Jay McCarthy sprints to stage three victory at Itzulia Basque Country

Jay McCarthy lived up to his status as one of the favourites for the more sprinter friendly stage three to take his first ever win in the Basque Country.

Jay McCarthy came second twice in last year's edition
Photo credit: zikloland.com
The Basque Country only very rarely throws up a stage for the faster men and McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

 While nowhere near flat, the terrain in the final kilometres was manageable for riders of McCarthy's ilk and the Australian proved the strongest as he beat Alexandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky).

 Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), another favourite for the stage, finished in a disappointing seventh.

The Race

Stage three took the riders 184.8km south from Bermeo to Valdegovia. With 76km to go, the break - Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), Ben King (Dimension Data), Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Aritz Bagues (Euskadi-Murias), Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky), Brendan Canty (EF Education First-Drapac), Jon Irisarri (Caja Rural) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) - had almost four minutes on the peloton. 

 De Gendt took control of the King of the Mountains jersey, taking maximum points of all three categorised climbs on the parcours. 

The breakaway started splintering with 47km to go and just 1'38" gap, as Canty, Irisarri, Smit and Bagues struggled to keep pace with De Gendt as the Belgian incrementally increased the impetus on the hilly terrain. King, De Gendt, Sivakov and Juul Jensen, now free of the weaker riders, pushed the gap back out to two minutes with the aid of a tail wind.

Omar Fraile (Astana) decided to attack the front of the peloton with 25km remaining and was followed by David de la Cruz and Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). The Spaniard from Astana didn't last very long on the unclassified climb however, as the Team Sky men rode away from him with the remaining breakaway of De Gendt and Juul Jensen just 30-seconds up the road.

The bridge was made with 16.5km to go and Bora-Hansgrohe, Team Sunweb and Movistar leading the peloton in anticipation of the sprint finish.

De la Cruz and Juul Jensen were all that remained out front with 10km to go when Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing) attacked from the peloton and tried to make the bridge but was reabsorbed almost straight away.

De la Cruz and Juul Jensen were caught with 2.7km to go as Rojas and Movistar took control at the front. 

Nelson Soto (Caja Rural) went solo with fewer than 2km left but was reeled in with 800 metres to go.

As the sprint trains fought for position, Austrian champion Gregor Mulberger led out McCarthy who found the shortest line and easily powered away in the last 300 metres to take the stage win.

Stage Three Result

1. Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) in 4:49:39
2. Alexandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates)
3. Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky)
4. Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott)
5. Enrique Sanz (Euskadi-Murias)
6. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors)
7. Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)
8. Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH)
9. Pello Bilbao (Astana)
10. Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) all same time

General Classification

1. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) in 13:18:52
2. Primož Roglič (LottoNL-Jumbo) at 8"
3. Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) at 39"
4. Mikel Landa (Movistar) at 43"
5. Pello Bilbao (Astana) at 54"
6. Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) at 58"
7. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 58"
8. Romain Bardet (AG2R) at 58"
9. Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) at 58"
10. Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 58"

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