Thomas Still Playing Catch-Up At Basque Tour

Ion Izagirre takes title as Tour champ Thomas falters

- Peter Cossins

Although the days are long gone when the likes of Sean Kelly would ride the Tour of Flanders, then gallop south to tackle the Tour of the Basque Country, before returning north for Paris-Roubaix, the Spanish stage race remains a barometer of form among the peloton’s stage racing big hitters. Six days of typically frantic action revealed that Astana are still the team to beat, thanks to Ion Izagirre’s all-out attack on the final day that pushed Bora’s Emanuel Buchmann out of top spot and gave the Kazakh outfit their eighth stage race victory of 2019.