April 6, 2026
Most eyes have been glued to the cobbles and bergs of Northern Europe but there is a whole other contingent of riders set to tackle the steep slopes of the Basque Country in Spain. Six days of racing is kicked off with a 13.8 km Individual Time Trial around Bilbao. A good warmup will be absolutely essential because the first 2.4 km out of the gate are uphill at an average 7% up to Santo Domingo. The next 10 km are generally downhill or flat to the banks of the Nervión River and passed the Guggenheim Museum. The last 500 meters rise again at an average of 9% as the riders will twist their up through the Etxebaaria Park to conclude the first stage.
Highlighted Riders:
Mikel Landa, Harold Tejada, Christian Scaroni, Guillaume Martin, Isaac del Toro, Brandon McNulty, Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose, Quinn Simmons, Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz, Paul Seixas, Matthew Riccitello, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Antonio Tiberi, Pello Bilbao, Julian Alaphilippe, Yannis Voisard, Ion Izagirre, Ben Healy, Alex Baudin, Kévin Vauquelin, Tobias Johannessen, Magnus Cort, Georg Zimmermann
Race Summary
April in the Basque Country can be wet but the sun was bright and warm at 27C (80F) which would have put a smile on the riders, fans, and organizers. Of the early runners, Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe set the fastest time of 17 minutes 37 seconds with Ion Izagirre of Cofidis at 33 seconds in second place. A number of riders had beaten Roglič at the first time check in Santo Domingo and even the second after part of the descent but as they came through the finish line, Roglič was still the fastest.
The first rider to improve on Roglič's time was Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM. Not only did Seixas go faster, he smashed Roglič and all the others up to this point by putting 28 seconds into the Slovenian. The other GC contenders packed around Roglič and no one could get close to Seixas. By the end of the day, Kévin Vauquelin of Ineos was next best at 23 seconds with Felix Großschartner of UAE-XRG in third at 27 seconds, 1 second up on Roglič who ended the day in fourth.
There were some surprisingly poor performances among some GC riders. Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG finished 51 seconds down, Tobias Johannessen at 57 seconds, Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek at 1 minute 16 seconds, Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious at 1 minute 24 seconds, and Cian Uijtdebroeks of Movistar at 1 minute 26 seconds. 1 minute or more is a lot to bring back in a five days of racing but the profiles of the upcoming days are brutal and will serve up plenty of opportunities for aggressive racing.