The 2025 Itzulia Basque Country is back with a route familiar to its formula for 2025, with a six-day race featuring plenty of hills packed in alongside a short time trial.
The full list of starters has yet to be confirmed but Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Enric Mas (Movistar), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), and Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are among the riders set to take on the 64th edition of the Basque stage race, which heads from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Eibar from April 7-12.
27 categorised climbs are packed into the six days, not a surprise given the geography of the area. Three hill-filled stages feature seven climbs in total, while the honour of the race's queen stage falls on the closing 153.4km blast around Eibar, which features three first-category hills on the route.
The 2024 edition of the race brought six different stage winner, three different overall leaders, and a change in top spot on the final day as Juan Ayuso overhauled Skjelmose in the tough hills around Eibar. Look out for plenty more of the same excitement during this season's edition and its 870km.
Stage 1: Buesa-Arena - Vitoria-Gasteiz ITT 18.7km
The individual time trial to kick off the race is back again, this time coming in Vitoria-Gasteiz rather than Irun, which hosted the stage last year. At 18.7km it's only a short day in the saddle, but there are a handful of small, stinging climbs in the first half of the route. One of them, the rise to Arzubiaga, will signal the first mountain points of this year's race, and with it, the first mountain classification leader of the week.
The latter half of the stage is flatter and more suited to the time trial specialists. However, on such a short course, the differences shouldn't be spectacular, and so this is a stage which is unlikely to have an overwhelming impact on the final standings.
Stage 2: Pamplona-Iruña - Lodosa 199.6km
Measuring in just short of 200km in length, stage 2 is the longest of this year's Itzulia Basque Country. There's plenty of climbing along the way, but nothing major aside from the early Alto de la Olvia third-category climb. As such, this stage should be one suited to the sprinters, or even a surprise breakaway attempt.
Stage 3: Zarautz - Besain 156.3km
Seven climbs pack the route of the 156km stage 3, which figures to be one of the decisive days of the week. Alongside the second-category climb of Santa Ageda (9km at 6.9km) in the mid-part of the stage, six of the seven climbs are third-category tests.
That may not sound like an overly taxing day out but the hills will sap the legs on the road to the finish and the late final climb, a 1.4km 10% kick up Lazkaomendi, just 5.4km from the line.
Stage 4: Besain - Markina-Xemain 169.6km
The race hits the province of Bizakaia on stage 4, which brings with it another seven climbs dotted across the just-shy-of 170km route length. Many of these hills are minor and come early on in the day, but all eyes will be on the final run towards Markina-Xemein where the first-category climb of Izua (3.5km at 10.6%) looms. The peak of the climb lies just 11km from the finish line, meaning that GC movement is very likely on the short, sharp blast uphill.
Stage 5: Urduña - Gernika 172.4km
After two tough hill-packed days in the saddle, the peloton faces another four climbs as they set off for stage 5 on the road to Pello Bilbao's hometown of Gernika. All of the day's categorised difficulties (all third-category climbs) come over 70km before the finish. However, a series of uncategorised hills, including Akorda and Zallobante, still mean that riders won't be able to switch off afterwards.
Stage 6: Eibar - Eibar 153.4km
For the grand finale, Itzulia Basque Country heads back to its traditional finishing spot of Eibar. On paper, it's the toughest stage of the race, with seven categorised climbs including three first-category hills.
Azurki (5.1km at 7.4%) and Krabelin (5km at 9.6%) both come inside the opening 50km, but it's the late double-whammy of the Izua (4.1km at 9.2%) and the third-category Trabakua (3.3km at 7.1%) which will more likely decide the stage victory, and perhaps even the overall winner of Itzulia Basque Country 2025.
