Michael Matthews wins first stage of the Tour of Basque Country

Updated 06/04/2015 at 20:25 GMT

Orica-GreenEdge rider Matthews won the first stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Monday to take the yellow jersey after a thrilling sprint finish.

Michael Matthews

Image credit: Imago

The former Under-23 Road Race World Champion completed the 163 kilometre race, which started and finished in Bilbao, in a time of 3:57:07, finishing narrowly ahead of world champion Michal Kwiatkowski.

Spaniard Omar Fraile led the peloton by almost three minutes with 30km remaining but was caught with 16.8km to go.

Matthews pushed out early once the road had levelled and managed to stay ahead of Kwiatkowski and Ilnur Zakarin of Team Katusha.

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Tour of the Basque Country - Stage 1 Results

1 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge 3:57:07

2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Etixx - Quick-Step

3 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha

4 Kévin Reza (Fra) FDJ.fr

5 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal

6 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits

7 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing

8 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Astana Pro Team

9 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step

10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha

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