As it happened - Main peloton, general classification neutralised due to stage 4 crash at Itzulia Basque Country

Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country. 

It’s day four at the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country, and there’s one man everyone will be paying close attention to - Primož Roglič. The race leader went down heavily in a crash yesterday, and, though he managed to finish fine in the peloton, will surely be suffering from some after-effects. We’ll find out today how he’s holding up.

Roglič wasn’t the only big name to go down yesterday. Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez aso fell in a separate incident inside the final 3km, which will be cause of anxiety for their respective UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers teams, of whom they are the leading GC candidates for. There’s no word of either of them abandoning half an hour before the stage start, but we’ll see what kind of shape they’re in once we start racing. 

This isn’t a stage where the stricken will be able to rest up and nurse their wounds. After two sprint finishes, today’s parcours looks like it will be hard enough to draw out the GC contenders, with several climbs throughout the day, including a nasty steep late hill tackled just 10km from the finish.

Roglič is here, and he does indeed look like he’s been at the wars. He’s sporting plasters to both his left elbow and right arm.

Here’s Iker Mintegi of the local Euskaltel - Euskadi team signing autographs. Basque fans are famous for their love of cycling, and it’s great to see so many of them attending the race - even if the best they can hope from the Euskaltel - Euskadi line-up is likely to be just an appearance in the breakaway.

Only a few minutes now until the stage start. They’re taking off from Etxarri-Aranatz, and will be heading in a mostly westerwards direction before switching north to take in a series of climbs in the final 40km.

157.5KM TO GO

And we're off!

All of the GC favourites who fell yesterday are present, but there is one non-starter - Astana’s Ide Schelling.

Roglič wasn’t giving away much in an interview at the start of the day about how he’s feeling. “I was also feeling a lot better, but also worse, so I’m just happy to be here.”

“Yesterday after the crash it wasn’t easy, but after the guys did a great job, we came back. Today is a new day to do our best.”

150KM TO GO

The first 35km are flat, so not ideal for the kind of puncheurs who will be eying up the finale to get into the break. At the moment Markel Beloki has attacked and is up the road, but isn’t being allowed much of a gap.

Here are the four jersey wearers at the start - Roglič in yellow, Louis Meintjes in polka-dots, yesterday’s stage winner Quinten Hermans in green and Juan Ayuso in blue. As you can see, Roglič certainly has much more bandaging than his fellow crash victim Ayuso. 

140KM TO GO

One of those riders Louis Meintjes, has attacked, along with Reuben Thompson and Mathieu Burgaudeau, are the latest to attack, but they too aren’t being allowed much leeway for now.

Now things are starting to take shape. Those three riders do now have a gap, and there are several chasers in between themselves and the peloton - Mikel Retegi, Karel Vacek and Joseba López in one group, and Enekoitz Azparren alone behind them.

Retegi, Vacek and López have now caught the trio up ahead, forming a new lead group of six riders - a healthy number.  Azparren is still caught in no-man's land, however. 

130KM TO GO

It seems we have our break of the day. The six leaders have over two minutes on the peloton. 

Here's Carlos Rodríguez, another victim of yesterday's crashes. He doesn't look as worse for wear as Roglič, with no bandages visible. 

Azparren’s chase appears to be a lost cause now. He’s over two minutes adrift from the leaders, and only a bit more than a minute ahead of the peloton. That’s never a fun place to be in, especially while under the pressure of representing the home Euskaltel–Euskadi team - who don’t have any representation in the leading sextet.

The leaders are on the first climb of the day, Opakua. It's 6.2km long and climbs at a tricky 6.2%, and the hardest of the day in terms of length. The climbs to come later are much steeper, though, and the over 60km flat stretch between this one and the next will render it insignificant regarding the GC race.

Azparren’s forlorn efforts are at an end, and he’s been reabsorbed back into the peloton.

120KM TO GO

The six leaders are extending their advantage as they climb the hill. It’s now around three and a half minutes.

The leaders are over the climb and their gap is still getting bigger and bigger - now p to over five minutes.

Here's Meintjes, Thompson and Burgaudeau earlier, before they were joined by the other three. It was a significant deficit that Retegi, Vacek and López had to make up to bridge over to them.

110KM TO GO

The lead is now up to six minutes. The breakaway might fancy their chances of staying away at this rate - six is a good number for having enough firepower but not too many for loss of cohesion, and there are some strong climbers present.

