Tulett eyes Ardennes classics after Basque Country abandon: "Hopefully he can recover well"

The final stage of the Tour of the Basque Country was one of two halves for Visma | Lease a Bike on Saturday. The Dutch team started the stage without leader Ben Tulett, after he was still suffering too much from a crash earlier in the race. His teammates showed resilience, however, which resulted in a fine top finish.

With Bruno Armirail, Tim Rex, Menno Huising and Filippo Fiorelli, Visma | Lease a Bike had four riders in the breakaway. Fiorelli eventually finished fifth. "We rode a good race," a satisfied Maassen said.

"We wanted to compete for the win and had a number of riders in the break. Filippo showed his strength and was in contention for the victory for a long time. We're very happy about that," the team director said after the final stage, which was won by AJ August.