Seixas flexes his muscles, but Aranburu wins fourth stage of Tour of the Basque Country

Alex Aranburu won the fourth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country in fine syle. After a long day in the breakaway, the Spaniard was the fastest and the smartest of a large leading group. Paul Seixas attacked on a descent and extended his lead once again. Juan Ayuso abandoned with stomach problems.

Where Paul Seixas won the first two stages, the Frenchman gifted the third stage to the breakaway. In that stage, however, it was once again a Frenchman who crossed the line with his hands in the air. Axel Laurance won on behalf of INEOS Grenadiers, by beating Igor Arrieta (UAE) in a two up sprint.

Wednesday's third stage was moreover on paper the easiest stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. In the fourth stage there was considerable elevation gain to deal with. The riders were treated to no fewer than eight categorised climbs. It promised to be a tough day through the warm Basque Country.

From the start there was immediately a lot of interest in the day's breakaway. It did, however, take a while before a group received the green light from the peloton. Brandon McNulty (UAE) ultimately succeeded. Behind him, a strong group of over thirty riders then responded.

Ben Healy (EF), Tobias and Anders Haaland Johannessen (Uno-X), Christian Scaroni (Astana), Marc Soler (UAE) and Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) were among those present at the front. A dangerous group, then, with teams like Uno-X, who were represented with as many as four riders. It was up to Decathlon CMA CGM to try to control them.

Remarkably, McNulty chose to keep riding ahead of such a strong group. Despite the presence of teammates Soler and Felix Großschartner, the American did not allow himself to be swallowed up by the large group. The UAE rider enjoyed a lead of approximately four minutes at its peak. Alongside Decathlon CMA CGM, Bahrain Victorious were also active on the front of the peloton.

Meanwhile, the news emerged that Juan Ayuso had to abandon. The Spaniard had already failed to impress in the opening days and at the start of the stage had already indicated he was suffering from stomach problems. A significant blow for the Lidl-Trek rider, although the team could still count on Mattias Skjelmose.

After riding alone for 80 kilometres ahead of the chasing group, McNulty was eventually caught. His energy spent, the American was dropped by the front group on the very next climb. A baffling strategy from UAE. In the breakaway, Uno-X trusted in the Johannessen brothers, for whom they Andreas Kron and Magnus Cort Nielsen to work on the front.

On the second ascent of the Elorritxueta, however, the breakaway group blew apart completely. It rained constant attacks, causing riders like Healy — who is not in the best shape it seems — to lose contact with the group.

In the peloton too, the climb provided spectacle. Florian Lipowitz tried to challenge Seixas by accelerating several times, but the German never truly got away. The gap to the breakaway group meanwhile shrank to just over a minute.

At the top of the climb, a trio rode away from the breakaway group. Among them were Anders Haaland Johannessen, Soler and Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). On the descent, however, the Norwegian got away from his two poker-playing breakaway companions. The two looked each other in the eye and refused to respond to their fellow escapee.

The final climb proved one too many for the Norwegian, however. On the opening metres of the last climb he was overtaken by his brother and a strong Juan Pedro López (Movistar) among others. It was, however, stop-start in the breakaway, where the fast Aranburu was also still present.

In the peloton, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe calmly continued with what they had started a climb earlier: delivering paper cuts to Seixas. So far, however, it had all been to little avail. The Frenchman was riding strongly and was well surrounded by teammates Léo Bisiaux and Matthew Riccitello.

In the breakaway, it was none other than Aranburu who went on the attack uphill. At the top he had only Johannessen on his wheel, not someone the Spaniard would normally worry about in a sprint. Behind the pair rode López, the Astana duo Lorenzo Fortunato and Scaroni and Guillaume Martin. They had to close a gap of fifteen seconds in six kilometres, however.

On the final descent, Seixas showed his descending abilities once again. In the second stage we already saw the Frenchman descend at full send, and again today he did not hold back. He took Ion Izagirre, Pello Bilbao and Igor Arrieta with him.

Up front, Aranburu and Johannessen appeared to be riding to the finish as a pair, with the Spaniard the clear favourite in the sprint.

Due to the Frenchman's acceleration, however, his group came to within half a minute of the leading pair and only fifteen seconds behind the chasers. With the uphill final kilometre, the duo could not play too much poker. Scaroni and even Izagirre managed to join, but in the end Aranburu was still the fastest and the smartest. Johannessen finished second.