Matthews wins Tour of Basque Country first stage

Matthews wins Tour of Basque Country first stage

BILBAO (SPAIN) - Michael Matthews of Orica-GreenEdge won a sprint finish on Monday to claim the first stage of the Tour of the Basque Country in Bilbao.

Australia's Michael Matthews before the start of the fourth stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race on March 12, 2015

The 24-year-old Australian, already a stage winner last year, crossed ahead of Poland's world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of the Etixx-Quick Step team and Russian Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha.

On a lumpy 162.7km course around Bilbao, Matthews came home at the front of a reduced group of around 50 riders.

The favourites, including Giro d'Italia champion Nairo Quintana -- who has already won Tirreno-Adriatico this year -- finished safely in the lead bunch.

This result continued Matthews' fine start to the season having won a stage of Paris-Nice, where he also held the leader's yellow jersey, and finished third at Milan-San Remo.

Quintana is expected to face competition for the overall victory from Kwiatkowski, who finished second behind Alberto Contador last year.

Tuesday's second stage takes the peloton over 175.4km from Bilbao to Vitoria with another hilly trail, including a climb just 9km from the finish.

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