This Tuesday 8th of April, Intermarché-Wanty finished close to the victory in the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, which was decided in a sprint, the day after the opening time trial of this six-day World Tour stage race.
Belgian rider Luca Van Boven secured second place in a perfectly orchestrated final sprint by the Walloon World Team. With a perfect lead out of his compatriot Tom Paquot in the last 800 meters, taking the final roundabout and corners first, Van Boven was ideally positioned to start the final straight.
At the finish line in the streets of Lodosa, Van Boven was only defeated by Caleb Ewan, with Tom Paquot finishing eleventh. In doing so, he achieved the first podium of his professional career, which moreover is at World Tour level.
"We studied this finish and even though I'm not a pure sprinter, we wanted to take advantage of the technical final and my good condition to go for a result. Thanks to the fantastic work of Tom Paquot, I was perfectly led out and I was able to use my speed. In the last 250 meters I saw nobody coming and thought for a moment that I was sprinting towards the victory. But Caleb Ewan eventually passed me with much more speed in the last 50 meters. It's of course a shame to finish so close to the win, but I'm very happy with this first podium in the professional ranks with Intermarché-Wanty."
