Place Name: Artekalea
Address: Artekalea 8, 48300 Gernika-Lumo, Biscay, Spain
Details: April 11, 2025
After the big GC day yesterday, the profile for Stage 5 is hard but not as demanding as the previous two days. There is still 2,600M of elevation over the 172KM route between Urduña and Gernika-Lumo but the finale is more gentle with the final climb of Zalobante topping out around 14KM from the finish. The first two kilometers of the climbs are steep at over 9% but it flattens out for the next three kilometers before the top. The riders take on two small ramps after the descent before finally arriving at the finish line.
The weather continued warm at 24C (75F) with a small chance of light rain later in the day. The fight for the break was as tough as ever and six heavy weight riders went up the road including Warren Barguil of Picnic-PostNL, Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling, Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, local rider Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious who is from Gernika-Lumo, and Ben Healy and Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost. Armirail picked up the Mountains Points along the way to move him back into the lead ahead of Marc Soler but a potential stage win took higher precedent for the rest break. They had over 2 minutes with 65KM to go as they were nearing the Intermediate Sprint in Arteaga but Lidl-Trek and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were riding hard behind which split the group. The gap was coming down quickly and Healy decided to go off solo from the break at 56.5KM from the finish.
Healy started an uncategorized climb of 2.3KM at over 8% with 49.5KM to go, 20 seconds on the original break and 1 minute 45 seconds on the peloton. UAE-XRG took over in the peloton and set a more steady pace which allowed Healy to pull out an advantage of 2 minutes 40 seconds on the bunch with 38KM to go. The chasers were drifting back towards the peloton when Ineos starting to work in the bunch. Cofidis threw two riders to the chase which was effective in catching the original break but Healy was still 2 minutes 30 seconds up the road with 20KM to race.
Healy hit the final climb of Zalobante at 18.5KM to go with 2 minutes. Ineos were charging behind and set up Axel Laurance for an attack on the hard lower slopes of the climb. Laurance was brought back Enric Mas of Movistar who was driving a group of five riders clear with race leader Almeida in a chase group trying close a gap of 30M. Almeida was able to rejoin and a group of around 25 riders crested Zalobante together at 14KM to go but were still 2 minutes behind Healy who would ride home for the win in an incredible display of strength.
Laurance attacked the chase group one more time on a short ramp with 3KM to go and got enough of a gap to take second place, just holding off Simone Velasco of XDS-Astana who led the peloton in for third place. There were no major changes in GC but all is still to play for with a big final day coming tomorrow.
Tags: Itzulia Basque Country, 2025, April, Stage 5, Itzulia Basque Country 2025, Urduña, Gernika-Lumo, Warren Barguil, Julian Alaphilippe, Bruno Armirail, Pello Bilbao, Ben Healy, Alex Baudin, Axel Laurance, Enric Mas, Simone Velasco