Neither transition stage nor quiet day nor recovery day. Big day for Spanish cycling. The Massif Central was once again a talisman for another Basque cyclist. 101 stages and almost five years after Omar Fraile won in 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 runner from Gernika was the strongest and most intelligent of the good breakaway, which took more than 80 kilometers to form. The man from Bahrain was on the start in all the good cuts, aware that any time he won would also help him move up in the standings. In the end, it was three minutes that allowed him to be fifth overall. But that became an accessory when they caught Neilands with 3.2km to go. Knowing that he was the fastest of the six breakaways that were going to fight for glory, Bilbao played his cards perfectly to launch the sprint and beat Zimmermann and O'Connor. "The last 300 meters I did it at full speed, without looking back," he explained. Egarense Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), the second asset that Spanish cycling had among the adventurers, was sixth.
With two stages in the Giro, where he was twice fifth in the Corsa Rosa, Bilbao achieved his first victory in the Tour. A victory dedicated 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 her.
The whole team wears the motto on the helmet
Both cyclists were very close. The ill-fated Swiss even baptized an abandoned dog in Bilbao that he adopted with the name of Pello. In this Tour, the Basque follows the legacy of his friend, who did it in the 2021 Tour, and will donate 1 euro to an environmental NGO for each cyclist who remains behind him in all stages. Yesterday there were 168, all of them, because he won.
The day was round, sentimental and prestigious. Not only because of the quality of the rivals who accompanied him in the breakaway, but also because of the terrain and the profile of the stage, and because of how expensive it had become when even Pogacar and Vingegaard went on the attack at the start and caught Carlos off guard. Rodríguez and Jai Hindley, fourth and third.
The UAE had put, in addition to the Slovenian, Grossschartner, Majka and Adam Yates. That is, heavy artillery. Instead, the yellow jersey was quite alone. The skirmish caught the Jumbo off guard and the Dane was only escorted by Kuss, faithful and reliable.
Ineos and Bora had to shoot and the squad when the first two groups were reunited had barely 30 units. But Bilbao tried again. He didn't stop until he caught the good leak. Of an exceptional level. With Alaphilippe and Kwiatkowski, two world champions, Chaves, podium in the Giro and Vuelta, Tour stage winners like Barguil and O'Connor, or Skjelmose Jensen, the Danish man who has been going strong, as well as Pedrero, an expert to win in France – there he has fished his three wins of his record -.
They were all greyhounds. “The strongest was Neilands but he has spent too much. We have collaborated and we have caught him ”, he related. But the most dangerous was the Basque, who had extra motivation. “It has been hard to prepare these weeks. My family advised me: 'Be calm and be positive. Try to do something special on the Tour. I tried it in the first two stages that were very special for me”, he explained.
Bilbao was annoyed in the first stage of the Tour. His front tire was a bit deflated and he didn't dare change bikes. He annoyed her and she was left with the desire to try to be a protagonist in his land.
In Issoire Bilbao he removed the thorn in his fourth participation in the French round and ended the curse that Spain had been dragging for almost five years, since July 21, 2018. It was Omar Fraile, from Santurtzi, a colleague, from Biscay, so much so that until they ran together in Astana, in another escapade. Parallel lives. The Tour that left Bilbao will also be the Tour de Pello Bilbao.
