Itzulia Basque Country 2026, April 6-11

[Krzysztof_O]

I want to preface this by saying I don't yet have an opinion about his racing style. I've not seen him enough.

However, so far he's won the TT and put in a huge attack from long range on stage 1. Seems pretty aggressive to me. He also sprinted to win his group today, for really no reason other than he wanted to. For which he has been criticized on these pages (*sigh*).

There are several hard stages coming. Seems to be reasonable not to attack with the time gap he already has on this stage? I would personally reserve opinion on his style until after this and a few other big races are all said and done.

I would consider giving the kid (19!) a break? I mean I'm with you, I don't like overly defensive racing. Thank goodness for all the attacking riders in this era. But I'm not ready to put him in the boring bucket, not at all.

Yesterdays ride suggests he's the opposite of a defensive rider.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Seixas looks to be a boring racer, similar to Jonas, attacks and wins 1 non-TT stage and then plays it defensive all the way. Good for him but for the cycling fans it's terrible.

He sprinted to the line today, exactly what Pogačar would do on this type of stage. No way Pogačar would attack on this stage either. It just wasn‘t a very hard stage.

 

[memyselfandI]

Yesterdays ride suggests he's the opposite of a defensive rider.

I think it happens to every one of us, almost automatically. Just belt everything out of your body two days back to back next time out on a hilly terrain (ok flat lands suits too), if group drop ride it's cool , jus keep belting hard.

Third day goes then much easier, almost defensive, no?

 

[Brullnux]

Seixas looks to be a boring racer, similar to Jonas, attacks and wins 1 non-TT stage and then plays it defensive all the way. Good for him but for the cycling fans it's terrible.

This is the first stage race he's ever been this good in, let's please calm down

 

[Breh]

How is Vingegaard a boring rider?
4 wins on the road this season, 4 solo victories.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Axel Laurance for winning the stage.

Now i guess again more favourable terrain, for GC guys to do the talking.

 

[Tonton]

Bravo Axel! Too often we forget the foot soldiers of the peloton, the ones who make the cycling world go round. He's a fine rider, building a nice little resume for himself. Win #9. Bravo!

 

[Oldman]

He sprinted to the line today, exactly what Pogačar would do on this type of stage. No way Pogačar would attack on this stage either. It just wasn‘t a very hard stage.

He seems to know his effort to benefit as a day to day demand for an overall goal; at least for this race. Hard to gain that when you're young unless you've done this kind of laddered training.
Tadej has reportedly worked on power climbing training off the bike. Using stair climbers or inclined, concave treadmills he's doing timed outputs and matching diet to gain mass to sustain these efforts. Coupled with top of zone 2 prolonged efforts he's gone Old School in a modern, structured mode if these reports are credible.
Seixas should consider this at his young age to bridge the gap to Tadej type rider. Then the weight comes off a bit for GTs.
Combined with his current training maturity (however that is achieved) he could supplant Jonas as a GT threat. Several seasons and it's the top step unless his current regime has a "too much, too soon" element to it we can't discuss here.

 

[TheKidsCallMeBoss]

5 of those you name are not even in this race. Please try to keep your posts relevant.

I posted a comment when Ayuso was dropped on the cat 2 climb. I'm struggling to understand why it wasn't relevant to mention that Lidl's latest transfer falls far short of expectations.

 

[Oldman]

Seixas looks to be a boring racer, similar to Jonas, attacks and wins 1 non-TT stage and then plays it defensive all the way. Good for him but for the cycling fans it's terrible.

This is how stage races are won. Save the blunt force for stages that are both suited to him and situationally rewarding in terms of time. Shows of force for the sake of it satisfy the fans until he goes flat and then the doubters have their say.
Paul-don't listen to any of them.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Great stage design today. I'm leaning towards a break away victory again today. Healy's time to shine?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

5 of those you name are not even in this race. Please try to keep your posts relevant.

5 of the 6 riders you referred to in the post quoted (the one below) in the post you are quoting are also not even in this race. So by your own definition (which I disagree with) you also need to try to keep your posts relevant.

They have had 6 riders join them from other senior teams this year: 5 of them have more points than they had this time last year.

