Wout Poels (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) proved that he is back to his best after the horrific crash at the 2012 Tour de France when he won today's queen stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in solo fashion. The Dutchman kept attacking the race favourites on the final climb and finally got clear on his own to take the biggest win of his career while repeated attacks from Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) were not enough to get rid of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and instead the race leader ended up losing 2 seconds to his main rival.

 

Less than two years ago, Wout Poels' promising career was in danger when he was left on the ground with numerous injuries after the big crash in Metz at the 2012 Tour de France. The young Dutchman defied the odds and came back to the professional peloton in 2013 when he gradually rode himself into form while riding in Vacansoleil colours.

 

After joining Omega Pharma-Quick Step over the winter, Poels finally seems to be back at his former level and in fact he now seems to be better than ever before. Today he took a very impressive win in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco queen stage, his first at the WorldTour level.

 

As expected it all came down to the final climb to the Sanctuary of Arrate and all was set for a big showdown between Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador. Race leader Contador launched several attacks all the way up the ascent but his main rival never gave him an inch and it always slowed down when the Tinkoff-Saxo leader realized that he lacked the punch to make a difference.

 

While the two main contenders looked at each other, Poels exploited the situation to launch repeated attacks. Most of the time, he got reeled in but the Dutchman refused to give up.

 

Finally, he latched onto the wheel of Simon Spilak when the Slovenian made an attack during a small lull in the group of favourites and suddenly a four-rider group had taken off. Joining Spilak and Poels were Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and they opened up a nice gap.

 

Contador launched another attack and almost bridged the gap but as Valverde was staying on his wheel, he again slowed down. At the same time, Poels launched his own attack from the front group and his companions were unable to respond.

 

While things got back together to form a small group of around 10 riders behind Poels, the Dutchman crested the summit and sped down the final 2.7km descent to the finish. As there was no concerted chase going on, he held off his rivals to take a beautiful solo win.

 

Valverde and Samuel Sanchez (BMC) who have both in this finish in the past, used their great descending skills to open a gap to the Contador group and crossed the line just one second after Poels and two seconds ahead of the race leader. That brought Contador's lead over Valverde down from 14 to 12 seconds but the Tinkoff-Saxo rider heads into tomorrow's fifth stage as the race leader.

 

Friday's penultimate stage is the final road stage of the race and brings the riders over 160.2km lumpy kilometres from Eibar to Markina-Xemein. Four categorized climbs are located in the second half of the stage, with the top of the final one coming just 8.2km from the line, but as none of them are very difficult, it could be a day for a sprint from a reduced group or a breakaway.

 

The queen stage

The fourth day of racing offered the climbers one final chance to gain time ahead of Saturday's decisive time trial as Thursday was the day of the traditional queen stage to the Sanctuary of Arrate in Eibar. After a flat and downhill opening part from the start in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the riders went up an early category 2 climb after 59km of racing that preceded the difficult second half with four major ascents. The race ended after 151km with the category 1 clim Alto de Uxartza that was followed by just 1.7km of technical descending down to the finish In Eibar- Arrate.

 

For the fourth day in a row, the riders took off under beautiful sunshine and with temperatures reaching a massive 24 degrees, it was always like a summer day in the Basque Country. Two riders chose not to take the start, Australian champion Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) who will lose valuable preparation for the Ardennes classics, and Cayetano Sarmiento (Cannondale).

 

The break takes off

With a hard stage on offer, it was always a given thing that it would be an animated start and the riders rode at a fierce pace right from the beginning. Attacks were launched in both side of the roads but the riders got to the 15km mark before the right formation was finally found.

 

Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural), Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana), and Jean-Marc Marino (Cannondale) opened a small gap and they were joined by Ben King (Garmin) and Nelson Oliveira (Lampre). However, they had to fight hard to stay ahead and at the 20km mark their gap was only 20 seconds.

 

No big gap

The battle continued. 15km further up the road, the front quintet still only had 25 seconds in hand but now the peloton decided to slow down a bit. The gap went up to 1.00 after 45km of racing but then Movistar started to show their intentions.

 

The Spanish team had done nothing to hide that they want to repeat Alejandro Valverde's win from the 2012 Vuelta in this finish and they started to control proceedings. They kept the break under a tight leash and as soon as they hit the bottom of the first climb, they set a fierce pace.

 

Costa attacks

As the peloton was about to catch the break, Sanchez tried to take off on his own while behind the fireworks began. Rui Costa (Lampre) launched an attack that was closely marked by Valverde and Contador but over the top, everything came back together.

 

The peloton had now split in two big groups, with Sky chasing hard in the second bunch. While new attacks were launched on the descent, the British team managed to rejoin the main group but a third group with Belkin was still behind.

