April 4, 2026
Located in the heart of Navarre, just South and West of Pamplona, Estella-Lizarra is the traditional host the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain. The course is made up of three different loops around Estella-Lizarra that weave their way for 203 km through very lumpy terrain for a total of nearly 3,500 meters of elevation gain. The profile looks like a set of piranha teeth with climb after climb and almost no flat road all day. With 50 km to go, the riders will start the longest climb of the day, the Alto de Lezaun, a 4 km ascent at 5.5%. The road continues to rise for another 5 km before a descent to the base of the 1.6 km, 4% Alto de Muru. The Alto de Ibarra quickly follows. It's short, at just 500 meters, but averages nearly 10% and comes 1.8 km from the finish line. The bunch will pass through the finish line with 26 km remaining before looping back out to take on the 3.3 km, 4% Alto de Irache, the 4 km, 5.2% Alto de Eraul then the Alto de Muru and Alto de Ibarra once again before the finish back in Estella-Lizarra. It's a very selective parcours and the selections will likely be made from a whittling down process, resulting in the best riders gravitating to the front in the finale.
Highlighted Riders
Quinn Simmons, Antonio Tiberi, Pello Bilbao, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Javier Romo, Finn Fisher-Black, Juan Guillermo Martinez, Marc Soler, Christian Scaroni, Harold Tejada, Alex Aranburu, Marco Brenner, Marc Hirschi, Alex Molenaar
Race Summary
Live coverage joined the action just as the racing was starting to intensify near the top of the Alto de Guirguillano with 64 km to go. A break of five went up the road early in the day that included Carlos García Pierna and Sinuhé Fernández of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Unai Aznar of Euskatel-Euskadi, Louis Ferreira of Aniclor-Campicarn, and Rafael Durães of Efapel Cycling. Durães was dropped but the remaining four leaders had just 50 seconds of their maximum 5 minute advantage left as XDS-Astana were piling on the pressure. Down the fast, open descent off the Alto de Guirguillano, Fernández went clear of the rest of his break away companions but the peloton was splitting behind and advancing quickly.
XDS-Astana regained control of the bunch and things calmed with the Alto de Lezaun just ahead. Geoffrey Bouchard of TotalEnergies and Jokin Murguialday of Euskatel-Euksadi jumped from the peloton to get a head start and joined Fernández 2 km before the start of the Lezaun. Fernández was dropped as soon as the climb started but the other two pressed on as Tudor Pro Cycling set up the chase behind. At 3 km to the top, Lidl-Trek and EF-Education EasyPost were eager to push on and stretched the bunch out in single file. The views across the valley were stunning but none of the riders would have noticed because the bunch was splitting with the high pace. A group of nine got away and they were quickly across to Bouchard and Murguialday but the group was slightly too large and weren't working well as they crossed the summit.
XDS-Astana missed the move that included George Bennett of NSN Cycling, Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto Intermarché, and Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious. Tiberi wasn't happy with the cohesion and attacked the group as the road finally reach the proper descent with 42 km to go. Julien Bernard of Lidl-Trek joined the Italian but the pair had just 12 seconds by the start of the Alto de Muru with 34.5 km remaining. UAE-XRG and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe went to the front of the bunch to chase on the dragging climb of the Alto de Muru and position for the upcoming Alto de Ibarra.
Tiberi and Bernard were caught on the Alto de Ibarra just as they crested the top and it was UAE-XRG that took up the sinuous descent down to the finish line. An attack went as they crossed the line with 27.5 km to go by Héctor Álvarez of Lidl-Trek. He was followed by Jakob Omrzel of Bahrain Victorious, Ion Izagirre of Cofidis, Igor Arrieta of UAE-XRG, and Samuele Battistella of EF-Education EasyPost. Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek bridged up with Bennett, Txomin Juaristi from Euskatel-Euskadi, and Diego Ulissi of XDS-Astana. Georg Zimmermann of Lotto Intermarché, Urko Berrade of Equipo Kern Pharma, and Ander Okamika of Burgos-Burpellet BH were the last riders to catch the train before it left, making twelve riders at the front with Movistar and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA chasing behind.
The gap got as high as 25 seconds which spurred Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Tudor Pro Cycling to add men to the chase. By the bottom of the Alto de Eraul with 13.5 km to go, the gap was down to 10 seconds. Simmons was the first to attack from the lead group with Battistella and Izagirre in his wheel. Simmons continued to push on but Bennett and Arrieta were able to latch on to make five riders left at the front of the race. XDS-Astana were riding in the peloton but the gap went out a bit as Izagirre increased the pace. Only Simmons could match the Basque and the pair went strongly up through the tiny streets in the village of Eraul with about 15 seconds on Battistella and his teammate, Markel Beloki who had attacked from the peloton, and another 5 seconds to the remnants of the peloton.
Izagirre led over the Alto de Eraul with 9.5 km to go and by the bottom 2 km later, he and Simmons had 10 seconds on Beloki and had increased their gap to nearly 30 seconds as Lidl-Trek were doing a masterful job in slowing the peloton down. When Simmons and Izagirre reached the top of the Alto de Muru with 5.3 km to go, Beloki had time trialed his way to within 4 seconds with the bunch still over 20 seconds behind. Beloki latched on a few hundred meters later to make three at the front and trio quickly descended to the sharp left turn onto the steep Alto de Ibarra just outside 2 km to go.
Izagirre piled on the pressure when the road got steep which first distanced Beloki, then Simmons. The Basque crowd was fanatical as their rider stormed up the cracked and guttered concrete climb. Simmons was more than 10 seconds behind over the top which was too much for him to pull back on such a short, technical descent. Izagirre came into the finish straight with no one in sight and he crossed the line to take his third victory over the years in the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain. Simmons was able to stay ahead to take second place with Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost winning the sprint from a group of seven for third place just 4 seconds later.