Basque Archives - Page 2 of 2

Primoz Roglic won the opening time trial of the Tour of the Basque Country, even though he made a wrong turn by a few meters at the end. The Slovenian followed the distraction for the following cars just before the finish, had to make a U-turn, and lost about ten seconds.

Second came the Australian Jay Vine (7 seconds), third was the Dane Mattias Skjelmose (10 seconds). Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard was fifth at 15 seconds.

Remco Evenepoel finished fourth, losing 11 seconds to the winner. Our compatriot started his time trial with a slide: after just 20 seconds of driving he crashed in the very first corner.

“Everything went well. Until we were two hundred meters away,” Evenepoel grinned after his time trial. “I hit the ground. That was a bit of a silly moment. My own fault, I guess. My own risks. Maybe I leaned a little too diagonally in the bend. It was a slick part of town.”

Evenepoel had of course hoped to be in front of Roglic after the opening time trial. “I was hoping to take a bit of a lead today, but after my crash I fell a bit behind. Roglic rode a very good time trial, but it is all close together. I think it’s going to be a tough race starting tomorrow. From now on the Tour of the Basque Country really starts. Hopefully the bad luck is over for us.”

“In general I am very satisfied with the feeling. I could have dropped my head and I could have lost a minute, but I overtook Sepp Kuss and I rode a good time trial.”

According to his team, Evenepoel suffered no significant injuries during his sliding match. He does have abrasions on the right flank.

The Tour of the Basque Country, a six-day stage race for the WorldTour, continues until Saturday. A hilly stage of 160 kilometers awaits on Tuesday, much of which will be completed in the French Basque Country.

Pidcock falls before the match starts

Tom Pidcock fared even less well in the Basque Country. The 24-year-old Brit from Ineos-Grenadiers had a serious fall during the exploration of the course and was taken to the local hospital for further medical checks. This is how the Tour of the Basque Country ended for him before it even started.

The heavy fall comes at a bad time for the young Brit. Pidcock is also aiming for Ardennes classics and would normally start in the Amstel Gold Race (Sunday, April 14), the Flèche Wallonne (Wednesday, April 21) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Sunday, April 21).

Vaccination in the Basque Country maintains a gradual pace, Despite the international rebound in covid-19 in recent weeks, where the focus has been on the new variant Kraken, as well as the spike in infections in China after the end of the restrictions.

However, the situation in the BAC is different, where the Minister of Health Gotzone Sagardui assures that there is no cause for alarm about the new variant.

In fact, all the figures for the pandemic continue to point to a downward trend even after the Christmas holidays. And it is that according to the latest bulletin published yesterday by the Department of Health, there are currently 103 people admitted to the covid plan, and 15 in the ICUs, six less than what was registered in the previous Osakidetza report.

And the infections and the accumulated incidence reflect that every time fewer cases of covid are registered.

Thus, Sagardui stressed that the high number of vaccinated people means they are in “a better starting situation than on other occasions when they have presented new variants” and insisted that “we must undoubtedly remain vigilant, but today the situation in Euskadi is observance, vigilance and being prepared but there are no special causes for alarm on that part.”

Now, 32.8% of the Basque population has received both booster doses, while last week that figure was 32.1%. On the other hand, a total of 1,298,016 people over the age of 18 have received the first booster dose of the covid-19 vaccine and 425,202 have received the second, according to data collected in the covid vaccination newsletter. -19 published this Monday by the Department of Health of the Basque Government. Without taking the booster dose into account, the immunization rate in the Basque Country for the population of legal age is 92.8%, although it exceeds 96% among those over 70 years of age.

Covid deaths drop

The data registered in the last week are notably more positive than those achieved last year after Christmas. And it is that in the same week of January 2022 those admitted to the Basque ICUs were around 80, and 66 deaths were registered in front of the 10 people who have died from covid in the last seven daysone less than last week.

Likewise, the drop in detected cases and the incidence of the virus is reflected in hospital centers where the number of admissions remains low. Right now, 103 people remain admitted to the plant47 less than seven days ago.

Basque

Evenepoel falls in the opening time trial of the Basque Country and is still “very satisfied”

Vaccination keeps pace in Euskadi, “without alarm” by Kraken

Covid deaths drop