Pello Bilbao ends the Spanish jinx at the Tour with a major victory

In a Tour de France that started with Bilbaoa runner named Bilbao is strange, is done with the jinx on Tour de France with great success in issoirethe first by a Spanish cyclist after a drought of five years and 99 stages without any victory, since brother omar won the Mende in 2018. Spanish cycling is a single digit away from accumulating 100 stages without a prize, but, vagaries of fate, Bilbao hair he had forgotten that round number at his magnificent end of the stage.

[+] Results and classification

Already struggling for a thousand matches in the professional peloton, Bilbao achieved the biggest victory of his career at the age of 33, his first Tour victory, the 16th of a career in which two stages in 2019 Giro d’Italia. On a Tour that started

Pello, runner of Bahrain-Successwas one of the 14 riders who made the best break of the day and fought all day with one goal, to win the stage to dedicate it to his teammate Mr. Madertragically passed away last month at the age of 26 in an accident during the tour of switzerland.

𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐎 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐁𝐀𝐎 𝐋́𝐏𝐄𝐙 𝐃𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐈

🔥 Pello Bilbao broke the drought of 5 years and 101 stages of Spanish cycling without winning the #TDF2023!

STUNNING effort from Bahrain rider Victorious making his debut at the French round.https://t.co/DgrmCBgrX3 pic.twitter.com/Rc3nUEx31P

– Teledeporte (@teledeporte) July 11, 2023

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Of the escapees, Bilbao was the best classified overall, 7th, 7’37” behind the leader, a difference that kept everyone in the peloton on their toes, although it was not without stress either. However, the last survivors of the breakaway roped to the finish and Pello took another small jump in the classification, 5th at 4’34” back Jonas Vingegaard.

The Dane maintains his 17″ Slovenian income Tadej Pogacarthe two great favorites to put on the yellow jersey Paris. the aussie Jai Hindley (3rd at 2’40”) and the boy carlos rodriguez (4th at 4’22”), 22 years old, by far the Spaniard’s best asset in his Tour debut, ahead of Bilbao in the current top-5 overall.

After a first rest day on Monday, the Tour resumes its march on Tuesday with 167.2 kilometers dotted with five stops for Massif Central useful for many fights, as it turns out. One of them led to the escape of the day, consisting of 14 cyclists, two Spaniards among them, Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) and the aforementioned Pello Bilbao. His advantage over the peloton did not exceed 3’30”, enough at the end to reach the finish line.

Constantly rising and falling, the typical terrain for guerrilla warfare, Latvian Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech) he gave the best ax blow to the escapees when he leaped with all his might into the last harbor, La Chapelle Marcoussea 3rd category of 6.5 km at 5.6% average slope that gave a lot of game in front and back.

There were 30 km to go before the finish line and Neilands achieved a 30″ margin in a flash, proof of his good footwork, but five teammates resisted the pull and began the pursuit on the way to Issoire: Bilbao, Pedrero, Esteban Chavez, George Zimmerman and Ben O’Connor.

The good understanding between the five allowed them to catch Neilands 3 km from the finish, always with Pello perfectly positioned and attentive to any dangerous movement, as did Zimmermann, jumping like a spring with one kilometer more.

The Basque was hooked on him like a limpet and, dosing forces with extraordinary cold blood as the rest of his teammates approached them, Pello Bilbao still had the reserves to start strongly in final meters and will prevail in the sprint even with some authority.