The riders face a total of seven climbs, with five packed into the first 80 kilometres. The climbing starts after 15 kilometres with a 2.2-kilometre ascent at 5%, so merely a gentle warm-up. Straight from the descent, the road kicks up again, first with some rolling gradients before merging into the longest climb of the day. Stretching 13.9 kilometres at an average of 2.6%, it’s far from the toughest climb out there, although the first half is steeper than the numbers suggest.
A 7-kilometre descent takes the riders to the base of the climb to Alkiza — 4 kilometres at 6.6%, with the summit coming after 50 kilometres of racing.
After the descent and a short section on the valley floor, it’s time for the Santa Ageda climb. It averages 6.9% over 9 kilometres, but that’s a biased statistic, as the gentle opening section skews the numbers – for most of the climb, the gradient hovers around 8%.
Once again, the descent leads straight onto another uphill drag, though this one serves op more modest gradient. The climb to to Mandubia is 5.3 kilometres ong and averaging 5.3%.
After the drop down, the race passes through Ormaiztegi, the hometown of the Izagirre brothers. From there, the riders tackle two short uphills on their way to the intermediate sprint in Beasain — where, 45.3 kilometres later, they’ll also find the finish line. But before that, the final lap throws in two brutal walls to shake things up.
The first climb heads up to Gainza. It’s still a long way from the finish, but it’s a solid test to see how the legs handle insanely steep gradients. Officially, it’s 2.2 kilometres at 12.1%, with ramps of up to 20%. But the opening stretch is deceptively easy, so in reality, it’s more like 1.7 kilometres at a brutal 15.1%.
After a rolling section and the descent, the riders get a 20-kilometre breather on the flat before tackling the last test of the day. And yes, it’s another brutal wall — 1.4 kilometres of suffering at 10%. To make matters worse, it’s wildly inconsistent, kicking off with a savage 500-metre stretch at 16.5%.
Once over the top, just 6.4 kilometres remain. Apart from the last 1.5 kilometres, it’s all downhill to the finish.
The first three riders across the line pick up 10, 6, and 4 bonus seconds, while the intermediate sprints come with 3, 2, and 1 seconds.
Ride the route yourself? Download GPX stage 3 2025 Itzulia Basque Country.
The 3rd stage of the Tour of the Basque Country starts at 13:27 and the race is expected to finish around – both are local times (CET). See the timings in the slideshow below for details
Tour of the Basque Country 2025 stage 3: route, profile, more
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