Unstoppable Seixas solos again to tighten grip on Itzulia

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) soloed to victory on stage 2 of Itzulia Basque Country in Cuevas de Mendukilo, extending his lead in the GC.

Seixas was set up by his Decathlon teammates on the lower slopes of the San Miguel de Aralar and hit out with an attack that nobody could follow with 26km to go. From here, the Frenchman extended his advantage on the climb and the descent that followed, soloing his way to victory in Cuevas de Mendukilo, his second success in as many days.

A chasing pack finished at 1:25, led home by Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) in 2nd while Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took 3rd.

It’s Seixas’ second long-range solo victory of the season after he won the Faun-Ardèche Classic in February with a 41km solo.

After scorching his way to victory on stage 1’s time trial, Seixas already has a firm grasp on the general classification despite the fact that the race is only two stages deep.

The day's breakaway featured Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step), Bruno Armirail (Visma | Lease a Bike), Raúl García Pierna (Movistar), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL), Iker Mintegi (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Joan Bou (Caja-Rural) and Adrián Fajardo (Burgos)

There was a crash with 52km remaining in the peloton, with Ineos Grenadiers the most affected team, with a number of their riders involved, including Kévin Vauquelin, who was sporting the green jersey on behalf of Seixas, having finished 2nd on stage 1. However, all the riders involved were fit to continue racing.

The breakaway held an advantage of 1:25 heading onto the final categorised climb of the stage, the San Miguel de Aralar. Decathlon drilled the pace on the lower slopes of the climb, and Seixas made his first acceleration with 26.1km to go. 

Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was the only rider who tried to initially latch on to the wheel of the Frenchman, but the gap between Seixas and the rest of the GC contenders quickly began to open. Seixas bridged to and passed the remnants of the breakaway just a few hundred metres later, and took control at the head of the race.

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull) tried to push on ahead of the chasing pack, but he was swept up by the group led by Isaac del Toro. Juan Ayuso found himself in a group further behind.

Del Toro continued to turn the screw behind, which formed a selective chase featuring Lipowitz, Skjelmose, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis). Ben Tulett (Visma | Lease a Bike), Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost).

With 1.5km to the summit, Lipowitz went clear of the chase pack once more and was caught by Skjelmose, Uijtdebroeks, Baudin and Izagirre at the summit, with Del Toro, Roglič, Tulett and Champoussin a few seconds back. The lone leader’s advantage was over 50 seconds as he headed onto the descent. Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), who was further behind, suffered a crash on the descent.

Seixas continued to extend his advantage all the way to the finish to take a commanding victory and a firm grip of the GC. Roglič was able to return to the first chase group and sprint to 3rd, behind Skjelmose in 2nd.