Euskaltel rider Carlos Barbero became a surprise winner of the Circuit de Getxo. Having survived the tough Txomintxu climb, he produced an excellent turn of speed to win by 2 seconds from all of the peloton apart from Luca Chirico (MG Kvis), who could do no more than hold Barbero’s wheel. Pello Bilbao finished third for Caja Rural on a bad day for Movistar who did all the pace setting but came away with fourth as their best result.

The 28th edition of the Circuit de Getxo is the second race in the Basque trinity that began last weekend with Gorka Izagirre winning the Klasika Ordizia and reaches a climax with the Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday.

The parcours was unchanged from previous editions and consisted of 10 laps of 17km, amassing 170km in total. The centrepiece of the race is the Txomintxu “wall”, that lasts 0.7km and has a maximum gradient of 14%. It comes as part of course’s final kilometre, making the finish very tough. There were also mountain points available at the top of the climb on laps 4,5,6 and 7.

65 riders on 9 teams took the start this morning, with the majority of the teams being continental, but Movistar, Caja Rural and Cofidis were all involved in the race too.

Just 12 kilometers into the first lap, after some brief attacks, Cofidis rider Yoann Bagot got clear of the field with Antonio Molina (Caja Rural), Cristian Delle Stelle (MG Kvis-Willier) and Illart Zuazubiskar (Euskadi). With Cofidis and Caja Rural having a man each in the break, this forced home favourites Movistar to do all of the chase work.

The gap remained around 1:30 to 2 minutes, maxing out at 2:50 at its peak, but Movistar did an excellent job controlling the race and by the beginning of the eighth lap, the breakaway was caught. Up to this point in the race, the peloton was a wall of blue jerseys as Movistar riders Erviti, Dayer Quintana, Jose Herrada and Castroviejo set tempo. The only thing to report at this point was that Antonio Molina was the first man over the Txomintxu on each of the laps where points were awarded.

Then things kicked off in earnest on the penultimate lap with riders flying off the front and being brought back, but one move looked to have stuck, containing Castroviejo, Jesus Herrada and Quintana (Movistar), Mas and Txurruka (Caja Rural), Leonardi (Aero Zero) and Nechita (MG Kvis).

The move rapidly gained 15 seconds heading into the final lap and it looked like Movistar would take their second Basque classic in a week if they could make their numerical advantage count. But with just three kilometers to go, they had just 5 seconds and it was all back together at 2 kilometers to go.

Everything was all together going into the final kilometer and it would all come down to a sprint.

And that was where 23 year old Carlos Barbero (Euskaltel) unleashed a vicious sprint, that was so fast that it distanced all bar Luca Chirico of MG Kvis, but Barbero has enough in the tank to hold him off. Then, Caja Rural’s Pello Bilbao led the bunch home 2 seconds later, emphasising just how quick Barbero was.

Movistar were left disappointed, with Jose Joaquin Rojas finishing fourth and also placing Giovanni Visconti and Benat Intxausti in the top 10 but all of their hard work was for nothing.

But for Barbero, who has been on fire lately, winning the Volta ao Alentjo and finishing third in the Spanish national road race recently, took the biggest win of his short career as well as a huge win for the Basque Euskaltel team.