Itzulia Basque Country 2026 stage 5 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Can anyone stop Paul Seixas on the brutal queen stage?

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 5, which is estimated to start and finish at 12:05 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 queen stage is the day that starts and finishes in Eibar, has been the case often in recent years. Whilst the climbs are not overly long, this is what the Basque Country has to offer in terms of climbing, which totals at over 4000 meters throughout the 176-kilometer long stage.

It is a brute, with eight categorized climbs, several of them very steep, and that being the case right from the start. There are two ascents right at the start of the stage which can make a GC selection, it can lead to the formation of a very strong breakaway, or a GC raid right away... 5.7 kilometers at 7.7% in Arzuki alone, but the gradients go above that quite a lot.

The ascent to Krabelin, which is one of vertents to go up the mythical Alto de Arrate, comes with 67 kilometers to go and is the hardest climb of the day, in total 5 kilometers long at 9.4% - but again, with much steeper gradients. Then there is a bonus sprint on the valley, the climb to Trabakua (3.4Km; 6.7%; 45Km to go) and three explosive hilltops right after...

But then the stage just continues, with the same amount of difficulty. In terms of average only then will the riders reach the steepest climb of the day to Izua, which is 3.6 kilometers long at a whole 10%, ending with 26 kilometers to go.

It's inevitable that the race has been split completely by this time, but the riders still have one more climb in Urkaregi, much more gentle (5.3Km, 4.3%), ending with 12 kilometers to go. After the descent, the final kilometers still have a slight false-flat gradient to the finish which can be used to grow or cut down gaps before the finale in Eibar.

*** Paul Seixas

** Florian Lipowitz, Ion Izagirre

* Primoz Roglic, Mattias Skjelmose, Alex Baudin, Ben Tulett, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Pello Bilbao, Harold Tejada, Christian Scaroni, Marc Soler, Juan Pedro López, Alex Aranburu, Markel Beloki, Kévin Vauquelin, Tobias Johannessen

Pick: Paul Seixas

How: Solo attack.