The first summit finish of the Vuelta lay ahead of the peloton this afternoon as they rolled out of Bilbao, heading over 181 kilometres to Pico Jano. It was a fierce start to the action once again with a flurry of attacks peppering the front of the peloton, before a group of ten managed to break the proverbial elastic; with Vuelta debutant Marco Brenner riding well to make the move for the team.

Their gap was allowed to grow out slowly and reached a maximum of almost six minutes with 100 kilometres to go, but an increase in pace in the bunch as other teams came to assist in the chase saw the gap fall to five minutes; as the heavens opened from above and rain lashed down over the race. Although holding at five minutes for a while, the gap soon began to tumble as the bunch charged towards the penultimate climb. Brenner dug deep before he was caught by the bunch, helping Thymen Arensman who had been well positioned by the rest of the team.

Onto the last climb, Brenner did one last pull to bring Arensman forward before the tempo at the head of the peloton increased dramatically and the mist descended on the bunch. Riding at his own pace, Arensman originally had to let go of some wheels in front of him but fought his way back well, returning to the big group of GC riders who came to the line together; fighting it out for fifth place while ahead Vine took the stage win. Arensman would eventually cross the line in a solid 14th place after what was a very tough day of racing.

Speaking after the stage Brenner said: “Today we wanted to go in the breakaway with Mark or me, if it was a good breakaway that might make it for the stage. In the end it was indeed a nice break that went and I managed to get in there for the team. I just went with the break the whole day. During the stage it looked quite good that we could maybe fight it out for the win but unfortunately towards the end the bunch really sped up a lot. I was caught at the top of the penultimate climb and could then help Thymen position a bit for the last climb. Thymen then did a good job there so I think we can be happy with the day.”