Itzulia Basque Country 2026 stage 2 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Can Isaac del Toro begin to cut into Paul Seixas' lead?

From the 6th to the 11th of April, the peloton will travel to the Basque Country, one of cycling's holy regions, for Itzulia Basque Country. The six-day stage-race is always marked by the steep climbs, the narrow roads, unstable weather and passionate fans, which are never missing in one of the spring's highlights. We preview stage 2, which is estimated to start and finish at 12:20 and 16:30CET.

The race was first held back in 1924 where Francis Pélissier took the first win. In 1935 Gino Bartali won an isolated edition and then for over 30 years the Itzulia was absent from the calendar. It wasn't until 1969 where there was a rebirth, and one with big shockwaves as none other than Jacques Anquetil won this edition.

Over the years many legends such as Luis Ocaña, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Tony Rominger, Alex Zulle and Laurent Jalabert have all won the Basque race. The amount of Spanish wins in this century hasn't dminished even in the previous years, with the following being victorious: Aitor Osa, Iban Mayo, José Ángel Gómez Marchante, Juan José Cobo, Alberto Contador (four times), Sámuel Sanchez, Joaquím Rodríguez, Alejandro Valverde, Ion Izagirre and most recently in 2024 Juan Ayuso.

We've also had Nairo Quintana take a breakthrough win in 2013 early in his career, Primoz Roglic (2018 and 2021), Daniel Martínez, in 2023 Jonas Vingegaard and in 2025 João Almeida who dominated the race throughout its mountain stages.

The second day of the race is hilly, as the riders will find throughout the rest of the week. It would be unfair to call it a warm-up however, as the peloton has ascents from start to finish, and even a breakaway could be considered as the start is hard enough for a very strong group to go up the road.

However the 164-kilometer long day will have its most important point in the ascent to San Miguel de Aralar, which is 9.4 kilometers long at 7.9%, a proper mountain. The climb ends with 20 kilometers to go and is likely to see some action, as most of the route to the finish is downhill, with the exception of one final climb.

In Mendukilo Kobazuloa the riders have a 3.5-kilometer long climb, which does not get significantly steep however towards the summit comes close to 10%. One way or another, there will be differences.

*** Paul Seixas, Isaac del Toro

** Tobias Johannessen, Kévin Vauquelin, Primoz Roglic

* Florian Lipowitz, Juan Ayuso, Mikel Landa, Mattias Skjelmose, Christian Scaroni, Ion Izagirre, Alex Aranburu, Brandon McNulty, Marc Soler, Pello Bilbao, Antonio Tiberi, Cian Uijtdebroeks

Pick: Isaac del Toro

How: Small group sprint.