Mikel Landa took an impressive second place atop the explosive finish of stage 3 between Errenteria and Amasa-Villabona (162.8 km), as he retrieved several positions to try to bridge to Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who won with 2 seconds advantage on him and Mas (Movistar), in 3rd place.

Bahrain Victorious captain is the team’s only leader after Basque teammate Pello Bilbao abandoned the race after the opening stage due to a respiratory infection.

Knowing the course well, featuring a challenging circuit on typical Basque narrow and tricky up and down roads, Landa managed the race waiting for the challenging finale: the brutal Hika Wall, with a maximum gradient of 26%.

“Today, we knew we had to face the first tough stage. We tried to manage as best as possible. I tried to stay covered and fight for the stage win until the end, but a crash happened before me, and it wasn’t easy to be on the wheels of the best. Anyway, I’m super happy because finishing behind Vingegaard is something to be satisfied with.
Let’s fight in the upcoming days.”

The race was decided on the final ascent after the peloton controlled the day’s breakaway, initially formed by 6-man, and caught it back with 30km to go. Then in the finale, some attempts of attacking by Chaves, Knox and Lopez were unsuccessful as the Jumbo team was attentive in not letting them go and prepared the best scenario for their captain, Vingegaard, who attacked with 400mt to go.

“Mikel was superb today”, Bahrain Victorious Sports Director Neil Stephens comments, “He had to use his energies and head as well to fight for positions in coming to the final climb. There was a little crash in the finale before him, but he was really good and fought hard to finish.
Second place on the stage and second place in the general classification. We have a lot of hard racing ahead of us as every day is hard in the Basque Country.
We are trying our best, and above all, we are enjoying the race and how things are going so far.”

With three stages to go, Mikel Landa moved onto second place overall at 2 seconds from the leader, today’s stage winner, Jonas Vingegaard.

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