Chaos in the Basque Country! Aranburu crosses the line first but is later disqualified; Grégoire awarded the stage win!

Tuesday’s stage of the Spanish stage race was far less eventful. In the ride to the finish town of Lodosa, five riders went on the attack, but the stage remained very calm. The peloton gradually closed the gap, but it wasn’t until two kilometers from the finish that the final escapee was caught. As expected, it came down to a sprint, where Caleb Ewan was by far the fastest. Victor Campenaerts crashed in the finale and would not start the next day.

Wednesday, however, was expected to be anything but a day for the sprinters. The organizers had mapped out a 156.6-kilometer route between Zarautz and Beasain, featuring no fewer than seven climbs. With the summit of the final climb (Lazkaomendi, 1.4 km at 9.7%) just six kilometers from the finish, it was a stage tailor-made for punchers.

Campenaerts wasn’t the only rider who didn’t start on Wednesday. Despite his dominant win the day before, Ewan decided to call it quits before stage three began. “Realistically, that was the only stage I could win,” the Australian admitted after his victory—so he bowed out of the race.

It was expected that many riders would want to get into the early breakaway. What wasn’t expected was the size of the breakaway group that managed to get away, briefly. No fewer than thirty riders (including Bauke Mollema) escaped in a chaotic opening phase, but they were reeled back in a few kilometers later. Bruno Armirail was the only rider who managed to stay ahead of the bunch, although the UAE Team Emirates-controlled peloton kept him on a short leash.

On the fifth climb of the day, the Mandubia (5.2 km at 5.2%) with 70 kilometers to go, the Frenchman was caught. The racing had already been incredibly intense, but the big names started to show themselves again on this climb. Florian Lipowitz launched an attack, with Isaac Del Toro and Wilco Kelderman also showing aggression.

Brandon McNulty and Harold Tejada gained a small lead over what was now a heavily reduced peloton in the final kilometers of the climb. On the descent, four riders bridged across to the duo: Enric Mas, João Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose, and Nelson Oliveira. Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe briefly panicked, forcing Aleksandr Vlasov to make a huge effort to close the gap. He succeeded, but UAE kept the pressure on relentlessly. It felt like it was the final stage of the race!

Soon after, it was Marc Soler from UAE who attacked. The Catalan rider joined forces with Frenchmen Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), and the trio built up a decent lead. The peloton didn’t see them as much of a threat compared to the previous group. But with two tough climbs still to come in the final 40 kilometers—including the brutal Gainza—it wasn’t over yet. And what a climb that was… 2.2 kilometers at an average gradient of 12.1%, with 1.75 kilometers of that stretch averaging a staggering 15(!)%... Berthet proved to be the strongest there, dropping Soler in the process.

In the peloton, things remained calm for a while, though the group was heavily reduced. Only about 15 riders were left, and race leader Schachmann was dropped. He managed to make it back to the favorites group on the descent, where Movistar was setting the pace. Up front, the French leader impressively held his ground, while Soler and Molard were reeled in. Then chaos broke loose: Schachmann launched an attack, causing the peloton to split in the valley. Almeida missed the move, as did Mattias Skjelmose, Enric Mas, and Santiago Buitrago. Still up front were Isaac Del Toro, Harald Tejada, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Florian Lipowitz. It was all-out war on the flats!

The pace was constantly shifting, but one rider who didn’t slow down was the lone leader. He pushed on steadily, even as Almeida’s group drew closer. At the foot of Lazkaomendi—the day’s final and decisive climb—the gap between Berthet and group 3 was less than 30 seconds, with Schachmann’s group still in between. The final climb was brutal, and it was Tejada who made the first move. But Lipowitz was stronger—he took over and rode away with Schachmann. They caught Berthet, but the other favorites were right behind them on the steep ramps.

Alex Aranburu, Romain Grégoire… they all gave it a go, but the race leader was rock solid. He crested the climb first, but about ten riders managed to stay close. Then, on the rolling terrain afterward, Almeida launched a surprise attack. The Portuguese rider dove into the descent with a small gap. But Aranburu caught him and then went solo in the final kilometer. The Spanish champion opened up a solid lead, and with little cooperation in the chase group behind, he crossed the line first—in his home province. However, during his breakaway attempt, he took the wrong side of a roundabout and was therefore disqualified from the results.

But was that decision justified? The Spaniard took the right-hand side of the roundabout, which the race organization claimed was not allowed. However, the route book indicated that this was actually the correct side to take. Whether the decision to disqualify the unfortunate winner was the right one remains to be seen. This story is sure to have more to come...