Spanish champion’s Itzulia Basque Country victory reinstated after he was relegated

It’s been a confusing Wednesday at the 64th Itzulia Basque Country. First Spanish champion Alex Aranbaru tallied his first win for new team Cofidis, and then after a long time he was relegated for deviating from the course in what seemed like a canny move, and then a few hours later his victory was reinstated, with a signage error on the course confirming his canniness. Romain Gregoire, who probably couldn’t believe his luck in being declared the winner, was once more the runner-up.

Meanwhile, Max Schachmann padded his race lead over Florian Lipowitz and João Almeida by a few seconds. Unfortunately, Canadian Michael Leonard’s time in the top-10 and best young rider’s jersey came to a close.

You can see the finish here:

Pues a tomar por culo, Alex Aranburu descalificado por tomar la rotonda por donde no era, pero joder no me jodas, si iba a ganar igualmente, que injusto, ánimo Alex, que mala ostia. pic.twitter.com/y9esArLP5l

— ATHLETICtribunerosNO (@AthTribunerosno) April 9, 2025

The Course

Seven categorized climbs fitted into 156.6 km from Zarautz to Beasain. A trio of Cat. 3s started off the day, before a pair of Cat. 2s and finally two more Cat. 3 climbs. These last two were quite steep: the Alto de Gaintza was 2.3 km of 11.3 percent and Alto de Lazkaomendi, cresting 5 km from finish line, was 1.4 km of 9.6 percent.

There were plenty of attacks on the trio of Cat. 3 climbs after the start, and when the dust settled, Bruno Armarail was on a solo mission having taken the King of the Mountain lead on the road. He scored more KOM points atop Cat. 2 Alto de Santa Agueda 1:15 ahead of the peloton. Recently Armarail lost the Volta a Catalunya KOM to Primož Roglič on the final stage.

Just before Armirail hit Cat. 2 Mandubia, Isaac del Toro, Aleksandr Vlasov and Sepp Kuss decided to try to bridge over. However, all were sopped up by the peloton. Immediately there was a flurry of attacks, UAE-Emirates throwing its weight behind the moves. At the crest UAE’s American Brandon McNulty took the maximum KOM points ahead of partner-in-crime Harold Tejeda of XDS Astana. On the descent Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose, Enric Mas and Nelson Oliveira joined in.

Third-place Florian Lipowitz chased down the sextet himself. The yellow jersey peloton had been streamlined by all the action. Marc Soler was the next UAE-Emirates buccaneer to light out for glory. As the peloton calmed down, two Frenchman bridged over to Soler, who was soon the race leader on the road.

The race galloped onto the narrow Alto de Gaintza road. When the fur was flying, Almeida found himself bounced into the crowd and putting a foot down. Soler’s breakmate Clément Berthet fared the best–he was the only chap from the trio who eluded the hungry little favorites group.

In the valley between Gaintza and Alto de Lazkaomendi, Lipowitz, Schachmann, del Toro, Tejeda, Vlasov, Oliveira and seven others flew the coop. Vlasov pulled for Lipowitz and del Toro sat up in order to help Almeida. Lipowitz and Schachmann flared out to snag Berthet at the foot of the final climb but the counterpunching made it all came back together. Schachmann snaffled up the maximum KOM points at the top.

Almeida swooped clear on the hairy descent and flirted with disaster. Aranbaru joined him. Aranbaru carried on when Almeida, who got the course wrong for a second, was brought to heel by the favorites group. Aranbura took the fastest way through a roundabout–the wiley move that led to all the post-race travesty–to stay clear. Schachmann edged out Almeida for the third place bonus seconds.

A tough, short Cat. 1 peaks 10 km from the Stage 4 finish line.

You can watch the 64th Itzulia Basque Country at FloBikes.

2025 Itzulia Basque Country Stage 3
1) Alex Aranbaru (Spain/Cofidis) 3:45:21
2) Romain Grégoire (France/Groupama-FDJ) +0:03
3) Max Schachmann (Germany/Soudal-Quick Step) s.t.
4) João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
147) Michael Leonard (Canada/Ineos) +18:50

2025 Itzulia Basque Country GC
1) Max Schachmann (Germany/Soudal-Quick Step) 8:17:47
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:04
3) João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
96) Michael Leonard (Canada/Ineos) +19:07