Itzulia Basque Country 2026, April 6-11

[Old-school]

Seixas did take his chance on the last descent, which made him have to pull pretty much alone till almost the end. He gained time on everybody except Izaggire. Let's see if his accumulated effort since the TT will have any effect on the queen stage tomorrow. All he really has to do is defend, which works in his favor.

Not sure his move in the descent with the flat part that followed was the best thing to do, maybe impetuosity of youth. The good thing was to see Leo Bisiaux with him in the last climb when he was attacked.
BTW I have sometime difficulties to understand how Bisiaux is managed by Decathlon, don't know if they have a plan with him, because Bisiaux, at only 21,
is a real talent. he deserves.

 

[Extinction]

Not sure his move in the descent with the flat part that followed was the best thing to do, maybe impetuosity of youth. The good thing was to see Leo Bisiaux with him in the last climb when he was attacked.
BTW I have sometime difficulties to understand how Bisiaux is managed by Decathlon, don't know if they have a plan with him, because Bisiaux, at only 21,
is a real talent. he deserves.

Yea, Paul seems incapable of reigning himself in. Youthful exuberance probably, but someone on Decathlon should perhaps make him chill out a bit. Don't know anything about Bisiaux.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Seixas was chasing down Raul Garcia Pierna as he tried to get into a breakaway and Ineos riders who are 15 minutes down today, it's like he has too much energy and doesn't know what to do with it, they should try and bait him into an unwise Krabelin attack.

 

[Old-school]

Yea, Paul seems incapable of reigning himself in. Youthful exuberance probably, but someone on Decathlon should perhaps make him chill out a bit. Don't know anything about Bisiaux.

He primarily practices cyclocross(junior wordchampion in 2023), and after joigning the world team of decathlon last year he decided with his team to continue with CX alongside with road cycling.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Seixas was chasing down Raul Garcia Pierna as he tried to get into a breakaway and Ineos riders who are 15 minutes down today, it's like he has too much energy and doesn't know what to do with it, they should try and bait him into an unwise Krabelin attack.

We need someone who can annoy him like peak Carapaz while Izagirre bridges across to Aranburu and gains 4 minutes (Bilbao and Tiberi/Valter/Kepplinger are acceptable, too).

 

[Tim Cahill]

We need someone who can annoy him like peak Carapaz while Izagirre bridges across to Aranburu and gains 4 minutes (Bilbao and Tiberi/Valter/Kepplinger are acceptable, too).

The man I was thinking of is in fact in the race

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The man I was thinking of is in fact in the race

Ala baiting him into attacking and Skjelmose winning in the end would indeed be fun as well.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulation to Alexander Aranburu Deba for winning the stage.

Some great racing today and everything is primed for tomorrow, should be a blast.

 

[CyclistAbi]

"I wanted to put pressure on them mentally and show them it’s not going to be that easy" - Paul Seixas hits back at Red Bull with late attack to extend Itzulia lead

Paul Seixas turned a day of sustained pressure into another statement ride at Itzulia Basque Country 2026, responding to repeated attacks by Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe duo Florian Lipowitz and Primoz...

cyclinguptodate.com

So is Rogla too old or Paul too young or are such discussions just a bunch of BS. We'll see.

 

[Rob5091]

Seixas has over two minutes on everyone so he can just follow. Only Seixas can beat Seixas at the moment by doing something impetuous. Cofidis seem to be one of the best teams which is mind blowing.

 

[HashRouge]

I still can't get over his descending. I don't think I've ever seen a top GT rider create such a gap on a downhill. Pogacar and Jonas are both decent descenders, but they couldn't do what Seixas did yesterday.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I still can't get over his descending. I don't think I've ever seen a top GT rider create such a gap on a downhill. Pogacar and Jonas are both decent descenders, but they couldn't do what Seixas did yesterday.

Il Falco could definitly do something similar and with two Giro wins he was clearly a top GT rider.

 

[Peter von]

Il Falco could definitly do something similar and with two Giro wins he was clearly a top GT rider.

Il Falco was special on the downhill!
And Simoni was also known as quite a good descender, which made it even more impressive when Il Falco would catch him up and gain a significant gap.

NIbbles could also do crazy stuff down hill sometimes, though that was more in his younger years.

 

[search]

wasn't the time loss yesterday more due to the inability of others? I mean, Seixas obviously did a good descent, but three guys were able to follow him.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Seixas has over two minutes on everyone so he can just follow. Only Seixas can beat Seixas at the moment by doing something impetuous. Cofidis seem to be one of the best teams which is mind blowing.

He can just follow if he won't be challenged, otherwise he will need to do much more than that.

I still can't get over his descending. I don't think I've ever seen a top GT rider create such a gap on a downhill. Pogacar and Jonas are both decent descenders, but they couldn't do what Seixas did yesterday.

Likely it comes down to risk assessment. Red Bull couldn't crack him just yet on a favourable terrain so likely they didn't want to risk as much as Paul on the descend. After all tomorrow is always another day and another battle on more suitable terrain, plus a crash as this point of the season would be totally misplaced and not worth it. In the article above you can read on how Paul prepared for this descend and he said he did it to put mental pressure on the opponents. IMHO he faded a bit towards the end of the stage and that has likely put something entirely different on the minds of his main opponents. It likely took some pressure off in terms of todays stage.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

wasn't the time loss yesterday more due to the inability of others? I mean, Seixas obviously did a good descent, but three guys were able to follow him.

We also didn't see the beginning of his attack so we don't know how much the rest were paying attention at that exact moment. Still, those who followed him are pretty good descenders that hail from the region.

 

[pelotonIQ]

Will Decathlon DS also fumble todays stage or will they learn from yesterdays mistake? Control the break, don't let more than 10 guys go. Catch the break before Izua then Seixas attack on Izua. Easy stage win.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Will Decathlon DS also fumble todays stage or will he learn from yesterdays mistake?

Fumble.

 

[pelotonIQ]

I still can't get over his descending. I don't think I've ever seen a top GT rider create such a gap on a downhill. Pogacar and Jonas are both decent descenders, but they couldn't do what Seixas did yesterday.

He is young and fearless, the right mentality. Jonas and Tadej both used to descent like that but they have suffered crashes and Jonas has kids and survived a near death crash so now they wont take risks unless it's 100% necessary.

 

[fenns]

He is young and fearless, the right mentality. Jonas and Tadej both used to descent like that but they have suffered crashes and Jonas has kids and survived a near death crash so now they wont take risks unless it's 100% necessary.

when did Jonas nearly die?

 

[CyclistAbi]

when did Jonas nearly die?

One example at Itzulia.

 

[ice&fire]

Will Decathlon DS also fumble todays stage or will they learn from yesterdays mistake? Control the break, don't let more than 10 guys go. Catch the break before Izua then Seixas attack on Izua. Easy stage win.

He might drop everyone on Krabelin without even trying and go on from there.