Landa retains the race lead

Mikel Landa retained the race lead at the Tour of the Basque Country after finishing safely in the bunch on day three.

Mikel Landa retained the race lead at the Tour of the Basque Country after finishing safely in the reduced bunch on day three.

Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) sprung from the peloton inside the final kilometre to take a narrow victory, while Landa and Sergio Henao rolled home just behind to stay first and third on the general classification respectively.

A strong seven-man break attacked on the day's final climb and built a dangerous lead, but we led the way in the peloton to keep it at arm's length, with Philip Deignan and Vasil Kiryienka setting a fast tempo.

Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) then attacked on his own, forged a 20-second gap on the escapees and, having crested the climb, it looked like he might go the distance.

But after catching what was left of the break the peloton swept up Navarro with a kilometre to go, before Cummings launched his decisive attack.

'Worked really well'

Speaking after the stage Landa was quick to praise the work of his team-mates.

He said: "The team worked really well for me and Sergio today. It was a really difficult stage, particularly on the final few climbs, but thanks to our team-mates it all went well and we were able to control the race.

"I'm really happy to keep the yellow jersey, but it will be hard work to keep it. I don't have too many days of competition in my legs and I think I'll pay for that in the final days - but I'm going to try hard to hold onto it."

Tale of the day

The hilly 194km stage saw a five-man break form, composed of Biel Kadri (AG2R), Stefan Denifl (IAM), Domingos Goncalves (Caja Rural), Sam Oomen (Giant-Alpecin) and Daniel Tekelhaimanot (Dimension Data), and they quickly built a gap of five minutes on the bunch.

It slowly came down and eventually only Oomen and Denifl remained, before they were caught by a dangerous bunch that sprung from the peloton.

With the gap coming down on the day's final climb Navarro reacted and hit out alone, although what was left of the break, including Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), stayed away from the peloton.

The final 6km were all flat and Navarro couldn't maintain his gap. Just as he hit the flamme rouge the peloton swarmed round him and a sprint finish looked likely.

But Cummings had other ideas and he burst from the pack to take a fine victory, with Landa and Henao finishing comfortably behind.