Tour of the Basque Country 2026 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE]

April 7, 2026

65th Itzulia Basque Country 2026 🇪🇸 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 2 – Pamplona-Iruña – Cuevas de Mendukilo : 164,1 km

Classified as a 2.UWT event by the UCI, Itzulia Basque Country is a prestigious multi-day stage race held in the Basque region of northern Spain. It is renowned for its exceptionally demanding terrain, characterized by a relentless series of short, steep climbs and narrow, winding roads that offer no respite for the peloton. Unlike many other stage races, it typically lacks flat transitional stages, favoring versatile climbers and explosive punchers who can handle high-intensity racing in often unpredictable spring weather. The event is celebrated for its passionate local spectators and technical complexity, where tactical positioning and consistent performance across all stages are paramount for securing the general classification. As a significant fixture on the WorldTour calendar, it serves as a definitive test of grit and recovery, rewarding riders who excel in explosive uphill finishes and high-speed descents.

Paul Seixas stunned the cycling world for a second time in two days at Itzulia Basque Country with a devastating solo high-mountain attack that netted the young French star another stage win and left him in total control of the overall classification.

Seven kilometres from the top of the decisive late Category-1 ascent of San Miguel de Aralar, Seixas accelerated hard, dropping the rest of the field and easily powering past the remnants of the breakaway.

Already victorious in the opening time trial on Monday by a staggering margin, 24 hours later and one jaw-droppingly fast descent off the Aralar later, the 19-year-old Decathlon CMA CGM rider blasted home after a short uphill section with a 1:25 advantage over Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was also in that seven-man chase group, but Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) lost a further 18 seconds, and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) 48 seconds more than that.

Four stages remain and it is true Seixas is venturing into unknown territory with his first WorldTour lead in just the second year of his career.

But after two such impressive performances and a GC lead now yawning to almost two minutes, in a race often won by seconds, the 2026 Itzulia Basque Country has definitively become Seixas’ to lose.

And having progressed so far in so little time at such a young age, far bigger goals now seem well within his grasp, too.

“I would say it was the plan today, it was maybe a bit ambitious to attack so early, maybe I attacked earlier than what I wanted, but I felt it, and after two or three minutes I was regretting it but of course I had no choice, so I pushed on until the finish,” Seixas said.

“The plan was to go alone if I can, or a few guys if I cannot. And today my legs were great, also the teamwork was great, all my guys did so much work today, pushing on the front and working all day, you just had this extra power from them.”

Having put two minutes into Fabio Aru’s previous record for the San Miguel de Aralar, Seixas said: “It was just one of those days, that you don’t know how you do it.

“The overall isn’t finished, it’s never over til the last day, but now I know that I’m sure that I have the level to win here, I have the gap and now we’re going to manage that.”

How it unfolded
With a Cat.2 climb right at the start, an early move was all but certain, and sure enough, Frank van der Broek (Picnic PostNL), Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep), Joan Bou (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Iker Mintegi (Euskatel-Euskadi) were quickest out of the blocks. Bou clinched maximum points at the top of the climb, and on the rolling terrain that followed they were joined by some serious firepower comprising Adrián Fajardo (Burgos BH Burpellet), Raul García Pierna (Movistar), and Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike).

The margins rose to nearly two minutes before Decathlon CMA CGM began to chase, as Armirail, 50 seconds down on GC and a breakaway and time trial specialist, was definitely one rider who Decathlon did not want to let get away too far.

The race trundled over the next two mid-stage Cat.3 climbs, the Zuarrarrate and Aldatz without any major incidents, as Decathlon did a solid job of keeping the break ahead under control. Fajardo dropped out of the running, and Ineos Grenadiers duo Axel Laurance and Kévin Vauquelin, at that point second overall, had a nasty tumble but could continue. However,. the remaining six still had well over a minute in hand as they approached the decisive Cat.1 ascent of San Miguel de Aralar.

The tension was visible on the very narrow approach road, with Armirail making much of the early running in the break and Quinn Simmons leading the peloton and teammate Ayuso into the foot of the steep, cemented early slopes. Decathlon, though were having none of it, setting a hard pace and instantly thinning out the pack.

Bou, looking for more mountain points and shadowed by García Pierna and Ethan Hayter a little later, opened up the throttle ahead, but the real battle was in the bunch. Decathlon were present in numbers on the front, keeping a stranglehold on the other GC contenders and barely two kilometres of climbing had passed before the bunch was down to 30 units – and Seixas attacked.

Red Bull’s Florian Lipowitz offered up a nominal reaction, Lidl-Trek as well, but in reality the opposition to Seixas’ show of strength had crumpled into nothing there and then.

With six kilometres to go to the summit, Seixas was well clear of the rest of the field, pounding up the narrow, winding ascent with no change of pace whatsoever. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attempted to react, forming a chase group with Izagirre and Lipowitz, and sparking reminders of how the Mexican sometimes takes time to warm up on climbs. But on this occasion, he swung over quickly, and collaboration with the other chasers continued to very limited.

The result? Three kilometres from the top, the gap between Seixas had yawned to 42 seconds. The steepest segment of the Aralar, close to the summit and with stretches of 13% and 14%, seemingly made no difference whatsoever. No matter what the mountain and the opposition threw at him, Seixas was a rider on fire, and nobody, not even when Lipowitz launched the strongest of the counter moves around a kilometre from the top, was going to be able to stop him.

With 50 seconds at the top of the Aralar, logic dictated that the fast, rolling downhill favoured the chasers. But as Seixas powered through the curves and dives through dense woodland with supreme confidence and a couple of knife-edge judgements on the corners, his gap continued to inch higher. Others were not so fortunate, with Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) falling heavily and at speed in what appeared to be a bad crash.

But by the foot of the last, unclassified climb, the gap had risen to 1:14 with no sign of Seixas slowing down at all. Even as the chase groups merged, it was simply a sidenote in the story of the day. A punch with a right arm to the sky on the narrow road across the finish, and his second WorldTour stage in as many days was Seixas to savour. Meanwhile, French fans – and not a few others – will be wondering how much more such a young star can offer in the future.

In the short-term, Wednesday’s 152.8km stage starting and finishing in Basauri is certainly the least hilly of the entire week, with just two Cat.2 and one Cat.3 climb.

But with the last kilometre uphill at 6%, the GC riders will have to attentive not to get caught out. Given what we’ve seen so far, could Seixas make it three stage wins out of three in this year’s Itzulia or even six out of six?

Seixas provided a cautious answer to that despite his second devastating victory, saying: “I don’t think so, for example tomorrow is an easier stage, so we’ll see how it goes. I think for now we’ll just control it.”

Even so, to judge by Tuesday’s tour de force, if Seixas does throw caution to the wind and go for it again, it’s really hard to see who could stop him.

Results :