Orica GreenEdge's Michael Matthews has won the opening stage of the Tour Of The Basque Country.
The first stage was a hilly 162.7km stage that started and finished in and included one category three climb and two category two climbs.
Brian Bulgac (LottoNL-Jumbo), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis),went straight on the attack and had a lead of 4.45 after 11.5 kilometres.
They were still five minutes ahead after sixty kilometres but going into the final sixty kilometres, Bulgac was dropped and the lead dropped to three minutes.
Fraile decided that he was going off on a solo raid and he went away as the riders started on a thirty kilometre local lap with a lead of 2.30
On the climb up the Alto de Vivero, Fraile was caught with seventeen kilometres to go.
There were plenty of attacks but it came down to a bunch sprint and Michael Matthews of Orica GreenEdge won in 3.57.07 ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski of Etixx Quick Step, Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha, Kévin Reza of FDJ and Tony Gallopin of Lotto Soudal.
“I was quite confident going into the stage,” Matthews said to his team's press office. “We did a recon of the final climb yesterday and I knew what I was in for, it just came down to what legs I had today.”
“It turned out I had really good legs, got myself over the climb and I knew from that reduced bunch I had a pretty good chance of cleaning up the sprint.
“The Yates brothers were following a lot of attacks in the final five kilometres, which was great that I didn’t have to worry about any of them.
“There wasn’t any lead out trains, it was more of a grovel, so I just placed myself within the top five in the final and started my sprint a little earlier, rather than waiting like I did in San Remo, so I couldn’t get boxed in.”