Tour Of The Basque Country 2014 - Stage 6

The Tour Of The Basque Country concluded today with a final 25.9 kilometre time trial around the town of Markina-Xemein. The course contained two difficult climbs along with long fast descents, meaning as well as the pure time triallists general classification riders should be able to do a good ride. Alberto Contador came into the stage holding twelve seconds over Alejandro Valverde, but it was more likely that other riders would the most troublesome.

Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Shimano held the lead for a large portion of the day, but Tony Martin, the three-time world time trial champion was fast approaching, descending the second climb particularly quickly, daringly putting all of his weight just above his front wheel. He went on to smash Dumoulin's time by thirty eight seconds, and waited in the hotseat for the general classification riders to finish.

Of the general classification riders, Simon Spilak of Katusha did a very good ride, coming in only sixteen seconds down on Martin, and Jean-Christophe Peraud, who was virtually completely ignored by the cameras all day, also did a good ride, finishing thirty five seconds off Martin. Michal Kwiatkowski, a teammate of Martin, was looking like he could be doing the ride of the day however. 

The young Pole was looking strong all the way around the course, and actually ended up coming in just fifteen seconds down on Tony Martin, putting immediate pressure on Alberto Contador to continue the good ride he had started. Kwiatkowski eclipsed both Damiano Cunego and Alejandro Valverde, who were flung down the overall classification by weak time trial performances.

Alberto Contador however was not to be hampered by a similarly poor performance, as he rode to a very good performance, just seven seconds behind Tony Martin, henceforth beating Michal Kwiatkowski by eight seconds. This meant Contador took his third Tour Of The Basque Country title, ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski and Jean-Christophe Peraud. 

Contador's form for the Tour de France now looks very good, in contrast to his main rival for July, Christopher Froome, who looks out of race form and will need to put in a strong showing in the Tour de Romandie to show he's ready for the Tour. Make sure you check Lanterne Rouge for the Race Analysis of Paris-Roubaix. If you want to follow the race live, Tom will be covering it on The Roar, as the action unfolds.