 

[Red Rick]

Finale should be teh first 3km of this

And then just over the first km of of this

Expecting a very similar scenario to stage 2 to unfold.

 

[pelotonIQ]

Stage profile has potential for attacks not far off from the finish which means super low risk for those who want to attack. Surely today Seixas will make it a hat-trick....

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Igor Antón for the win.

 

[tobydawq]

What's with the criticism of Arrieta in the finale yesterday? Laurance is ten times more explosive than him, his only chance was to make the final sprint as long as possible.

This is what Fuglsang should have done when going into the Via Santa Catarina with Alaphilippe.

 

[tobydawq]

Also, impressive that Tudor managed to have four DNF's/DNS's by the end of stage 2. It must be a bit lonely in the bus.

 

[jonan92]

The weather will be nice until Saturday when rain is expected for the last stage

 

[Brullnux]

What's with the criticism of Arrieta in the finale yesterday? Laurance is ten times more explosive than him, his only chance was to make the final sprint as long as possible.

This is what Fuglsang should have done when going into the Via Santa Catarina with Alaphilippe.

My anti UAE agenda is more important than your facts, sorry.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Roglic and Lipowitz are in the bus as we speak cooking up some Diego Simeone tactics. Looking forward to seeing the extremely haram “can’t pull because teammate behind-can’t pull because teammate in front” strategy in action with Seixas 3 minutes up the road.

 

[Breh]

My anti UAE agenda is more important than your facts, sorry.

They had like 4wins on the road since Omloop.

Non-factor in Paris-Nice, Catalunya and likely Pais Vasco.
Non-factor in the classics except for races Pog rides and even he only "ruined" two races.

Not comparable to 2025 at all imo. An average topteam with an exceptional leader.

 

[Extinction]

Fatigue might have played a role, but for a rider with Del Toro’s potential—especially at a team like UAE—it’s not a great look.

I think people often underestimate how costly poor positioning can be until it really comes back to hurt you. On top of that, he spent a lot of energy chasing down Lipo on his own, and then the group started hesitating—pulling, then not pulling. It turned into a mess. At times, he seems unsure tactically and could benefit from clearer guidance.

It didn’t help that he eventually got dropped, but the underlying tactical issues are still valid.

Agreed on positioning. At key moments you can't be hanging back 15 places from the action. You spend twice as much energy that way and it costs you. And in the age of race radios it's unpardonable.

 

[Brullnux]

They had like 4wins on the road since Omloop.

Good 🙏🏻

 

[canina82]

They had like 4wins on the road since Omloop.

Non-factor in Paris-Nice, Catalunya and likely Pais Vasco.
Non-factor in the classics except for races Pog rides and even he only "ruined" two races.

Not comparable to 2025 at all imo. An average topteam with an exceptional leader.

But they are fine as long as Pogacar is healthy

 

[ingsve]

Suddenly a new rider is able to leave everyone behind with almost no effort a la Pogaçar, the race is already set and done. There is no possibility of using tactis against this type of riders, they are monsters and are able to personally answer to any attack and even make a 100km solo attack against the peloton and win.

This will perhaps be the lasting legacy of the alien era. Or the alien era becomes the new normal. Once riders have understood that this type of attack is possible and successful then there is little drawback for them to do it over and over again as long as it keeps working. If you instead had to always wait until the end and attack in the final climb or in the final sprint for example then you and your team would constantly have to be dealing with neutralizing attacks from dangerous competitors and generally keeping pace in the peloton so by attacking early and going solo you preempt all of that and it makes life if not easier than at least more predictable than otherwise.

This used to be the old normal as well if you go back 60 years or more. Coppi and Merckx were known for even longer solo rides back in the day.

What I think changed since at least the 90s was that even the domestiques were full of EPO so they had almost unlimited resources to being attackers back. As much as EPO boosted performance it sort of also evened it out in a sense. So this likely dominated how cycling was raced at least until say 2010 or longer but now as the sport has cleaned up at least compared to how it was at its worst then the level difference between the best and the domestiques has gotten wider again so you can't just bring anyone back in the same way as they good when juicing.