Luis Leon Sanchez of Astana has won the opening stage of the Tour Of The Basque Country.
The opening stage of a race in its 56th edition was a 144km stage from Etxebarria to Markina-Xemein.
Brambilla, Wyss, Edet and Lastra formed the first break and were 3.20 ahead after 26kms.
Brambilia dropped from the break, leaving Wyss, Edet and Lastra with a 1.13 lead with 69kms left.
Cataldo of Astana got up to the front three and then went off on his own, taking a sixteen second lead with 27kms to go.
Mate, Kelderman, Montaguti and Villella gave chase and were twenty seconds behind before they were caught by the peloton which included the likes of Alberto Contador.
Cataldo was still sixteen seconds ahead with 11.5kms to go on the Aiastra climb but Simon Yates was leading Orica GreenEdge up the climb and they caught him with 9.8kms left.
Robert Gesink took to the front with Cofidis' Daniel Navarro who took the category one climb and stayed out in front of the rest of the front runners who had Alberto Contador in their numbers.
On the descent, Luis Leon Sanchez of Astana, bridged to Navarro with 4.7kms together and the pair stayed clear going into the final kilometre.
The duo kept going and Luis Leon Sanchez took the win ahead of Navarro, followed by Gerrans, Felline, Clarke, Bakelants, Dan Martin, Barguil, Gallopin and Chernetski.