Frenchman Paul Lapeira won the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country cycling race this Tuesday in Cambo-les-Bains (France), Primoz Roglic retaining the yellow jersey after his victory in the inaugural time trial.
The rider from the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team took advantage of a lot of work from his teammate Bruno Armirail to win at the end of a massive sprint and claim a first stage victory on the World Tour circuit, at 23 years old.
“It’s crazy what’s happening to me. I won twice three weeks ago, now I arrive at a World Tour race where the level is completely different and I also manage to win, it’s great,” declared the puncher, who confirms his good start of the season after two successes in the Classic Loire Atlantique and the Cholet Agglo Tour.
🇫🇷🙌 Cocorico: Paul Lapeira and Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale win the 2nd stage of #Itzulia after a sprint in the rain as we like them!
Follow the Tour of the Basque Country on Eurosport, with #LesRP pic.twitter.com/9JSp1V8YiU
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) April 2, 2024
“In fact, I tried to attack 1.5 km (from the finish), it stalled a bit and it immediately came for me so I thought about sprinting, I got up and Bruno took the stick at 700 m, he took me up to 200 m and when I saw that it was going up I started my sprint and it did it! » detailed Lapeira at the microphone of Eurosport.
The Frenchman beat the Italian Samuele Battistella and the Belgian Louis Vervaeke, at the end of a second stage without much difficulty marked by bad weather having degraded the state of the roads and caused falls notably involving in the final the Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart and Groupama-FDJ rider Romain Grégoire.
🇪🇸 @ehitzulia
3rd victory in 1 month for @PaulLapeira. He has legs of fire 🔥
3rd victory in a month for @PaulLapeira. He's on fire 🔥#DECATHLONAG2RLAMONDIALETEAM - © Getty @Decathlon @AG2RLAMONDIALE pic.twitter.com/1btv6VlgEj
— DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE TEAM (@decathlonAG2RLM) April 2, 2024
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic remains at the head of the general classification, now closely followed by the Dane Mattias Skjelmose and the Belgian champion Remco Evenepoel, both ten seconds behind. The Spaniard Juan Ayuso, who earned a bonus, is fourth at 14 seconds, just ahead of the winner of the 2023 edition Jonas Vingegaard.
Starting at the front to represent the local team Euskaltel-Euskadi, the brothers Enekoitz Azparren and km from the finish by the peloton led by the Bora-Hansgrohe of Roglic. The third stage on Wednesday between Espelette and Altsasu, marked by seven difficulties, will offer the favorites an opportunity to measure their state of form.