Max Schachmann of Soudal-Quick Step won the opening day individual time-trial of the Tour of the Basque Country on Monday, a 16.5km effort around Vitoria-Gastiez.
The German finished in 18min 37sec, a fraction of a second ahead of Team UAE man Joao Almeida while Red Bull's Florian Lipowitz was third at 1sec on a tightly contested route.
"This was only a short effort," Almeida said after the race. "But it's a good indicator of how things might go. I'd be happy to keep at least second place until the end of the week."
➡️ @MaxSchachmann 🤝 @soudalquickstep casi pierde el primer puesto, Lipo 🤝 @RBH_ProCycling has been very close 🤏
— Itzulia Basque Country (@ehitzulia) April 7, 2025
🎥 @eitbkirolak
🏆@bancosabadell#Itzulia2025 pic.twitter.com/WiE5jFjqwB
Tuesday's stage is a flat 200km run from Pamplona to Lodosa followed by four hilly or mountainous stages.
Spaniard Juan Ayuso won last year's edition, while compatriot Carlos Rodriguez and Denmark's Mattias Skjelmose completed the podium.
A memorable downhill fall caused by tree roots on the road took out Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel in 2024, and there is a notable lack of top drawer riders at the race this year.
Former Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss leads the Visma team line-up and along with Skjelmose, Santiago Buitrago and Enric Mas is one of the men to watch.