Race leader Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) secured a hat-trick of victories at Itzulia Basque Country, beating Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in a two-up sprint at the end of an attacking stage 5.

On the race’s Queen stage, the attacks, ignited by Seixas and Lipowitz, started early on the eight categorised climbs, and the pair finally went away together on the Trabakua climb with 30km.

Despite a hearty chase behind, the other GC riders could not reel the duo back in, nor could Seixas get rid of Lipowitz even after a daredevil descent into Eibar, leaving the pair to sprint it out for the stage victory.

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Lipowitz tried to go early, but could not get a jump on the phenomenal 19-year-old, who powered his way to the win.

From the chase, Javier Romo (Movistar) – who had been with the leaders but crashed over the top of the penultimate climb – jumped out of the pursuing group to claim third on the line.

With his win, Seixas extended his lead over everyone except Lipowitz – bar four bonus seconds – by nearly a minute and continues to lead the GC by 2:30 with one final stage remaining on Saturday. Lipowitz leapfrogged teammate Primož Roglič into second overall.

“That was a hard stage. I said this morning that I wanted to maybe win it, and today the boys did a great job to control all day long. Sometimes other teams wanted to attack but we countered that back and we were always there. That’s incredible and in the end they paced me well,” Seixas said at the finish.

“I tried to go all-out in the climb, but I was struggling a bit, I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that I couldn’t go all-in. Maybe it was because of the day, of course, it was a hard stage today. Then I felt the legs coming back after the downhill.

“With Florian, we rode well until the finish. He was really strong today, and also the other guys. Today was a close battle. Chapeau to everyone, it was a really hard day, and I’m happy to win for the team.”

How it unfolded

The race’s Queen stage packed in no fewer than eight categorised climbs across 176km, with the first coming after 10km and the road going up and down all day after that. It took 20km of attacks for a break to form, but when it did, a large group went up the road, containing 30 riders.

Most riders in the large breakaway were not GC threats, but a few started the day within around five minutes of race leader Paul Seixas – namely Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers), Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ United) and Juan Pedro López (Movistar) – and as a result, Decathlon kept the group at around a four-minute gap.

It didn’t take long for the leaders to start attacking each other, especially on the climbs, and with 113km to go, Steven Kruijswijk (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked, soon joined by Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché). The pair worked well together, building up a lead over the rest of the break – two minutes with 90km to go.

On the climb to Krabelin, things came back together quite quickly as the peloton swept up most of the break. In front, Veistroffer dispatched Kruijswijk and was then overtaken by an attack from Vauquelin, who took over in the lead of the race.

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) kicked off the attacks from the favourites. A quick response from Seixas soon drew out a small select group. With the leader’s teammate Nicolas Prodhomme setting a high pace, they quickly ate into Vauquelin’s gap, though a lot of other riders were also able to rejoin as the favourites’ group swelled.

Vauquelin crested the top of the climb 12 seconds ahead of the swelling GC group, and hammered it down the descent, but he was caught back by the Decathlon-led group with 58km to go.

Lipowitz made an unexpected move on the flat after the catch, which was quickly shut down, and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the next to have a go, but again, Decathlon were alert to everything.

Hitting the base of the climb to Trabakua, Soler tried again, this time with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) on his wheel. This pair soon built up a gap of around 30 seconds; meanwhile, the group behind the Seixas group, containing riders like Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike), fell nearly three minutes behind.

Soler and Healy started the Izua climb in the lead, but Seixas was clearly winding it up to attack on the climb in the final 30km. Soler was caught first, and then Seixas himself reeled Healy back in, with his pace ripping up the favourites group. Soon, it was only Seixas and Lipowitz left in the lead, as they dispatched with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis).

Despite his best efforts, Seixas couldn’t shake Lipowitz on Izua. Before the top, they were joined by Javier Romo (Movistar), but the Spaniard then crashed, touching wheels with Lipowitz right at the top of the climb, leaving two in the lead again.

In the final 20km, Lipowitz finally started to work with Seixas, trying to hold off the well-recovered Romo and Roglič. On the final Urkaregi climb, the leaders were only 27 seconds ahead of the chasing pair, and 49 ahead of a bigger chasing group, so nothing was certain yet, and Lipowitz and Seixas had to work together.

The pair headed onto the descent together once more, with just over 12km of downhill then a gentle uphill between them and the line, with their lead growing over the merged group behind, who had caught Romo and Roglič.

Seixas absolutely sent it down the descent, trying to put Lipowitz under pressure, but couldn’t crack the German, who reached the flat together, and Lipowitz continued taking his turns.

Lipowitz launched an acceleration with over 700 metres still to go to try and get the jump on Seixas, and it almost looked like it would work for a second, but the strong race leader couldn’t be broken, and stuck on his wheel until the final few hundred metres, coming round to win the stage.

Just over a minute back, Romo came back from his crash to grab third from the chase, with the other chasers finishing 10 seconds further back, allowing Seixas to grow his lead even more with just one stage to go. He sits 2:30 up on Lipowitz, with third-placed Roglič 3:40 down.

Saturday’s final stage is another climb-filled day, but if Seixas’ dominant performances so far are anything to go by, he is heading towards a big GC victory.

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