Results Itzulia Basque Country 2026 stage 2 | Paul Seixas overcomes climbs and protest to take massive solo win

Paul Seixas has won stages 1 and now 2 of Itzulia Basque Country by a country mile. The 19-year old prodigy has won the first mountain stage of the race with an exhibition that saw no-one even come close; with an extension of his race lead.

The start of the stage was quite hard with some climbs, and even Paul Seixas was responding to attacks whilst on the yellow jersey. Eventually, a strong breakaway was formed including Raul García Pierna, Joan Bou, Ethan Hayter, Bruno Armirail, Frank van den Broek, Iker Mintegi and Adrián Fajardo. The group never had much of a gap however as the peloton moved fast all day long.

The riders were waiting for the climb to San Miguel de Aralar, 9.4 kilometers at 7.8%, to use up their energy. Decathlon CMA CGM Team hit the front quickly and only after a few minutes of hard pacing, Seixas went on the attack with 26 kilometers to go. Only Mattias Skjelmose tried to follow but was quickly dispatched; whilst Florian Lipowitz then gave it a go but didn't have the legs and was absorbed by the main GC group where Juan Ayuso was dropped.

Isaac del Toro and Florian Lipowitz took turns attacking the front of the group for the entire climb but even those wouldn't cut down the gap, which increased to a minute by the summit of the climb. Skjelmose's acceleration towards the summit dropped Del Toro and also Primoz Roglic. Lipowitz, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Ion Izagirre and Alex Baudin followed; whilst behind the duo had support from a heap of Astana riders that followed.

On the descent, the gap continued growing, and Mikel Landa was a victim of the technical roads, jeopardizing the Giro d'Italia and his entire 2026 season plan.

Seixas entered the final climb with 1:15 minutes of lead, although he briefly had to slow down over a protestor being on the road and forcing several vehicles to stop on the road. The Roglic group connected with the chasing group on the final slight climb, but without Del Toro. The Slovenian sprinted to third on the day, behind Mattias Skjelmose who was second - the