Favorites stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025 | With the absence of riders like Ganna and Evenepoel, opportunities open up for a French rider
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Follow us on GoogleThe traditional spring season for the Flemish specialists is slowly approaching its climax while preparations are in full swing for the stage races. After Tirreno-Adriatico, Paris-Nice, and the Tour of Catalonia, the Tour of the Basque Country is another tough WorldTour race on the calendar. We start on Monday, day one, with a time trial. IDLProCycling.com gives you a detailed preview.
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Route stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025

We love a good time trial on day one! The course is 16.5 kilometers from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Baskonia Alavés. It is a time trial with one third-category climb, although, at 900 meters at 2.4 percent, it hardly qualifies as such. A nice little loop has been laid out, so there are no long, straight roads back to the starting point. However, it is not very technical, with only a few right-angled turns. Great for the specialists!
The official channels refer to 'steep climbs' in part one of the time trial, but we do not find these in the profile maps. 'From Libiano, it is a fast course, which made it favorable for the specialists.' The start and finish locations are close, making the start and finish a bit more technical.

times
Start: 08:15 AM EDT
Finish: 11:40 AM EDT
Start: 08:15 AM EDT
Finish: 11:40 AM EDT
Weather stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025
The weather will be fantastic on the first day in the Basque Country. The temperature will rise to a maximum of 20 degrees in the afternoon, and there will be hardly any wind, which is always good news for sensitive time trial bikes.
Favorites stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025
Looking for time trial specialists, Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna, and Joshua Tarling are not on the start list. But there are some solid, fast riders in the race. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in particular, hopes for a strong start, with Brandon McNulty, João Almeida, and Isaac Del Toro as very good time trialists.
The other GC contenders will have to focus on limiting the damage. However, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Finn Fisher-Black, Daniel Felipe Martínez and Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Soudal-Quick Step duo Maximilian Schachmann and Ilan Van Wilder are in good form and may even be able to compete for the win.
Because there are not many other real specialists except for Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, we are also curious about Visma | Lease a Bike, which always performs well in time trials, with Victor Campenaerts and Wilco Kelderman as long-time specialists. Finally, we mention Ethan Hayter of Quick Step, who in his best days belonged to the absolute world top in this discipline.

Ethan Hayter
Favorites stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025, according to IDLProCycling.com
Top favorites: Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Ethan Hayter (Soudal-Quick Step)
Outsiders: João Almeida and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-Quick Step) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Aleksandr Vlasov and Daniel Felipe Martínez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Victor Campenaerts and Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Outsiders: João Almeida and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-Quick Step) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Aleksandr Vlasov and Daniel Felipe Martínez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Victor Campenaerts and Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])
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Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026


