Joaquin Rodriquez has won the 55th Tour Of The Basque Country.
This race had come to a battle between Sergio Henao of Team Sky and Joaquim Rodriquez of Katusha who went in the final time trial in Aia with the same time.
The time trial was over 18.3kms and featured two climbs which were used in the fifth stage won by Mikel Lander on Friday afternoon.
Rinoldo Nocentini of AG2R set the early time to beat of 30.55 before Gorka Izagirre of Movistar became the first rider to finish under thirty minutes when he came home in 29.37.
Rein Taarame set a new time to beat of 29.22 which only lasted until Fabio Feline finished in 29.09 and then Benat Intxausti completed the course two seconds quicker.
Giant Alpecin's Tom Dumoulin put in a great performance and he set the new time to beat for the riders going off at two minute intervals of 28.46.
Tony Martin of Etizz Quick Step could only finish in 29.28 as Simon Yates of Orica Greenedge, Joaquim Rodriquez of Katusha and race leader Sergio Henao of Team Sky went down the ramp.
Out of the three, it was Joaquim Rodriquez who was able to master the course the best and he finished in a time of 28:50 to go second behind Tom Dumoulin.
Henao could not better or even match Rodriquez's time and he finished thirteen seconds slower giving the general classification to a delighted Rodriquez who told his Katusha team: "I am so happy! After a year without a victory - now three victories in four days. This is very special to me, but also my good performance in the TT makes me so happy. I didn't look at it as a TT. I imagined myself to be in a normal stage on the attack. I took some risks in the descent but stayed fully concentrated.
"At the climb José Azevedo kept me informed about my advantage against Henao. I really gave everything on that climb, I was riding on the limit, but it worked. You can say that it is a surprise to see me performing so well in a TT but already in the past, like in the Tour de France of 2013, I also did very well."
Stage winner Tom Dumoulin was also pleased with the stage win and told his team's press office: "It was a difficult time trial with two very hard climbs in the second part. The first part was mostly descent. The irregularity of today’s course fits me well.
"This morning during the recon we decided to start with my Giant Trinity TT bike and change to the Giant TCR road bike along the route, which was the best decision.
"I am very happy but surprised as well that I can compete on this level and even stay ahead of all the climbers. I didn’t start with a clear target to go for a good GC here, as we knew that a finish in the top 10 GC is very unlikely. That is pretty much the reason we didn’t waste too much energy in the past stages to really go for it in today’s time trial, which fits my upcoming classics ambitions, too.
"I felt better every day this past week and I am heading towards next week’s Amstel Gold Race with a lot of confidence."
Stage Result
| 1 | Tom Dumoulin Giant-Alpecin | 0:28:46 | |
| 2 | Joaquim Rodriguez Katusha | 0:00:04 | |
| 3 | Ion Izagirre Movistar | 0:00:05 | |
| 4 | Sergio Luis Henao Team Sky | 0:00:17 | |
| 5 | Benat Intxausti Movistar | 0:00:21 | |
| 6 | Fabio Felline Trek Factory Racing | 0:00:23 | |
| 7 | Nairo Quintana Movistar | 0:00:30 | |
| 8 | Rui Costa Lampre-Merida | 0:00:34 | |
| 9 | Rein Taaramae Astana | 0:00:36 | |
| 10 | Michal Kwiatkowski Etixx - Quick-Step | 0:00:37 | |
| 11 | Tony Martin Etixx - Quick-Step | 0:00:42 | |
| 12 | Simon Yates Orica GreenEdge | 0:00:43 |
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
| 1 | Joaquim Rodriguez Katusha | 21:49:38 | |
| 2 | Sergio Luis Henao Team Sky | 0:00:13 | |
| 3 | Ion Izagirre Movistar Team | 0:00:29 | |
| 4 | Nairo Quintana Movistar | 0:00:38 | |
| 5 | Simon Yates Orica GreenEdge | 0:00:46 | |
| 6 | Michele Scarponi Astana | 0:01:06 | |
| 7 | Rui Costa Lampre-Merida | 0:01:14 | |
| 8 | Michal Kwiatkowski Etixx - Quick-Step | 0:01:15 | |
| 9 | Ilnur Zakarin Latusha | 0:01:25 | |
| 10 | Thibaut Pinot FDJ.fr | 0:01:33 |
POINTS
| 1 | Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha | 78 | pts |
| 2 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx - Quick-Step | 62 | |
| 3 | Sergio Luis Henao Team Sky | 55 | |
| 4 | Fabio Felline Trek Factory Racing | 44 | |
| 5 | Simon Yates Orica GreenEdge | 38 |
SPRINT
| 1 | Louis Vervaeke Lotto Soudal | 12 | pts |
| 2 | Omar Fraile Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 11 | |
| 3 | Thomas Danielson Cannondale-Garmin | 10 | |
| 4 | Amets Txurruka Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 10 | |
| 5 | Tony Martin Etixx - Quick-Step | 7 |
KING OF THE MOUNTAINS
| 1 | Omar Fraile Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 81 | pts |
| 2 | Amets Txurruka Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | 45 | |
| 3 | Thomas Danielson Cannondale-Garmin | 33 | |
| 4 | Tony Martin Etixx - Quick-Step | 23 | |
| 5 | Sergio Luis Henao Team Sky | 22 |
TEAM
| 1 | Katusha | 65:31:56 | |
| 2 | BMC | 0:03:09 | |
| 3 | Movistar | 0:03:16 | |
| 4 | Astana | 0:04:24 | |
| 5 | Team Sky | 0:14:18 |