Tour of the Basque Country 2023 Route stage 4: Santurtzi

Tour of the Basque Country 2023 Route stage 4: Santurtzi - Santurtzi

Thursday 6 April - The 4th stage of the Tour of the Basque Country starts and finishes in Santurtzi with 175.5 kilometres and a multitude of hills - five of which classified - in between. The last one is La Asturiana - 7.4 kilometres at 6.5% - before a 15 kilometres descent leads to the line.

The finale is the spitting image of the 2nd stage of the 2021 Tour of the Basque Counttry. Back them, Alex Aranburu attacked in the descent of La Asturiana and the homerider soloed to victory. In fact, the entire route has quite some overlap with that stage.

Santurtzi is a port town on the left of the Bilbao Abra bay, 14 kilometres downriver from Bilbao. It is a Bilbao suburb and during the day the riders stay within a radius of 30 kilometres from the most important city of the Basque Country.

The route takes in several loops through the hills southwest of Bilbao. Four climbs stand out – Malkuartu (2.5 kilometres at 6.7%), to Santa Koloma (2 kilometres at 8.4%), to Bezi (3.8 kilometres at 6%), and La Asturiana (7.4 kilometres at 6.5%). The latter ascend is expected to be crucial. The average gradient may sit at 6.5%, but that statistic is biased, as the first half is very steep.

La Asturiana peaks out 14.8 kilometres before the finish. The riders fly down a descent with a short uphill kick inside the last 3 kilometres.

The first three riders on the line gain times bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while the intermediate sprints come with 3, 2 and 1 seconds.

Ride the route yourself? Download GPX stage 4.