Win number 25 for UAE! Almeida dominates the climbs and takes double victory at the Tour of the Basque Country

Stage 3 had been full gas from start to finish. A number of general classification contenders lost time, and the breakaway group was reduced to ten riders, from which hometown rider Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) launched a late solo attack. He initially faced disqualification for cutting a roundabout—handing the win to Romain Grégoire—but after protests, the decision was reversed. Schachmann, who had won the time trial on day one, held onto the leader's jersey.

Stage 4 offered no respite either, featuring no less than seven categorized climbs. After a rolling start, the riders faced six brutal ascents with tongue-twisting names, but the hardest was saved for last: the climb to Izua.

Just like on Wednesday, the racing started early, although three riders had to be scratched from the start list before the stage even began. Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Robbe D'Hondt (Picnic PostNL), and Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla) did not line up in Beasain, but even without them, the opening phase was full of relentless attacks.

Julian Alaphilippe was especially active in his Tudor kit, though Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla also showed plenty of aggression. The Swiss rider was reeled in several times, but a move with fellow attackers Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) eventually proved successful.

Some riders in the peloton still saw an opportunity in the breakaway: eight more riders bridged across, forming a lead group of eleven. In addition to those already mentioned, the group included Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Leo Bisiaux (Decathlon AG2R), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), Finn Fisher-Black (Decathlon AG2R), Alex Baudin (EF), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Marc Soler (UAE).

In the peloton, Bahrain Victorious (targeting the stage win) and Soudal Quick-Step (focused on the GC) worked together to keep the gap manageable, though it was primarily the Middle Eastern squad setting the pace. The reason? Pello Bilbao, from that team, hails from Guernica, the finish town for the stage. The breakaway was finally caught just before the base of the final climb to Izua.

On that final climb, it was Santiago Buitrago who launched the first attack. It wasn’t a blistering acceleration, but with a slightly higher pace than the rest, he gained a few bike lengths. João Almeida found the pace too slow and responded with a sharper acceleration. We saw the yellow jersey of Maximilian Schachmann slowly lose contact, followed by the other GC contenders who also had to let the Portuguese rider go.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG star was incredibly strong uphill, while behind him, Florian Lipowitz, together with the powerful Alex Aranburu and an equally impressive Clément Champoussin, initiated the chase. A bit later, Wilco Kelderman joined the trio with seven other riders, forming a group of eleven chasers at the top of the climb, still half a minute behind Almeida.

Aranburu descended full gas, while Schachmann also showed off his descending skills to rejoin the chasers, along with others who had been dropped on the climb. Almeida held his lead on the flat run-in and powered to the finish. He crossed the line solo, taking the leader’s jersey from Schachmann. Isaac Del Toro sprinted to second place, making it a 1-2 finish for UAE, while Schachmann crossed the line in the same time as the Mexican, 28 seconds behind Almeida, to finish third.

With his victory, Almeida now leads the overall classification by 30 seconds over Schachmann, with Lipowitz in third at 38 seconds.