Juan Ayuso wins accident-plagued Tour de Basque Country in northern Spain
EIBAR, Spain (AP) — Spanish cyclist Juan Ayuso won the Tour of Basque Country after taking the lead during the sixth and final stage on Saturday.
Ayuso, who is considered the rising star of Spanish cycling, started the stage just four seconds behind overnight leader Mattias Skjelmose. Ayuso won the race by 42 seconds over stage winner Carlos Rodríguez while Skjelmose completed the podium.
Rodríguez finished the 137-kilometer (85-mile) mountainous ride that started and finished in Eibar in 3 1/2 hours, with Ayuso just behind.
The race in northern Spain was plagued by accidents that knocked out several of cycling’s top riders, including two-time reigning Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.
Vingegaard broke a collarbone, several ribs and suffered a collapsed lung in a crash with other riders on Thursday. As of Friday, Vingegaard remained in a hospital in the Spanish city of Vitoria. His Visma-Lease A Bike team did not update his status on Saturday.
Belgian Remco Evenepoel also broke a collarbone and his right shoulder blade and was scheduled to undergo surgery from that crash during stage 4.
Another crash on Friday resulted in Mikel Landa, the race’s runner-up from 2023, breaking his right collarbone and two ribs.
Ayuso was second in the Tirreno-Adriatico last month and third in the 2022 Spanish Vuelta.
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