Itzulia Basque Country 2024: Paul Lapeira of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team celebrates as stage 2 winner(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Paul Lapeira of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team celebrates his first WorldTour victory at the line for stage 2 of Itzulia Basque Country(Image credit: Getty Images)
Louis Vervaeke of Soudal-QuickStep crosses the finish line in third place(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Second group of riders cross the finish 15 seconds behind the winner (L to R): Steff Cras of TotalEnergies, Damien Howson of Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team and Quentin Pacher of Groupama-FDJ(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) rides between teammates while Remco Evenepoel tucks in behind Soudal-QuickStep teammate Mikel Landa during stage 2(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
The peloton charges in pursuit of four riders in the breakaway, their advantage at 2:25 with 45km to ride (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Jai Hindley rides in front of Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Primož Roglič, who carries the Yellow Leader Jersey(Image credit: Getty Images)
Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates rides stage 2 in the Blue Best Young Rider Jersey(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jetse Bol of Burgos-BH leads the breakawayduring 160km stage 2 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Breakaway group, led by Xabier Mikel Azparren of Q36.5 Pro Cyclingpasses through Ascain village(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Fabio Felline rides behind Lidl-Trek teammate Tao Geoghegan Hartduring stage 2 from Irun to Kanbo(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-QuickStep competes in the peloton(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton begins 160km stage 2 from Irun(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
At the start in for stage 2 (L to R) are Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the Yellow Leader Jersey, Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) wears the Polka Dot Mountain Jersey and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) in the Green Points Jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates, along with his dog, accepts the Blue Best Young Rider Jersey for a second day(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primož Roglič of Bora-Hansgrohe remains in the Yellow Leader Jersey(Image credit: Getty Images)
French rider Paul Lapeira of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team celebrates at podium as stage winner(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R) came through a crash-marred, chaotic finale on wet roads to claim stage 2 of the Itzulia Basque Country.
Decathlon-AG2R massed at the front with 600 metres to go on the rugged stage from Irun to Kanbo, and Lapeira then shot past Astana Qazaqstan rider Samuele Bastistella just before the finish to clinch his first WorldTour win easily.
Battistella hung on for second and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep) clinched third on a stage that saw a general regrouping of the peloton in the finale.
Race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jonas Vingegaard (VIsma-Lease a Bike) were also in the front group of some 30 riders that just avoided a large crash with around four kilometres to go that split the peloton.
However, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) were amongst those favourites that lost time, finishing in a large group 23 seconds off the front finishers.
“Getting a win at WorldTour level is something very special, it’s great” Lapeira told reporters as the up-and-coming young Frenchman celebrated his third victory in less than a month, and his team’s eighth this season.
“I actually tried to attack with 1.5 kilometres to go, but it didn’t work out. So I tried to ease back and keep something back for the sprint. Bruno [Armirail, teammate] brought me up to the front, and he did a lot of work with 700 to 200 to go, and then I just went for it.”
How it unfolded
An early break containing the Azparren brothers, Xabier (Q36.5) and Ekoitz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), was joined by former Tour de France stage winner Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies), Ivan Cobo (Kern Pharma) and Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) almost as soon as the stage 2 had left the start town of Irun.
The five opened a solid lead in no time at all, as well, carving themselves a gap of four minutes by the summit of the Saint Ignace, the one, early classified climb of the day.
The next couple of hours passed fairly uneventfully, barring a mid-race crash for former Itzulia winner Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and teammate Simon Geschke, although Cobo finally found the going too hard and drifted back to the main peloton.
A further boost of power by Ineos Grenadiers to the chase - presumably riding for fast finisher and former Itzulia stage winner Ethan Hayter - gradually saw a collective increase in the bunch’s effort. As the first of a series of late rain showers began to teem down, the peloton reduced the gap to just over two minutes with 40km to go.
A mass sprint seemed all but inevitable, and the only question by this point was whether the four-rider break would make it to the second and last intermediate sprint on the constantly undulating rural roads.
The presence of yet another two teams gunning for a sprint finale, Bahrain Victorious and UAE Team Emirates, showed that the bunch meant business despite the technical race route proving so hard for a chase.
Riding on their home terrain, the Basque Country-born Azparren brothers were seemingly the most determined by this late stage, while Bol drifted on and off the back before taking one last big couple of turns. Much smoother, broader roads though, made it even harder for the quartet’s survival and after a series of fistbumps and handclasps between the four for staying away for so long, a general regrouping took place with 12km to go.
A grinding, uphill intermediate sprint that followed almost immediately saw no sign in the reduction of the pace, though. Yet more constantly rising and dipping roads made it hard for any team to control, with Visma-Lease a Bike clearly keen to keep their leader Vingegaard up towards the front.
Others, like Tao Geoghegan Hart (Trek-Lidl), who crashed with teammate Julian Bernard along with half a dozen other riders in the middle of the pack, were not so fortunate, although the Briton could complete the stage.
The crash split the front group notably, with the leaders down to some 40 riders, but their troubles were not yet over as another rider, Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) went spinning across the deck on a treacherously-wet, sharp left-hander. After a fast, but not excessively tough day’s racing, the three dozen riders ahead were strong enough to crest the summit of the last steep little climb together, only for Decathlon-AG2R to come together in numbers at the front.
There was time for yet more moments of drama, such as when an Astana rider unclipped his pedal while powering up for the sprint and only some deft bike controlling on his part prevented a third crash in as many kilometres.
Nothing, it seemed, could stop Lapeira from coming through the centre with impeccable timing, to claim a French victory on Itzulia Basque Country’s one stage this year on French soil.
Another day of typically-rugged terrain on stage 3 on Wednesday likely makes it another good day for the breakaways or small bunch sprints. The main challenge is a cat 2 climb of Lizarrusti, peaking out 19 kilometres from the finish at Altasu. The race's crunch stages, though, are yet to come.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
In his recently released book 'We Will Never Be Here Again: Adventures in cycling from the wilderness to the Tour de France', the Canadian ex-pro describes the chaos of the Classics
