Place Name: Garmendia Otaola Kalea
Address: Garmendia Otaola Kalea 1, 20200 Beasain, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Details: April 9, 2025
Stage 3 from Zarautz to Beasain is a classic Basque Country stage with seven categorized climbs totaling 3,100M across the 156KM stage. The final two climbs are exceptionally steep. The penultimate climb to Gainza, which ends 30KM from the finish, is 2.3KM long at an eye watering 11.3% average gradient. The next 20KM are rolling downhill and flat until the final climb Lazkaomendi at 7KM to go which is 1.5KM at almost 10%. The riders will then take on a technical descent and flat run in to Beasain for the finish.
It was another warm and stunning day but unlike yesterday, the race kicked off very early. A group of around 30 riders got away with all of the main teams represented. Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike, and Aleksandr Vlasov of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe escaped from that group but with 78KM to go on the approach to the second category Mandubia climb, all but Armirail had been caught by the peloton. Armirail was eventually caught with 72.5KM to go by an attacking peloton being spurred on by an aggressive UAE-XRG team. Del Toro and Brandon McNulty did a lot of the attacking with Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe taking his turn as well. McNulty and Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana got away and led over Mandubia at 69.5KM to go with a 15 second gap back to the Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe led peloton which had been trimmed to around 50 riders.
By the bottom, McNulty and Tejada were joined by João Almeida of UAE-XRG, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, and Nelson Oliveira and Enric Mas of Movistar. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe missed the move so Lipowitz had to make an effort by himself to get back on. With 59KM to go, the bunch was shredded, down to around 25 riders chasing the 6 up front. The groups did come back together but McNulty continued to ride to keep the pressure on. Marc Soler was next to attack from UAE-XRG. He went on the short 1.5KM Zerain climb before a flat 16KM stretch of road to Gainza. He was joined by Clément Berthet of Decathlon AG2R and Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ after the descent and the trio extended their gap to over one minute as peloton slowed for a deep breath and to gather food and bottles. The peloton swelled to over 60 riders with dropped groups coming back, giving Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe more riders to organize a chase.
It was a full lead out to the base of the Gainza climb at 39KM to go. The entrance was very narrow and a good position would be critical on such a steep climb. The bunch stayed together until the final 500M when the pace went up and the group was trimmed to just 15 riders. In the break, Berthet dropped Soler and Molard and went over the top solo with 37KM to go and still 1 minute to the GC group.
Molard and Soler were caught by the bunch, which had grown once again to around 30 riders, at 31KM remaining. Race leader Max Schachmann of Soudal Quickstep attacked on the valley road on the way to Lazkaomendi, the final climb of the day. He was marked by UAE-XRG and Movistar but the move split the peloton with Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious, Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL, and Almeida stuck behind. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were in a good position and pulled in the first group, closing down to 35 seconds behind Berthet, but building a lead of 25 seconds on the Almeida group.
Berthet started Lazkaomendi with 7KM remaining but the gaps were all closing in. The Schachmann group was just 15 seconds behind with the Almeida group another 10 seconds adrift. The groups all merged and meshed together on the climb and, with 1KM to the top, Berthet was caught by the hard pace set by Lipowitz. A group of 10 riders were still in contention at the top as they started the technical descent with 5.5KM to go. The group split into twos and threes on the downhill and by the bottom, it was Almeida and Alex Aranburu of Cofidis leading. Almeida took a roundabout poorly which gave Aranburu a lead with 1KM to go that he would not relinquish. He powered to the line to take the win for Cofidis. Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ led the chase group in for second, 3 seconds behind, with Schachmann in third. Aranburu was then disqualified for taking a roundabout through an incorrect side but after the jury deliberated, they deemed his line to have been legal based on the information found in the road book and it was incorrect signage that was in error, officially giving Aranburu the win.
Schachmann picked up 4 bonus seconds by finishing third which gives him a gap of 4 seconds now to Lipowitz in second and Almeida in third, on the same time.
Tags: Itzulia Basque Country, 2025, April, Stage 3, Itzulia Basque Country 2025, Zarautz, Beasain, Bruno Armirail, Isaac del Toro, Sepp Kuss, Aleksandr Vlasov, Brandon McNulty, Florian Lipowitz, Harold Tejada, João Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose, Nelson Oliveira, Enric Mas, Marc Soler, Clément Berthet, Rudy Molard, Max Schachmann, Alex Aranburu, Romain Grégoire