April 11, 2026
The final stage from Goizper-Antzuola to Bergara is the shortest road stage all week at just 135 km but the organizers have found a way to pack in six categorized climbs that total over 3,000 meters of elevation gain by the end of the day. The climbs range from 3-7 km in length but all average right around 7%. The course is made of three different loops with the Elosua and Azkarate climbs each done twice as the second, third, fourth, and fifth climbs of the day, bookended by the Asentzio. After the second time up Azkarate, there is a long 20 km valley road to the last climb of the day, the Asentzio, which is 7 km at around 5.5% but the top pitches up to over 8% for the last 3.4 km. When the riders crest the summit, there will be 5 km of descending before a false flat downhill valley road to the conclusion of an exceptionally difficult week of racing.
Race Summary
Mother Nature has blessed the riders with unbelievable weather all week but all good things must come to an end. A system moved across the Iberian peninsula overnight and brought with it rain and much cooler temperatures. When the race got underway in very soggy conditions, three riders broke clear including Marc Soler of UAE-XRG, Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost, and Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek. With 104 km to go, they had just 37 seconds on a large chase group of around 30 riders who were being led by Uno-X Mobility. They had Tobias Johannessen in the group who started the day at 5 minutes 39 seconds in GC with hopes of moving him up in the classification. By the top of the first passage of Elosua, just 34 km into the race, the chase group were at 1 minute 15 seconds to the three leaders with the majority of the GC favorites at over 3 minutes.
When the lead group reached the bottom of the descent with 92 km to go, Juan Pedro López of Movistar and Peter Øxenberg of Ineos joined the first group to make five at the front of the race. Up next was the Azkarate which was more of a highway climb and the Decathlon CMA CGM led favorites group had drifted out to over 4 minutes. Johannessen still wasn't a direct threat to Paul Seixas but he had overtaken Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Florian Lipowitz, moving himself into second overall.
Through the old town of Bergara at the foot of Elosua for second time, the leading group had just 20 seconds on the Uno-X Mobility chase group but still 4 minutes on the peloton. Skjelmose, Healy, and Soler wanted to push on and went clear from J.P. López and Øxenberg and quickly built their lead back to nearly 1 minute. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe did not seem to have the resources for a coordinated chase in the peloton so Lipowitz had to take matters into his own hands and start riding. The group was quickly whittled down to just ten riders with no sign of Roglič. Kévin Vauquelin of Ineos aided in the pace making and split the group down to Seixas, Lipowitz, Javier Romo of Movistar, and Ion Izagirre of Cofidis but the effort was stop-start. When Healy led the front group over Elosua with 55 km to go, they had 90 seconds on the Johannessen group and 3 minutes 20 seconds to Seixas who had attacked, delivering a hammer blow to his opponents, and was over 30 seconds ahead by the top.
Rain continued to pound down as the riders made their way up Azkarate for the second and final time. Skjelmose, Healy, and Soler went over the top together at 39 km to go with 1 minute on Uno-X Mobility who still had at least four riders in the group. Seixas was at 2 minutes 25 seconds and the rest of the favorites, including Lipowitz, was down at 3 minutes 30 seconds. When the leaders reached the bottom to start the dragging valley road towards the Asentzio, Soler had succumbed to the cold and dropped out of the break. Healy was pouring warm water on himself and everyone was suffering in the conditions.
With 23.5 km to go, Healy and Skjelmose were caught by the Johannessen group with help from UAE-XRG. Still in the group with Johannessen was at least 15 riders including most of UAE-XRG (Igor Arrieta, Felix Großschartner, Brandon McNulty, and Domen Novak), Andrew August of Ineos, Raúl García Pierna of Movistar, Simone Velasco of XDS-Astana, Frank van den Broek of Picnic-PostNL, Guillaume Martin of Groupama-FDJ, Emiel Verstrynge and Gal Glivar of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and a few others. Seixas had drifted to 2 minutes 15 seconds with the Lipowitz group another minute behind.
The valley road proved to be a problem for Seixas who had to concede and fall back to the chasing favorites group. When the lead group arrived at the base of the Asentzio, the final ascent of the day, they had just over 3 minutes to the GC group which meant Johannessen was still virtual second place on the road by a few seconds. From the bottom, Andrew August attacked and was joined by Raúl García Pierna. August continued to pace until 1 km from the top when he looked back at García Pierna and lifted his effort. García Pierna could not match the speed and was distanced by the American. August had about 15 seconds by the top with 9 km to go with a wet descent and technical last few kilometers still to navigate.
August kept it upright and safe through the twisting streets and came into the finish straight with no one directly behind. He raised his hands to clear the rain from his brow and shook his head in disbelief as he crossed the line to take the first World Tour victory of his career. García Pierna came in 16 seconds later for second with Frank van den Broek winning the two-up sprint for third ahead of Glivar. The next riders of interest were the Johannessen group who hit the line at 1 minute 9 seconds. By the the time Seixas and the others finished, 4 minutes 15 seconds had passed which was just enough for Lipowitz to hold on to his second place overall by 3 seconds to Johannessen who had the most amazing team support throughout the day that got him on the final podium through pure determination and grit.
At the end of six grueling days of racing, Paul Seixas went out the winner overall by 2 minutes 30 seconds to Florian Lipowitz and 2 minutes 33 seconds to Tobias Johannessen. Primož Roglič had an extremely difficult day and feel 13 places to 16th overall at nearly 23 minutes.