Itzulia Basque Country 2025 Stage 4

April 10, 2025 Stage 4 is another difficult day with 2,900M of elevation in the 170KM between Beasain and Markina-Xemein. The first two thirds of the stage is constantly up and down with eight climbs, six of which are categorized. There is a break after the Lekoitzegane climb at 52KM to go of around 40KM where the riders can regroup and prepare for the category one climb in the finale. The final climb to Izua is a brute at 3.5KM long with an average of 10.6% but there are ramps of 20% which should make the finish more selective than yesterday. Over the top, there is an 11KM descent and a flat run to the line. It was a more traditional start with a big break going up the road of 11 riders including Léo Bisiaux of Decathlon AG2R, Quinn Simmons and Andrea Bagioli of Lidl-Trek, Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike, Marc Soler of UAE-XRG, Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, Txomin Juaristi of Euskatel-Euskadi, Ander Okamika of Burgo-Burpellet BH, and Ben Healy and Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost. They had 2 minutes on the peloton by the top of Lekoitzegane. Off the descent with 65KM to go, Soudal Quickstep took over the front of the peloton. Bahrain Victorious pitched in and added a man to the chase and with 45KM to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 20 seconds. The break went through the gorgeous port town of Ondarroa, swishing down the coast road passed white water breaking on the rocky beaches. They cut inland to follow the Río Artibai which led the race towards the final climb of Izua. Cofidis contributed to the pace in the peloton and with the positioning battle, the break were caught by the right turn on to the Izua climb. Lidl-Trek led the bunch on the lower slopes and the back door was wide open with the majority of the peloton immediately dropped. Jack Haig of Bahrain Victorious took the pace up for Bahrain Victorious to set up Santiago Buitrago. Buitrago made a move and got a small gap but Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe dragged him back. There were still around 20 riders in the front group when João Almeida of UAE-XRG went to the front to set his pace. A few hundred meters later, Almeida had a gap to everyone else and still had 2KM of climbing left. Clément Champoussin of XDS-Astana, Alex Aranburu of Cofidis, and Lipowitz were chasing but the gap was extending with every meter. Eight riders joined the three chasers and they went over the top 25 seconds behind Almeida with race leader Schachmann just off the back. Schachmann caught on to the first chase group and as the road flattened after the descent, Almeida had extended his advantage to 30 seconds with just 3KM to go and would hold his lead to the line. Almeida took the day 28 seconds ahead of his teammate Isaac del Toro who won the sprint for second with Schachmann behind in third place. After the bonus seconds were factored in, Almeida leads the GC by 30 seconds on Schachmann and 38 to Lipowitz with two hard stages remaining.