News | Itzulia Basque Country | Team • April 4, 2026
Isaac del Toro to lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at Itzulia Basque Country
Mexican national champion looks to continue his fine season, which has already yielded wins at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico
Already a winner of two prestigious stage races in 2026, Isaac del Toro will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at Itzulia Basque Country from Monday, 6 April, through to Saturday, 11 April.
There, the Emirati squad will look to defend the title it has taken in the past two years, through Juan Ayuso and João Almeida, respectively. The six-day stage race will begin in Bilbao, and packs a whole host of climbs and challenges before it comes to an end in Bergara.
The mountainous terrain will be a welcome sight for Del Toro, who won both the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico earlier in the season. Across each WorldTour stage race, the Mexican national champion claimed a stage victory before going on to seal the title.
It takes the 22-year-old into Itzulia Basque Country with a 100% winning record at stage races to date in the 2026 campaign. With that confidence, Del Toro is relishing his return to the Basque Country.
Del Toro: “This will be my third time at La Itzulia, and I’m excited for it. It’s a place with great cycling heritage – the fans are very passionate about cycling, and that makes it special.
“The first part of the season has gone very well, I’m happy with my results and hope that we can build on our strong start to the season this week.”
In the Basque Country, Del Toro will be joined by a collection of some of UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s strongest climbers. All built for this terrain, the seven-man squad comprises Del Toro, Igor Arrieta, Felix Großschartner, Brandon McNulty, Domen Novak, Adrià Pericas, and Marc Soler.
Together, the team will be guided from the car by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman and Simone Pedrazzini. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will be determined to add to the team’s strong recent history at this race.
En route to overall victory last season, João Almeida picked off two stage wins, with Tadej Pogačar also a stage winner here back in 2021.
The 65th edition of Itzulia Basque Country packs in the usual host of challenging climbs, but also the additional excitement of bonus seconds at various parts along the route. In this part of the world, even the individual time trial poses an uphill test for the riders on the opening day.
Stage 1 will see the riders contest a 13.8km ITT, with a 2.4km-long climb coming almost right off the starting ramp. With an average of 7.3%, this is no easy ascent, and if that were not enough to blow the cobwebs off the riders, ramps of up to 20% await in the uphill drag to the finish line. This ITT will immediately set the tone amongst the general classification contenders.
From here to the finish on Saturday, 11 April, the challenges keep coming.
Stage 2 between Iruña and Lekunberri will feature 3,303m of climbing across a 164.9km-long route. The last of four categorised climbs will be the first category one ascent of the race, and it tops out with less than 20km to ride. That 9.5km-long climb averages 7.7%, and precedes an uphill drag to the line in Mendukilo Kobazuloa.
Stage 3 will start and end in Basauri, and may suit the puncheurs of the peloton, before stage 4 offers up a whole host of climbs around the start/finish town of Galdakao.
Uphill from the gun, there are no fewer than seven categorised climbs on stage 4, the last of which is 3.2km at 7.7%. From here to the finish is just 10km, where an uncategorised but steep rise to the line beckons.
With that tough day in the legs, the race organisers have opted to make stage 5 the toughest of the race, where any fatigue will be brutally exposed across the 3,815m of elevation gain. Starting and finishing in Eibar, stage 5 has eight categorised climbs, with each of them spread across the 176.2km-long parcours. Once more, there is no summit finish, but the accumulation of climbing metres will make for an attritional affair.
To end the race, the peloton will head from Antzuola to Bergara on stage 6. It is the shortest road stage of the race, at just 135.3km, but with almost 3,000m of climbing, this is no simple finale for whoever holds the leader’s jersey. Rather, they will have to hold their nerve across six categorised climbs, the last of which stands at 5.2% for 7.2km. From the summit of this Asentzio climb, there is a quick 9km descent to the finish line.
It is here, in Bergara, that the winner of the 2026 Itzulia Basque Country will be crowned.
