Itzulia Basque Country 2025 Stage 6

April 12, 2025 Today is the Queen stage of the race which takes in many of the difficult ascents around Eibar. It is just 153KM long but there are seven categorized climbs along the way including the challenging Izua climb from Stage 4 which tops out 38KM from the finish. The category three climb of Trabakua is the last categorized climb of the race, 18KM from the line in Eibar with three smaller hills afterwards on the run in to the finish after a total of 3,700M of elevation gain on the day. The rain that was forecasted earlier in the week for today stayed away at the start. A large break got up the road including Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R who hoovered up the Mountains Points on Azurki, Krabelin, and the first passage of Trabakua. He was initially joined by nearly 20 riders but was off solo with 82KM to go, 90 seconds ahead of the rest of the break and 3 minutes ahead of the UAE-XRG led peloton. Armirail was joined by Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost, Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies, and Dani Martinez of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe who broke away from the rest of the group to make four up front with 77KM to go. Seven more joined as they entered Eibar including Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ, Warren Barguil and Guillermo Juan Martinez of Picnic-PostNL, Bauke Mollema of Lidl-Trek, Callum Scotson of Decathlon AG2R, Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling, Ion Izagirre of Cofidis. Rain started falling heavily, and all of a sudden with 64KM to go as the break started the descent of the Karabieta climb with a 1 minute 10 second advantage. With the combination of UAE-XRG being risk averse and Hirschi's descending skills, Hirshi gapped the rest of the break on the descent and had built the lead to 2 minutes by the valley road heading back to Eibar. Hirschi was brought back into the rest of the breakaway as UAE-XRG picked up the pace in the peloton. Healy, Dani Martinez, and Scotson broke away on a steep climb leaving Eiber but their gap was just 1 minute as they started the 4KM, 9% climb of Izua with 42KM to go. UAE-XRG rode hard up Izua from the start. Halfway up, Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, who started the day third overall, had a bike change which cost him 40 seconds by the time he got riding again. By 1KM to the top, Healy was bouncing off the front of the race solo again and race leader João Almeida of UAE-XRG had made a move that only Enric Mas of Movistar and Jegat, who had slipped back from the break, could follow. Almeida, Mas, and Jegat went over the top 50 seconds after Healy with other groups behind including Lipowitz, 1 minute back of Almeida. With 25KM to go, after the descent and on the approach to the final categorized climb of Trabakua, Healy had 30 seconds to the Almeida group which was now seven riders including Mas, Jegat, Thibau Nys and Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, as well as Almeida's teammates Isaac del Toro and Marc Soler. Another 30 seconds back was a group of 10 with second overall Max Schachmann of Soudal Quickstep in their midst. Lipowitz was in a small group at 1 minute 30 seconds from Healy, trying to chase on as well. Healy was caught inside 21KM to go at the start of the wide highway climb of Trabakua with rain coming down once again. The Lipowitz group joined up with the Schachmann group to make around 15 riders at 35 seconds behind the front with 19.5KM to go. Almeida got word that the chase was closing in and attacked the front group. Skjelmose and Mas went with him and the three started to work together. Healy dragged del Toro and Jegat back to make six at the front over the top with 17.5KM to go. Skjelmose was moving up the virtual GC to second place but on a sweeping left turn he hit the deck. It took an age to get his bike operational and eventually took one from a teammate further down the road but his virtual second place on GC place was gone at that point. The categorized climbing was done but three short and steep hills had to be dealt with before the finish. Jegat and del Toro were ejected on the first hill under the pressure of Mas. The three leaders of Healy, Mas, and Almeida increased their lead on the Schachmann and Lipowitz group to 45 seconds over the second uncategorized climb with 11KM to go. Del Toro got himself back on through the town of Ermua at 8KM to go but at the start of the final climb in Eibar with 5.5KM to go, he was dropped, as was Healy. Mas continued to push on, taking Almeida into 1KM to go. Almeida led through the wet and technical city center and opened his sprint with 300M to go. Mas was never able to get out of the slipstream and had to settle for second place on the day behind Almeida who took his second stage win of the week. Healy managed to sprint in for third, showing his great form ahead of the Ardennes which he will be targeting. Almeida also won the GC overall and with the time gaps behind, Mas did enough today to catapult from eighth to second overall, 1 minute 52 seconds down on Almeida. Schachmann held on the final podium spot in third, a further 7 seconds adrift with Lipowitz finishing in fourth.