Itzulia Basque Country 2026 stage 6 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Paul Seixas one mountain day away from fully dominant overall win

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 6, which is estimated to start and finish at 13:05 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 final stage of the race can still lead to immense GC action, with longer climbs to be tackled. The start of the day has a difficult one right away, 4.6 kilometers at 7.6%, which means the GC fight can open right on the first minutes of the stage.

The riders then, on two occasions, go up a two-climb combo. One is Elosua (6.9Km; 7.6%) and the other is Azkarate (3Km; 7.2%). The final team the second one is climbed comes with 40 kilometers to go, this mini-circuit can see big attacks and the race turned around once again.

But after a long flat section the riders head into Bergara, after 136 kilometers. Before the finish there is still one more ascent, not as difficult but one that can lead to tactical racing, as it is 7.2 kilometers long at 5.4%, ending with 9 kilometers to go.

*** Paul Seixas

** Igor Arrieta, Marc Soler, Ben Healy, Christian Scaroni

* Alex Aranburu, Brandon McNulty, Mattias Skjelmose, Ben Tulett, Juan Pedro López, Florian Lipowitz, Ion Izagirre, Pello Bilbao, Javier Romo, Kevin Vauquelin

Pick: Marc Soler

How: Breakaway