Kevin Vauquelin delivered a resilient performance to secure fourth place on stage five of Itzulia Basque Country.<\/p>\n
The stage ignited early on the opening category one climb, where the peloton split under pressure. A leading group of around 30 riders formed, with Vauquelin well represented at the front. The Frenchman remained active throughout, responding to a series of attacks as riders attempted to break clear in solo moves and small groups, though none were able to establish a decisive advantage.<\/p>\n
Behind, Victor Langellotti found himself in the second part of the peloton with 75km to go as the race continued to fragment.<\/p>\n
Sensing an opportunity, Vauquelin launched a strong acceleration as the front chasing group caught a breakaway, committing to a solo move with 70km remaining. His effort forced a reaction from behind, and he was eventually brought back with 60km to go, but crucially remained in a reduced and highly competitive front group.<\/p>\n
The race reached its decisive phase on the category one climb of Izua, where the pace ramped up once more. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) managed to forge clear at the front, creating the move that would ultimately shape the outcome of the stage.<\/p>\n
Behind, Vauquelin dug deep to stay in contention, positioning himself well for the run-in to Eibar. In a strong sprint from the chasing group, he powered to fourth place on the stage, capping off an impressive and combative ride.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the team was reduced by the absence of Axel Laurance, who did not start stage five due to a saddle sore issue. We wish him a speedy recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Vauquelin delivered a resilient performance to secure fourth place on stage five of Itzulia Basque Country. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-524094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}