Star Metro - Seixas climbs to victory to extend Basque Tour lead

Seixas, who will not turn 20 until September, launched his solo attack on the toughest climb of the day, 26km from the finish.

He came home 1min 25sec ahead of Mattias Skjelmose in second with Primoz Roglic just behind in third after a 164.1km ride from the famous bull-running town of Pamplona to Cuevas de Mendukilo, which is known for its Iron Age caves.

The great French hope extended his advantage in the overall standings to 1min 59secs ahead of Roglic with Florian Lipowitz another nine seconds further back in third.

On Monday, Seixas became the first Frenchman since 2021 to win a World Tour time-trial as he claimed victory in the opening stage around Bilbao to secure the leader's yellow jersey, underlining his status as France's leading prospect in the sport.

The Decathlon leader began the day with a 23-second advantage in the standings.

A seven-man breakaway, including Seixas's compatriot Bruno Armirail, built up a lead over 2min 30sec at one point.

With 50km left, Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin, who had started the day in second, went down in a crash but was quickly back on his bike.

The breakaway's lead was just over a minute when they hit the main challenge of the day, the 9.4km-long San Miguel de Aralar with an average gradient of 7.8 percent.

With 6km to go to the summit, and 26km of the race left, Seixas blasted away from the peloton and quickly snared the breakaway riders.

After that, it was merely a question of how much time he would put into his rivals.

Wednesday's third stage of six is a 152.8km hilly ride starting and ending in the town of Basauri, just to the south of Bilbao.

O.Gauthier--SMC