Tom Dumoulin has sprinted to 16th from a much reduced front peloton at the first stage of the Vuelta ciclista al Pais Vasco.

With three categorized climbs the opening stage was a tough one. An early break of three riders was caught just before the final climb began with 20 km to go. After a few attacks, none of riders were able to make a serious gap towards victory as a small peloton prepares for a sprint.

Moving towards the finish line, Tom Dumoulin was well positioned in the front peloton and finished 16th. The race was won by Michael Matthews (Orica-Greenedge), who showed his good form with an impressive sprint in the streets of Bilbao (ESP).

After the stage, Coach Aike Visbeek reflected: “As we expected the level is very high. Our plan was to go for a stage result with Tom [Dumoulin] and we knew that keeping him in front on the last two climbs was crucial for that. Before the 2nd last climb Caleb and Tom were involved in a crash. From that moment we faced difficulties with the positioning.

"Unfortunately the final climb did not work out as we hoped since a lot of riders were able to survive, including some fast ones as well. Tom was the only one to survive in the first large group but lacked full focus to do a good sprint.”