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Hello and welcome to stage two of Itzulia Basque Country!
This second stage of Itzulia Basque Country is no simple transition to ease the riders back into road racing following yesterday’s time trial opener. Instead, this is a tough day in the Basque hills, featuring a category one climb towards the finish that will draw the GC contenders out into a fight.
The final climb will be San Miguel de Aralar, crested just under 20km from the finish. It’s new to Itzulia Basque Country, but did feature at the Vuelta a España in 2020, when Marc Soler attacked out of a small group of favourites on the descent to solo to victory.
Averaging 7.8% for 9.4km, the San Miguel de Aralar is certainly hard enough to cause time gaps, even if there is some distance between its summit to the finish at Lekunberri.
There will, therefore, be no time for Paul Seixas to enjoy a simple day on his first day wearing the overall leader’s jersey. As impressive as he was in yesterday’s time trial, this will be a new test for him as he learns more and more about racing at World Tour level.
To catch up with everything that happened during yesterday’s stage, have a read of our full race report.
The riders are moving through the neutralised section in Pamplona. Not long before they’ll see the flag.
Paul Seixas in the yellow jersey this morning before the start.
Four riders have attacked already, but all brought back.
The stage begins with a few kilometres of flat, but very soon they’ll be climbing, up the category two Alto de Etxauri (6.6km at 6.6%). That will shape the kind of riders who will be able to get into the break today – put simply, they have to be good at climbing.
Four new riders have attacked – Hayter, Van den Broeck, Mintegi and Bou.
Adrián Fajardo is chasing that quartet trying to join them.
As they…
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