Favourites stage 3 Tour of the Basque Country 2026 | Classics riders against GC men on explosive finish

The Tour of the Basque Country has so far been the Tour of Paul Seixas. The French talent won stages one and two in dominant fashion. Can he make it a hat-trick on Wednesday? IDL Pro Cycling brings you up to speed on his chances and those of his rivals.

The third stage will take place in and around the town of Basauri, which is situated just south of Bilbao. On paper, this stage is the easiest of the entire six-day race, but with 2,800 metres of elevation gain it can hardly be called a simple stage.

With three categorised climbs and an uphill finish, the fast men will need good legs to compete at the front here. The toughest climb, the Barrerilla (5 km at 6.6%), comes with over 70 kilometres to go, but after that there are still two obstacles.

The first of those is the Bikotx-Gane (8 km at 4.9%), where the final two kilometres ramp up to almost 9%. After the Sarasola (2 km at 5.6%), the last categorised climb of the day, the peloton is not yet done with climbing kilometres.

A number of short walls still follow, including the final kilometre. This kicks up viciously at 6%, with the last four hundred metres even steeper still.

Times
Start: 1:40 p.m.
Finish: 5:30 p.m.

Just like the first two days, the peloton will be treated to plenty of sunshine. It promises to be a hot day, with temperatures potentially reaching 28 degrees. The riders will also have little trouble from the wind.

With steep final metres, this looks like a stage for the punchers and GC men with a strong finishing kick. It is then logical to quickly look to the fast Isaac del Toro, although the Mexican did not ride particularly strongly in the first two stages.

The UAE rider is normally one of the fastest riders in the world on such an uphill finish and can handle the climbing kilometres beforehand well.

The same can be said of GC men like Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), who also have Florian Lipowitz in the team, and the Lidl-Trek duo Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose, who also have Andrea Bagioli as a contender in their ranks.

And what can race leader Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) do on such a finish? So far the Frenchman has shown himself to be unbeatable in this Tour of the Basque Country, so why could he not also strike on this explosive finish?

INEOS Grenadiers have multiple cards to play. Their GC rider Kévin Vauquelin is fairly fast at the finish, but crashed in the second stage and did not seem in the best shape. Axel Laurance should also be able to do this on behalf of INEOS. Although the question is whether it might not be too tough for the latter. Moreover, the Frenchman also crashed in the second stage.

At XDS Astana too, there are multiple contenders for this type of work. GC rider Harold Tejada will normally not be fast enough, but the Kazakh team can also count on Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Sergio Higuita and Simone Velasco. Plenty of options, then. While Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) showed in the second stage that they had excellent legs.

Furthermore, we must also take Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) into account, who in his best days would be considered the absolute top favourite here. Also keep an eye on Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X), Alex Baudin, Ben Healy (both EF), Roger Adrià (Movistar) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious).

For fast men like Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) and Mathieu Kockelmann (Lotto-Intermarché), it may be too tough an ask.

Top favorites: Isaac del Toro (UAE) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM)
Outsiders: Mattias Skjelmose ( Lidl-Trek), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Christian Scaroni (Astana) and Alex Baudin (EF)
Long shots: Juan Ayuso and Andrea Bagioli (Both Lidl-Trek), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Alex Aranburu, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis),Ben Healy (EF), Clément Champoussin (Astana), Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar)