Healy was 11th on the first of six stages (file photo). Stephen Fleming/Alamy Stock Photo

Ben Healy finishes 11th in opening time trial at Tour of Basque Country

Max Schachmann of Soudal-Quick Step won the 16.5km effort around Vitoria-Gastiez.

IRELAND’S BEN HEALY finished in 11th place as Max Schachmann of Soudal-Quick Step won the opening day individual time-trial of the Tour of the Basque Country.

Healy finished the 16.5km effort around Vitoria-Gastiez in 18:55, 18 seconds behind Germany’s Schachman’s winning time of 18:37.

Joao Almeida was only fractionally slower in second place (18:37) while Red Bull’s Florian Lipowitz  (18:38) was third on a tightly contested route.

Of the rest of the Irish contenders, Eddie Dunbar finished 31st (19:21) and Archie Ryan, Healy’s EF Education-EasyPost team-mate, was 134th (20:33).

Tuesday’s stage is a flat 200km run from Pamplona to Lodosa followed by four hilly or mountainous stages.

A memorable downhill fall caused by tree roots on the road took out Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel in 2024, and there is a notable lack of top drawer riders at the race this year.

Former Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss leads the Visma team line-up and along with Skjelmose, Santiago Buitrago and Enric Mas is one of the men to watch.

– © AFP 2025

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