 

New attacks

Jeremy Roy (FDJ) got a small gap and was riding a few metres ahead of the peloton when they hit the day's second climb with 69km to go. Movistar continued their aggressive riding as Jose Herrada attacked from the bottom and he was joined by a Giant rider and Pieter Serry (OPQS).

 

More riders joined that move before Tinkoff-Saxo reeled them in. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) was the next to give it a try and he bridged across to the lone Roy.

 

A dangerous group

Dominik Nerz (BMC), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre), Ben Gastauer (Ag2r), Herrada and Serry made up a chase group from which Durasek jumped across to the leaders. The five other riders also made the junction while Simon Spilak (Katusha), David Arroyo (Caja Rural), and Benat Intxausti (Movistar) were the next to bridge across followed by Jan Bakelants (OPQS).

 

Tinkoff-Saxo were now under pressure as Contador only had Roman Kreuziger and Sergio Paulinho for support and the latter was riding hard on the front to try to neutralize the strong group. As they were about to get caught, Durasek took off and he was joined by Gastauer and Dumoulin while the remaining part was caught at the top of the climb.

 

A front trio has formed

At this point, the front trio were 25 seconds ahead and the peloton finally took a small breather. This allowed Rory Sutherland to rejoin the bunch and he went directly to the front to set the pace while he allowed the gap to grow up to 1.15.

 

Meanwhile, Romain Sicard (Europcar) and later also Herrada managed to bridge  across to make it a 5-rider front group. The situation now stabilized a bit as Sutherland set a steady pace to keep the gap at around 1.15.

 

Durasek takes off

Jesus Hernandez was one of many riders to rejoin the peloton and he took a short turn on the front to the bottom of the day's third climb, the Alto de Ixua, which was by far the hardest. At the bottom of the ascent, Omega Pharma-Quick Step upped the pace, bringing the gap down to 50 seconds, before they again left the work to Sutherland.

 

Herrada was dropped from the front group and instead his teammate Ion Izagirre attacked. He passed Herrada who fell back to the peloton while Durasek decided to take off on his own.

 

Izagirre makes the junction

Durasek crested the summit as the lone leader while Sutherland led the peloton across one minute later. On the descent, however, the Croatian was caught by his chasers while Izagirre made the junction to again make it a 5-rider group.

 

The peloton started the penultimate climb with a 45-second gap to make up and Sutherland continued his pace-setting almost all the way up that climb. Inside the final kilometre, he swung off, allowing Paulinho to up the pace a bit in the final section.

 

OPQS lead the chase

Sicard led Gastauer and Durasek over the top but at this point their gap was down to 32 seconds. Meanwhile, Omega Pharma-Quick Step went to the front on the descent, with Michal Golas, Pieter Serry and Bakelants all swapping turns on the front.

 

The hard work by the riders from the Belgian team brought the escapees back with 10km to go. Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) made a short-lived attack to win the final intermediate sprint but he was quickly passed by the Orica-GreenEDGE duo of Pieter Weening and Simon Yates.

 

Contador makes his first attempt

Weening launched Yates off in a solo attack from the bottom of the final climb while it was now Tony Martin setting the pace in the peloton. Rolland attacked to bridge across to Yates but as Kreuziger took over the pace-setting and the peloton exploded to pieces, that move was quickly neutralized.

 

With a little more than 4km to go, Contador made his first attack but Valverde quickly shut it down. As Contador again slowed down more riders started to join from behind, with Poels, Spilak, Peraud, Yuryy Trofimov (Katusha), Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS), and Cadel Evans (BMC) the first riders to make the junction.

 

Sanchez gives it a try

As the group had almost come to a standstill, Samuel Sacnhez attacked but Poels shut it down immediately. Contador made another attack but Valverde stayed glued to his wheel while Poels and Spilak joined the pair.

 

Poels sneaked off the pace but Peraud brought a bigger lead group back together. This opened the door for Pinot to attack but when Poels closed it down, Contador tried again.

 

Spilak makes the right move

He had no success and so the 10-15 rider lead group came back together. Damiano Cunego (Lampre) gave it an unsuccessful go but it was Spilak who made the right move a little later.

 

Pinot, Poels and Peraud joined him and they quickly got a big gap. Contador made another attack but Valvrde stayed on his wheel. Trofimov and later Mikel Landa (Astana) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC) joined them but when Contador tried again, the latter fell off while Bauke Mollema (Belkin) bridged across.

 

Poels off on his own

Poels made two attacks in the front group and the final one allowed him to move clear. Pinot briefly fell off the pace but managed to get back to the chasers before the top.

 

At the top, the chase group was caught and so a 10-12 rider group had gathered on the descent. Contador set the pace 10 seconds behind Poels until Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin) upped the pace even further.

 

However, it was all too late and even though Sanchez and Valverde surged clear at the end, they failed to catch Poels. The Dutchman took a big solo win while Valverde narrowly held off Sanchez in the sprint for 2nd.