Of those in the break, Meintjes stands out as the headline name. He’s already been uncharacteristically aggressive this race, attacking out of the peloton to chase King of the Mountains points rather than stick to his usual approach of following wheels safely in the peloton. Though he doesn’t appear to be chasing GC, he isn’t yet out of contention at 2-22; as someone who has made the top ten in multiple World Tour stage races (including here in 2017, and three times at the Tour de France) his presence in the break might still cause concern for the GC contenders, and prompt them to ensure they break is eventually brought back.

For now though, Meintjes priority appears to be defending his lead in the Mountains Classification. He was first over the previous summit, gaining 6 points to extend his lead to 7 over Alan Jousseaume and Eric Antonio Fagundez.

100KM TO GO

The gap is still going up - it’s almost 6-30 now. The leaders are about to start climbing again, but this time there won’t be any points on offer for Meintjes as it’s uncategorised.

Bora-Hansgrohe are leading the peloton for race leader Primož Roglič, but are clearly in no rush yet as they allow their deficit to grow to over 6 minutes.

After Meintjes, the other standout name in the break is Mathieu Burgaudeau. He’s a breakaway specialist and has come very close to winning stages at race’s as prestigious as Critérium du Dauphiné, and no less than the Tour de France, where he placed second and third at last year. He has only one career win to his name, but it’s a similarly big one - a stage at the 2022 Paris-Nice, where he dramatically held off the charging peloton by mere metres to deny them a bunch sprint.

As for Thompson, López, Retegi and Vacek, they’re all fledgling riders all under the age of 25, without a pro win between them - although Vacek did catch the eye at last year’s Giro d’Italia, where he finished second on stage 7 behind Davide Bais having made the day’s successful break.

90KM TO GO

The break’s lead has finally stopped growing, and been pegged at six minutes. We could have quite a chase on our hands over the rest of the stage. What happens over the next 50km of flat roads will be crucial to determining their survival.

80KM TO GO

80KM TO GO

The gap is coming down a little, but not too much for now. It's at around 5-40, as we reach the halfway point of the stage

There was a big surge in pace in the peloton briefly, as some teams tried to take advantage of some crosswinds. There were some splits, but it's all come back together again for now.

70KM TO GO

That increase in pace has had a big impact on the break’s lead - it’s plummeted down to less than four minutes now. 

The race actually hasn’t fully come back together, and there’s a large group behind the peloton trying to catch up. Yesterday’s winner Quentin Hermans is one of the riders in it.

The pace is very high again. The peloton is all strung out in one line, and is close to breaking point.

There's probably only about 60 riders in the peloton. All of the main GC contenders appear still to be present though. 

It's not often we talk about crosswinds at the Tour of the Basque Country, which just goes to show how flat this section is. Very unusual for the region. 

This action has basically spelled the end of the break’s chances. Their lead is a mere 2-55 now - it's halved in no time at all. 

60KM TO GO

Things have settled down now though, and riders have been rejoining the peloton, including Hermans.

The atmosphere is much more relaxed and the pace slackened, with some taking the opportunity to have a comfort break. This is good news for the break, who may be feeling renewed hope as their lead grows again to 3-30.

Quinten Hermans did say during a pre-stage interview that he believes today could be another sprint in the manner of the precious two stages, but the absence of his Alpecin-Deceuninck team at the front of the peloton, or any non-GC team for that matter, suggests most are expecting this to be a stage fought for by the GC contenders.

The leaders have just gone through an intermediate sprint, but nobody was interested in contesting.  López rolled over for the 10 points and 3 seconds, followed by Retegi and Meintjes. 

Bahrain-Victorious are laying the hammer down again! They take to the front on an exposed section and are trying to split the peloton up once more.

50KM TO GO

The gap had grown back up to four minutes, but is tumbling down yet again due to Bahrain's surge. 

Bahrain-Victorious didn't succeed in breaking the peloton up, which is all bunched up together again. 

This long flat section is at last nearing its end, and the leaders will be climbing the first of the three final climbs imminently. This one (Olaeta) is shallower than the others, averaging 5.7%, and will serve as more of a warm up to the next two.

The break are on the climb now, and is splitting up already. López and Vacek have been dropped from the pace set by Thompson.

The peloton are climbing now too, three minutes behind the break. The race isn't on for now though, and they're all bunched together. 

The break reaches the top of the climb, but this time Meintjes is challenged, and beaten, for the maximum KOM points by Thompson. 

40KM TO GO

Still no action in the peloton. The longer they ride like this, the more chance the break has of surviving - they're lead has held steady on that climb at three minutes. 

Now the peloton crest the climb, 2-50 behind the break. Now comes a long descent before the next climb, the 2.4km, 8.1% Untzilla.

López managed to rejoin the rest of the break before, and has now attacked on the descent, putting him a few seconds ahead of the rest.

