April 8, 2026
The 153 km course around Basauri is the "easiest" all week and could potentially be quite dynamic. The first 115 km consists mostly of rolling hills with just one categorized of the Barrerilla which is 5 km at 6%. The Bikotx-Gane is the hardest climb of the day at 8 km at 5% with the last 3 km averaging nearly 9%. It crests at 31 km from the finish but the main action may come right at the end of the day. In the last 8 km there are two ramps, the first is 1.5 km at 7% and the second goes up to the finish in the last 1,200 meters at 6% with the steepest part being the last 400 meters with pitches of 10% in spots. The question will be, who is going to control all day? It looks too hard for any of the faster riders to beat the GC guys if the group comes in together but also not so hard that a GC team would want to spend energy to ride all day with no guarantee of a victory. Perhaps it will be a day for a strong break to get established and go to the line.
Race Summary
The sun continued to shine brightly and it was near Summer time temperatures at 28C (82F) at the start in Basauri. Early in the day, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG crashed hard along with a few others and the Mexican star subsequently abandoned the race with tear in his thigh muscle. It took nearly 60 km for a break to go and when it did, it contained 14 riders. In the group were Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal Quickstep, Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana, Guillaume Martin and Clément Braz Afonso of Groupama-FDJ United, Igor Arrieta of UAE-XRG, Sinuhé Fernández of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Natnael Tesfatsion of Movistar, Matthew Dinham of Picnic-PostNL, Joan Bou of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, James Shaw and Jardi Van Der Lee of EF-Education EasyPost, Axel Laurance of Ineos, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, and Reuben Thompson of Lotto Intermarché. With 74 km to go and 3 km to climb on the Barrerilla, the front group had 40 seconds on a chase group of 2 Euskatel-Euskadi riders, and nearly 2 minutes on the bunch. Jonathan Lastra and Mikel Bizkarra eventually did join, to make 16 riders at the front of the race.
The break arrived at the top of Barrerilla to find a wide open plateau filled with pasture and beautifully green meadows. Cofidis started pulling in the peloton with their goal of bringing Alex Aranburu and Ion Izagirre to the line for a chance at victory. The gap came down to 1 minute 20 seconds by the start of the Bikotx-Gane with 40 km to go. Cofidis disappeared from the front and were replaced by a number of teams who sat across the road and slowed the pace down. In the break, the first move was from Van Der Lee with 3 km to the top as the road tipped up to over 8%. Fortunato, Arrieta, and Johannessen came across with 1,500 meters to the top but the group slowed and many of the other members of the break were able to join back up.
The gap on the climb got as high as 2 minutes but, in the peloton, Tudor Pro Cycling started riding and Julian Alaphilippe was the one to set a hard pace towards the top but it was unclear why because they were down to just three riders left in the race. The Basque fans were out in force, clad in orange at the top as Arrieta went over the mountains point first, 1 minute 25 seconds ahead of the peloton. The front group was down to seven riders including Van Der Lee, Laurance, Fortunato, Johannessen, Braz Afonso, Van Wilder, and Tesfatsion. On the descent, Laurance and Arrieta got away from the rest and quickly established a decent gap. We didn't get time gaps or images of the chase, but Laurance and Arrieta worked seamlessly together and were powering towards the final two ramps between them and the finish line.
The peloton completely shut down and the gap went out to over 3 minutes with 14 km to go. Time gaps weren't given to the first chase group at this point but it seemed like Laurance and Arrieta were pulling well ahead of the rest. When the the leading duo reached the first ramp with 8 km to go, we finally saw that they had 1 minute 15 seconds on the first chase group and were in prime position to contest for the stage win. At the top with 4.5 km to go, Laurance put on a little extra power and a small gap formed to Arrieta. The Spaniard was able to close the gap on the descent but it showed a bit of weakness for the first time. The chase group got lively and were attacking on the last bit flat road which brought the gap down to 30 seconds but the two leaders were just 1,200 meters from the finish and about to start the final ramp.
When the road stated to rise, Arrieta refused to come through and Laurance was forced to lead from over 1 km out. The pace slowed considerably and the chasers had the two leaders in their sights at just 20 seconds, 700 meters from the line. It was still Laurance on the front when the road got steep with 350 meters to go. Arrieta attacked moments later and went around Laurance but the Frenchman tucked in on the wheel and waited. 100 meters from the line, Laurance popped out of the slipstream with no reaction from Arrieta and Laurance took his fourth win of the season as he crossed the line with outstretched arms. Arrieta came across for second and Tesfatsion won the sprint from the chase group for third, just 14 seconds after Laurance.
The GC remained largely unchanged with the peloton coming home about 1 minute later, led in by race leader Paul Seixas.