2026 Itzulia Women, May 15-17

[Samu Cuenca]

World Tour racing in the Basque Country is back for what looks to be an open battle for the overall victory. With no Vollering, Blasi or other potential field crushing riders at the start, multiple women will fancy their chances to wear the txapela after the final stage. The only thing we might know for sure is that Mischa Bredewold will win two of the three stages.

Due to the region we’re dealing with here, the route naturally offers a blend of shorter and longer climbs, some steep and others less so, wide highways, narrow roads and twisty descents, stunning green nature and potential rain showers. Just like it should be.

Start list: https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=14244&y=2026&k=8

Before we take a closer look at the first stage, let's enjoy these EITB produced stage profiles for a moment or two:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Santa Ageda cat.2 but Jaizkibel cat.1 is... interesting.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Santa Ageda cat.2 but Jaizkibel cat.1 is... interesting.

Jaizkibel is longer, I mean steeper, ehm...or taller? Well it has a more Basque sounding name.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jaizkibel is longer, I mean steeper, ehm...or taller? Well it has a more Basque sounding name.

Yea, and it's also further away from the stage finish, which is the other thing I thought could be a factor. Santa Ageda was a cat.2 in the men's Itzulia last year (immediately before Mandubia also being cat.2, bizarrely, at barely half the length and 1,5% less steep on average). Weirdly, its easier side was cat.1 when used in the 2017 Itzulia.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 1: Zarautz – Zarautz, 121.3 km

Stage start: 10:18 CEST
Stage finish: At around 13:30
Live pictures: From 12:30-ish. The Basque broadcast is listed to begin at 11:45 on ETB1

The race starts off from Usoa Ostolaza’s home town of Zarautz in Gipuzkoa (although nowadays she lives in Leitza in Navarre). Alto Itziar is the first climb on the route and from here on out a new (categorised) ascent will follow every 10-15 km. The average gradient of 3% for Itziar hides the fact that there is a 1 km descent/flat part in the middle of it, but it’s still a pretty easy climb to get the legs tuned into race mode on.

The descent towards Deba is more regular with a decline of 3-5% and features pretty views over the ocean.

Kalbario is next on the menu. A shorter climb, but also much steeper, averaging around 8% with sections above 10%.

This is followed by an equally difficult descent to Astigarribia. At this point we’re only 35 km into the stage, so the winner won’t be determined here, but if you get distanced or you end up crashing you could still find yourself being out of the running.

The same goes for the longer Azkarate, which has similar steep sections, but a slightly lower average gradient.

And then the descent.

An intermediate sprint will be fought out in Urrestilla halfway through the stage, shortly before the start of the longest climb of the entire race. Not everyone will see the Santa Ageda as a present though. 50 km still remain from the top so it’s not guaranteed that things will explode here, but it’s certainly an opportunity to apply some pressure on the heavier riders.

The first 3 km after the top average -8%, before they make a left turn towards Bidania. The next 4 km include the Bidania Mendetea (1 km at 5%) and the Iturburu Mendetea (1 km at 4%), before an 8 km descent at -4% brings the riders to the bottom of the penultimate climb of the day.

Etumeta, or Alto de Erdoizta, is another >7% climb with steeper sections in-between. The top is reached with 29 km to go.

A 10 km descent takes the riders to Iraeta from where a 5 km flat stretch will lead them past the final intermediate sprint in Zubialde to the bottom of the final climb to Alto Garate. This climb is made up of 2.5 km at 5% followed by a 1 km of flat through Meaga before a final km at 8%.

There are 8 km left from the top, which includes a 2.5 km descent at -7%. They’ll be turning right through a roundabout 600m from the line, closely followed by a left turn onto the finishing straight for the last 500m.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

According to the auto captions for a pre-race interview with Paula Ostiz, Movistar will be riding for Elian Elíper.

 

[ice&fire]

According to the auto captions for a pre-race interview with Paula Ostiz, Movistar will be riding for Elian Elíper.

Autocaptions are better at picking up names than Enric Mas

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Megan Arens was the last survivor from an earlier breakaway, but she has been caught now as they approach the first intermediate sprint with 3, 2, 1 seconds on offer. It's a bit damp.

Moolman-Pasio didn't start the race, but she wasn't present for the team presentation yesterday either so not a huge surprise. It's Talia Appleton first day as a WWT rider after she promoted prior to the race, similar to what happened to Paula Blasi a year ago. We'll see where her career will have gone 12 months from now.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

FDJ bossed the intermediate sprint with no real competition, with Muzic winning ahead of Berthet and Le Net. The latter is now pulling on Santa Ageda.

Edit: They're now saying it was Curinier who was second over the line.

 

[yaco]

Megan Arens was the last survivor from an earlier breakaway, but she has been caught now as they approach the first intermediate sprint with 3, 2, 1 seconds on offer. It's a bit damp.

Moolman-Pasio didn't start the race, but she wasn't present for the team presentation yesterday either so not a huge surprise. It's Talia Appleton first day as a WWT rider after she promoted prior to the race, similar to what happened to Paula Blasi a year ago. We'll see where her career will have gone 12 months from now.

Appleton rode the Wednesday race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

FDJ led for the most of the climb, but there were still 30-40 riders in the group at the top, with some including Van Anrooij and Ostiz getting slightly distanced, bu they can probably make it back during the descent. Kastelijn won the QOM sprint.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Seems like Etumeta has created chaos with little recovery time after Santa Ageda. People all over the road and not the people you'd necessarily expect either. Well, Niedermaier being off the front is not surprising, she's an excellent climber, but seeing Bredewold in the group while people like Berthet and Muzic have been dropped - after all the work FDJ were doing earlier - as well as a lot of the on-paper best climbers in the field, is quite the surprising turn of events.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I certainly didn't expect Dickson to be the strongest FDJ rider. Markus also looking much better than last week, while Bredewold is simply a female Ion Izagirre.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Kinda funny that PCS still records group 1 as being the "péloton" when there are only 5 riders left, and group 2 is three times its size...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Eulálio and Arrieta wouldn't like this descent.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It seems they have won the battle against the group behind. Now the question is if they can get the better of Bredewold or they'll ruin it for each other.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Probably not, but Niedermaier is at least using the weapon she has at her disposal while it's still able to be deployed.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Elian Elíper pushing the pace. Maybe it isn't a done deal yet.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

And crucially, finally PCS does the right thing and tells us the important factor: where Petra Stiasny is.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And then a sudden outbreak of severe G2 syndrome.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

If Niedermaier's gap counts then her riding in the final will have worked against her. Her closing down the attack from Markus was certainly questionable.

 

[yaco]

The four riders in the front of the second last climb should never have allowed Bredewold to make it back to the group. A major failure!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The four riders in the front of the second last climb should never have allowed Bredewold to make it back to the group. A major failure!

Niedermaier was riding full, but the gap was never that big. I doubt they could have kept her from coming back, but they could have done more to put her under pressure in the final.

 

[yaco]

Niedermaier was riding full, but the gap was never that big. I doubt they could have kept her from coming back.

You colloborate and you have a chance. And remember there was one other climb. You had to make Bredewold ride hard to try to get back and then you weaken for the final climb. At the end of the day, you had FDJ with one rider in the front peleton and one in the back peleton not riding. It was like watching the Red bull men's team.

 

[Didinho]

Mischa 1/2 win.