Wednesday 9 April 2014 18:34, UK
Britain’s Ben Swift sprinted to fourth place on stage three of the Tour of the Basque Country as Michael Matthews claimed victory and Alberto Contador retained the overall lead.
Team Sky rider Swift had been well-placed going into the final 250m but was crowded out at the death in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Matthews profited from a textbook lead-out from Orica-GreenEdge team-mate Simon Gerrans and won by a bike’s length from Kevin Reza (Europcar) in second and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step), who finished third for the second day in a row.
Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) followed safely in the peloton to retain his 14-second lead in the general classification over fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) ahead of Thursday’s vital summit finish to stage four in Eibar.
Matthews's win was his second of the season, with both having come in the last four days in northern Spain.
He said afterwards: “Simon Gerrans did a perfect lead-out. It was a huge team effort. Everyone committed to one goal and one plan. All I needed to do was ride the last 200m. I had the easy job today.”
Stage three result
1 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, 5:02:09
2 Kevin Reza (Fra) Europcar, same time
3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, st
4 Ben Swift (GB) Team Sky, st
5 Paul Martens (Ger) Belkin, st
6 Yukiya Arashiro (Jap) Europcar, st
7 Daniele Ratto (Ita) Cannondale, st
8 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana, st
9 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Astana, st
10 Tosh van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Belisol, st
General classification
1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, 12:54:03
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +14secs
3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, +34
4 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +36
5 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC, same time
6 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
7 Yuri Trofimov (Rus) Katusha, st
8 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky, st
9 Roman Kreuziger (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +54
10 Mikel Landa (Spa) Astana, st
