No transition stage, no quiet day, no recovery day. Another monument to remember and a great day for Spanish cycling. This Tour draws fire, because of the suffocating heat, but also because of a spectacular route and some cyclists who take advantage of any ambush to do damage. The Central Massif, where there is not a single flat meter, where the entire terrain is extremely hard, was once again a talisman for another Basque cyclist. 101 stages and almost five years after Omar Fraile won Mende, also on the roads of the Massif, Pello Bilbao raised his arms in Issoire in a triumph of many carats.
The 33-year-old Gernika runner was the strongest and smartest of the good breakaway, which took more than 80 kilometers to form. The one from Bahrain was at the start of all the good cuts, aware that the escape had all the numbers to succeed and that all the time he won, moreover, would help him move up positions in the classification. In the end, it was three minutes that he took, which allows him to place fifth overall. But this became a secondary accessory 3 km from the finish, when they hunted down the Latvian Neilands. Knowing that he was the fastest of the six who would compete for glory, Bilbao dried up the movements of Zimmermann and O’Connor, launched the sprint and beat them. “I did the last 300 meters to the max, without looking back”, he explained. Egaren Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), the second letter that Spanish cycling had among the adventurers, was sixth.
With two stages in the Giro, where he has twice been fifth in the corsa rosa, Bilbao achieves his first victory in the Tour. A triumph with a dedication to the memory of the Swiss Gino Mäder, his teammate, who died three weeks ago after a serious accident in the Tour of Switzerland. “It’s a special victory, it goes to Gino”, he reminded him.
The whole team wears the motto on their helmets
The two cyclists were very close. The cantankerous Swiss even named an abandoned dog in Bilbao that he adopted as Pello. In this Tour, the Basque is following the legacy of his friend, who did it in the 2021 Vuelta, and will donate 1 euro to an environmental charity for every cyclist who is behind him in the stages. Yesterday it was 168, all of them, because he won.
The day was round, sentimentally and for prestige. Not only because of the quality of the rivals accompanying him on the breakaway, but also because of how he stood up when even Pogacar and Vingegaard went on the breakaway attack and caught Carlos Rodríguez and Hindley off guard, fourth and third The UAE had put, in addition to the Slovenian, Grosschartner, Majka and Adam Yates. That is, the heavy artillery. On the other hand, the yellow jersey was quite alone. The skirmish caught Jumbo on the counter foot and the Dane was only escorted by Kuss, always faithful and reliable.
Ineos and Bora had to retire and the pilot, when the first two groups were reunited, barely had 30 units. But Bilbao tried again. He didn’t stop until he got the good run. Of an exceptional level. With Alaphilippe and Kwiatkowski, two world champions, Chaves, podium at the Giro and the Vuelta, stage winners in the Tour like Barguil and O’Connor, or Skjelmose Jensen, the new Dane who is pedaling hard, in addition to Pedrero, a expert in winning in France – there he has fished his three triumphs from his palmares.
They were all greyhounds. “The strongest was Neilands, but he has spent too much. We collaborated and caught him”, said the Basque, the most dangerous because he had extra motivation. “It has been hard to prepare these weeks. My family advised me: ‘Keep calm and be positive. Try to do something special in the Tour’. I tried in the first two stages which were very special for me”.
Bilbao was left frustrated in the first stage of the Tour. His front tire was a little deflated and he didn’t dare change bikes. He was left with the desire to try to be a protagonist in his land. In Issoire, the thorn was removed in his fourth participation in the French round and ended the curse that dragged Spain for almost five years, since July 21, 2018. The last to win was Omar Fraile, from Santurtzi, colleague, Biscay and even ran together in Astana, in another escape. Parallel lives. The Tour that left Bilbao will also be the Tour de Pello Bilbao.
