Warren Barguil back at the top after Giant-Alpecin horror crash
Frenchman Warren Barguil placed third in tough Tour of the Basque Country stage having recovered from injuries sustained after a car hit the Giant-Alpecin team in January
While the team is still recovering as a whole from the incident, 24-year-old Frenchman Barguil looks to have bounced back as he finished third on tough stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday behind Samuel Sanchez (BMC) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida).
Warren Barguil on stage three of the 2016 Volta a Catalunya
(Image credit: Watson)
Barguil finished at the head of a group of contenders including Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and new race leader Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo).
"I am a very satisfied with my result today," Barguil said after the stage. "I managed to control my effort and I was waiting for the climb with two kilometres to the finish. However, I started from too far back and I didn’t follow the wheel of Sanchez.
"I did a sprint of 300 metres and I just gave everything I had. In the end, Rui Costa passed me on the line as I finished third."
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Watch: A day in the life of Giant-Alpecin
Not only does Barguil feel that he's recovering well from January's incident, but he also feels that he's close to the form he was in during the 2014 season, when he finished eighth overall in the Vuelta a España.
"I am quite satisfied with my level at the moment, I am getting closer to my level I had in 2014 and that’s important for me because I had a difficult year last year."
Barguil now sits in 14th place overall in the Tour of the Basque Country with two stages remaining: today's 'queen' mountain stage, with a summit finish, and Saturday's final and decisive individual time trial.
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Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
