Bilbao claims podium for Bahrain Victorious

TDT | Manama                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Team Bahrain Victorious rider Pello Bilbao claimed an impressive podium yesterday on the 17th stage of the 2023 Tour de France. Bilbao completed the 165.7-kilometre leg in four hours 50 minutes 46 seconds, not far behind winner Felix Gall of AG2R Citroen Team.

Simon Yates of Team Jayco AlUla was the runner-up. It was the second time Bilbao appeared on the podium in this year’s event. The other was his victory on stage 10. It was also his fifth time being ranked in the top 10.

Amongst his teammates, Wout Poels and Jack Haig were 32nd and 33rd, respectively, while Mikel Landa came 79th in the stage. Fred Wright was classified 86th, Nikias Arndt 114th, and Matj Mohoric 116th. On the general classification, Bilbao was sixth after 2,795km completed.

He was the only Bahrain Victorious rider in the top 10. The Spaniard is also eighth in the points rankings with 95 points. Meanwhile, Bahrain Victorious stayed fourth overall on the teams’ classification with just four more stages to go.

Stage 18 today will be over 185km from Moutiers to Bourg En-Bresse. This year’s Tour de France features a total of 3,404km and over 55,000 vertical meters of climbing across 21 stages.

The race is the second of three Grand Tour events on this year’s Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour. A Grand Tour event is a road cycling race that is one of the three major European professional stage races.

The first of the season was the Giro d’Italia held in May, and the third, following the Tour de France 2022, will be the Vuelta a Espana from August 26 to September 17.