The best day of the Tour of the Basque Country so far for Lawson Craddock saw him finish in 9th place among a group of 17 riders that finished with a leading time of 4:13:12. Today’s winner was Samuel Sanchez of Spain while Wilco Kelderman of the Netherlands now holds the overall lead by four seconds. Craddock jumped from 14th to 13th and is 21 seconds behind the leader.

Peter Stetina finished 61st , 7:26 back, while Joey Rosskopf was 11:10 back in 81st. Stetina is back in the top 100 for the overall event as he finds himself 31:57 behind the leaders in 96th.

With all that’s left a 99-mile mountain stage tomorrow and a ten-mile time trial on Saturday separation is sure to occur soon. It will be interesting to see how Craddock fares over the final couple days.