A bad crash in the peloton, and Vingegaard is down.

Roglič is down too.

This is a bad crash I'm afraid to report. It happened right at the front of the peloton, and into a hard concrete fall. Vingegaard is stil down, talking to one of the medical staff. Other around him are also down some sat, some lying down.

Evenepoel also fell in that crash, and although he's up and walking, it seems he might have broken his collarbone.

Roglič is also up, but doesn't seem to have fractured anything.

Other unidentified riders are more hurt, and are still lying on the floor looking in a bad way.

Meanwhile the race goes on, and the break are on the climb, with the peloton two minutes behind.

Now the race is being neutralised. The break have been stopped, and the peloton are steadily climbing.

The reason for the neutralisation is that all of the ambulances have had to be used up to treat the fallen riders.

The peloton has also stopped now.

The reason so many were hurt in this crash was the heaviness of the landing. Many riders, including Vingegaard, fell straight into a concrete ditch. Evenepoel had the fortune of hitting the grass instead, but did still hold his arm in a state that suggested he had broken his collarbone.

A great deal of caution is being made as one of the riders is lifted into an ambulance. 

The race remains neutralised, but the breakaway are now on their bikes again riding slowly up the road. The peloton remains stationary.

It’s been announced that the climb of Untzilla that the riders were climbing up has been cancelled, but the race will resume at a point closer to the finish.

The plan is for the race to start again at Eskoriatza, once the doctors have managed to rejoin the race.

UAE Team Emirates have confirmed that Jay Vine was one of the riders taken to hopsital after the crash.

The breakaway are currently waiting at the foot of the Leintz-Gatzaga climb (the final climb of the day), while the peloton are still being held at the Untzilla climb. 

Some better news to report as Roglič is pictured sat in the team car, rather than an ambulance. He gave a thumbs up sign to the camera. He at least isn't badly hurt. 

UAE Team Emirates are saying that Vine is conscious and talking. 

It's been announced that the race in the peloton will be neutralised, but that the riders in the break will continue to race for the victory. 

The peloton will make their way to the finish, but not race. No time differences will occur. 

The peloton are moving again, making their way slowly up to where the breakaway riders are still waiting at the foot of Leintz-Gatzaga. 

Team TotalEnergies say that their rider Steff Crass was another of the riders taken to hospital, and that he too is conscious. 

The breakaway riders are moving again, behind the car. They’ve decided that they want to race for the stage win, and will be doing so shortly.

19KM TO GO

The car has moved away, and the race resumes between the six riders.

The pace is slow between the six riders. It's all very strange out there, the race is on again, but it doesn't feel that way.

The riders are still on flat roads, approaching the beginning of the Untzilla climb.

EF Education-EasyPost confirm that Sean Quinn was another of the riders to abandon after crashing, and is undergoing medical evaluation.

Now Visma-Lease a Bike are saying that Vingegaard is conscious.

Still no sign of anybody in the break racing, making the decision for them to continue racing all the more strange.

The riders are on the climb now, but the pace remains slow.

A reminder of the six riders left in the race: Louis Menitjes, Reuben Thompson, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Mikel Retegi, Karel Vacek and Joseba López.

Now the race is on again, with Thompson and Vacek going clear, and Meintjes joining them.

Those three are going clear from the rest, with 1,500m left to climb.

Vacek has attacked and gone clear from the others.

Now Meintjes drops Thompson in pursuit of Vacek.

Meintjes is now on Vacek's wheel. The two are nearing the top.

Meintjes attacks, and he gets a big gap immediately. 

10KM TO GO

Meintjes reaches the top alone, and is pushing on for the victory. 

Meintjes is clear and has a gap, and looks good for the win. 

5KM TO GO

Vacek is still alone in pursuit behind, but is 24 seconds adrift. 

Vacek seems to be giving up the chase, and is looking behind him to see who's coming.

It's Thompson who's coming, and he's just latched onto Vacek's wheel. They're both now 38 seconds behind Meintjes, who is sure to win now.

Meintjes into the last kilometre.

Meintjes crosses the line and wins the stage.

Now Vacek and Thompson arrive. Thompsons launches his sprint early and easily drops Vacek off his wheel for second-place.

The other three cross the line now, with Retegi taking fourth, Burgaudeau fifth and López sixth. 

A reminder that all of the riders will be given the same GT time today. With both Roglič and Evenepoel out the race, that means that Mattias Skjelmose will be the new race leader.

Thanks for joining us for what was a distressing day. Our thoughts go out to all the riders hurt in the crash and currently undergoing treatment.