of the Basque Country

Mattias Skjelmose defends the yellow jersey!

Mattias Skjelmose(Bild: AFP)

One day after the heavy mass crash of the top riders, Mattias Skjelmose has fended off the attack on the yellow jersey at the Tour of the Basque Country! 

The Dane from the Lidl-Trek team defended a lead of two seconds over the German Max Schachmann on Friday, four other chasers are also less than ten seconds behind Skjelmose. The tour ends on Saturday with the sixth stage starting and finishing in Eibar.

Romain Gregoire takes the stage win
The stage win on the fifth stage from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Amorebieta-Etxano went to Frenchman Romain Gregoire, who is now fifth in the overall standings, by a wafer-thin margin in the sprint ahead of Orluis Aular from Venezuela and Schachmann.

Mikel Landa breaks his collarbone
Felix Gall crossed the finish line just over a minute later, the captain of the Decathlon team is in 68th place after five stages (+5:49 min.). The second Austrian in the field, Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), is 85th before the final day.

There were more crashes on the penultimate stage. The Spanish climbing specialist Mikel Landa, like three other pros, went down about 94 kilometers before the finish. According to his team, Landa suffered a broken collarbone and had to be taken to hospital.