Jay McCarthy (Bora-hansgrohe) won Wednesday’s third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country in a sprint finish, as Julian Alaphilippe retained the race leader’s yellow jersey.
McCarthy launched his dash for the line perfectly at the end of a 184.8-kilometre route between Bormeo and Valdegovia marked by numerous failed breakaway attempts.
The 25-year-old, the victor at January’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, edged out Aleksandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) with Team Sky’s Michal Kwiatkowski claiming third.
Alaphilippe, the winner of the opening two stages, was again in the mix in the closing sprint and remains eight seconds clear of Primoz Roglic in the general classification.
Thursday’s stage is a flat 19.4km individual time trial around Lodosa.
Tour of the Basque Country 2018 – stage 3 results (Bermeo – Valdegovía):
| 1 | Jay McCarthy (Bora-hansgrohe) | 4:49:39 |
| 2 | Aleksandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 3 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 4 | Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 5 | Enrique Sanz (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) | ,, |
| 6 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 7 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 8 | Jesus Ezquerra Muela (Burgos BH) | ,, |
| 9 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | ,, |
| 10 | Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
General classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | 13:18:52 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +08” |
| 3 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +39” |
| 4 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | +43” |
| 5 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +54” |
| 6 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +58” |
| 7 | Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 8 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 9 | Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 10 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
