Ion Izagirre takes impressive GP Miguel Indurain win in final season after dropping Simmons on the last climb

In Spain, one day before the Tour of Flanders, the race was looking for a successor to Lidl-Trek rider Thibau Nys, who was absent after knee surgery. The start list still featured plenty of notable names capable of adding themselves to the honours list.

After all, part of the peloton is heading to the Tour of the Basque Country after "Indurain," which begins on Monday. That gave Saturday’s field added depth, with riders such as Pello Bilbao, Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious, Simmons for Lidl-Trek, Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana and Cofidis rider Alex Aranburu all lining up.

In the opening phase, Louis Ferreira (Anicolor), Rafael Duartes (Efapel), Unai Aznar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Carlos García Pierna and Sinuhe Fernández (Burgos-BH) formed the early move. Behind them, XDS-Astana set the pace in service of the in-form Scaroni, with UAE also contributing to the chase.

With around 60 kilometres to go, the finale burst into life thanks to Lidl-Trek, which sparked attacking intent from contenders such as Lennert Van Eetvelt and Tiberi. The latter lasted the longest, aided by Lidl-Trek’s Julien Bernard, but he too was eventually reeled in.

Marc Hirschi (Tudor) then closed the gap himself, offering another sign that his condition is heading in the right direction for the races still to come. He was not part of the next move, though. That group did include Héctor Álvarez (Lidl-Trek), Izagirre, Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jakob Omrzel of Bahrain Victorious.

That front group reached the Alto de Eraul, 11 kilometres from the line, with a healthy advantage. Izagirre accelerated there, and only the newly rejoined Simmons was able to respond. They crested the climb with a lead of 10 seconds over Markel Beloki, while the peloton — held back in part by Lidl-Trek’s control work — sat around half a minute behind.

That was also the margin with which the leading trio began the final short climb. Izagirre used his local knowledge immediately, launching another acceleration as soon as the road tilted upward. Simmons had to dig deep just to stay with him, but at 1.7 kilometres from the finish the American finally cracked. From there, with the Basque crowd roaring him on, Izagirre rode clear to a memorable victory on home roads.