![\"Itzulia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1263945983.jpg\")
<\/a>Paul Seixas dressed for a wet final day at Itzulia Basque Country. Photo: Sirotti<\/p>\nPreliminaries<\/p>\n
Seixas was safe in yellow, but could Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d get his second place back from teammate Florian Lipowitz? Rogli\u010d had to be wary of Jon Izagirre ten seconds off his podium spot.<\/p>\n
The Course<\/p>\n
Like a shorter version of Friday, Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n Peter \u00d8xenberg and Juanpe Lopez bridged over in time for the Cat. 3 Azkarate I climb.<\/p>\n 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 Rogli\u010d on the podium and Lipowitz in second place.<\/p>\n 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 Rogli\u010d, 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Andrew August and Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda attacked from the Johannessen gang on the climb. August unlatched Garcia and took his first WorldTour triumph.<\/p>\n The next WorldTour stage race is the Tour de Romandie from late April to early May, Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s first non-one-day race of the season.<\/p>\n<\/a>The route of the final stage. Image by La FlammeRouge<\/p>\n<\/a>Juanpe Lopez resupplies before the third climb of the day.<\/p>\n