Results Itzulia Basque Country 2026 stage 6 | Andrew August win for INEOS on epic day; Paul Seixas seals GC win whilst Tobias Johannessen storms final podium

American Andrew August has won stage 6 of the Itzulia Basque Country, an epic finale into Bergara on a stage marked by the heavy rain, massive breakaway and big changes in the overall classification. Tobias Johannessen jumped onto the final podium whilst Paul Seixas found himself in a very unusual race situation.

The race started off with a climb right from the gun and Decathlon CMA CGM Team did not look to control those who made it to the front. Over 30 riders attacked whilst the heavy rain and fog made it hard to identify all riders that were present in the groups, leading to general chaos. But in front it was well clear that Uno-X had five riders in front, including Tobias Johannessen - 11th in GC and the closest threat.

The group included several other climbs whilst behind the pace was was not overly high in the peloton. In the final climb to Elosua, with 57 kilometers to go, Paul Seixas attacked in the GC group. This was after Javier Romo and Florian Lipowitz had both been on the attack, destroying the group, with Primoz Roglic getting dropped.

Marc Soler, Mattias Skjelmose, Ben Healy, Peter Oxenberg and Juan Pedro López initially had a gap over the Uno-X group but one by one they would get dropped and ultimately, Healy and Skjelmose were reeled in with 24 kilometers to go. UAE joined in on pacing the group for Igor Arrieta who was also breaking into the Top10 and had multiple teammates out front.

Behind an isolated Seixas tried making the bridge to the chasing group but eventually his efforts felt flat on the valley roads inbetween climbs and he ended up waiting for the group behind, which had a few other GC riders join the Lipowitz group - but not Primoz Roglic.

When the final climb began UAE was still pacing out front, but in such a difficult day weather wise everyone was on their limit. It was Andrew August of INEOS Grenadiers who attacked with 12 kilometers to go. Raul García Pierna of Movistar initially followed him but later on got dropped.

The American was on an absolute peak day and handled the weather conditions quite well. He crowned the final climb with a meaningful gap over his closest rivals whilst behind Seixas managed to control his GC rivals on the ascent.

August won the stage followed by Pierna and Frank van den Broek who sprinted to third.

Seixas secured the overall win followed by Florian Lipowitz, whilst Tobias Johannessen rode to third in the overall classification only 3 seconds behind the German climber.