Saturday’s final stage of Itzulia Basque Country played out in torrential rain over climb after climb, with action galore. Breakaway member Andrew August claimed his first WorldTour victory. Paul Seixas wrapped up his first career stage race title. In a bold move, Tobias Halland Johannessen nicked Primož Roglič’s podium place and almost nabbed second. Canada’s Michael Leonard was in the day’s large breakaway.
Paul Seixas dressed for a wet final day at Itzulia Basque Country. Photo: Sirotti
Preliminaries
Seixas was safe in yellow, but could Primož Roglič get his second place back from teammate Florian Lipowitz? Roglič had to be wary of Jon Izagirre ten seconds off his podium spot.
The Course
Like a shorter version of Friday, Saturday’s fare was six categorized climbs over 135 km in two large circuits. The last 3.5 km of the final climb, Cat. 2 Asentzio II, was 8 percent. Rain pestered the field.
The route of the final stage. Image by La FlammeRouge
Marc Soler has been very busy in breakaways in this race, and on Saturday he played fugitive once again, this time with Ben Healy and Mattias Skjelmose, who plummeted from fifth to 26th yesterday. Skjelmose took full KOM points atop Cat. 3 Asentzio I and Soler was first over Cat. 2 Elosua I. With 100 km to go, the break was 2:30 over the yellow jersey group, with an enormous chase containing Canadian Michael Leonard in between.
Peter Øxenberg and Juanpe Lopez bridged over in time for the Cat. 3 Azkarate I climb.
Juanpe Lopez resupplies before the third climb of the day.
The Michael Leonard chase was powered by Uno-X, which wanted to loft Johannessen, fourth in Tirreno-Adriatico, higher than 11th on GC. After Azkarate I he had surplanted Roglič on the podium and Lipowitz in second place.
By the fourth climb, Elosua II, everyone was soaking wet and miserable. What started as a surge by ninth place Javier Romo in the peloton ended up an elite colony containing Seixas, Lipowitz, Izagirre and a few others but without Roglič, who plummeted in the GC. Seixas took his leave of the others. By the peak of Azkarate II, the break was down to the original trio, 1:00 ahead of the Leonard-Johannessen chase and 3:00 ahead Seixas.
On the long uphill drag to Asentzio II, the rain pouring now, first Soler was dropped and then Leonard-Johannessen scooped up the other escapees with 24 km to go, Seixas still 2:00 behind. Lipowitz and company finally found Seixas again, and Leonard made up part of their group.
Andrew August and Raúl García attacked from the Johannessen gang on the climb. August unlatched Garcia and took his first WorldTour triumph.
The next WorldTour stage race is the Tour de Romandie from late April to early May, Tadej Pogačar’s first non-one-day race of the season.
Seixas, claims his first elite stage race win. Photo: Sirotti
65th Itzulia Basque Country, Stage 6
1) Andrew August (USA/Ineos) 3:29:35
2) Raúl García (Spain/Movistar) +0:16
3) Frank van den Broek (The Netherlands/Picnic PostNL) +0:34
The final podium of 2026 Itzulia Basque Country. Photo: Sirotti65th Itzulia Basque Country Final GC
1) Paul Seixas (France/Decathlon-CMA-CGM) 20:07:35
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +2:30
3) Tobias Halland Johannessen (Norway/Uno-X) +2:33