Tour of France | Spaniard Pello Bilbao wins stage 10

(Issoire) The Basque Pello Bilbao brought Spain its first Tour de France stage victory in five years by winning in sweltering heat on Tuesday in Issoire where he dedicated his victory to Gino Mäder.

The rider from Bahrain settled a small group of breakaways in a sprint to win ahead of the German Georg Zimmermann and the Australian Ben O’Connor.

Twelfth overall on the morning of the stage, he moved up to fifth place, 4:34 behind the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard, who finished with all the favorites in the peloton, nearly three minutes behind the winner.

The last Spanish victory dates back to 2018 with the success of Omar Fraile in Mende.

It is, at 33, Bilbao’s first victory on the Tour. And she has a special taste, a month after the death of her teammate Gino Mäder in a fall on the Tour de Suisse.

“This victory is for Gino. I wanted to do something for him in this Tour. I wanted to do it from the first week which was also very important for me with the departure from the Basque Country. It hadn’t worked. But I worked to live this moment,” he said.

The Basque had announced at the start of the Tour that he would donate one euro to an environmental association for each rider finishing behind him at each stage, following the example of Gino Mäder who had taken this initiative at the Tour of Spain in 2021.