AJ August Solos To First WorldTour Victory On Rain-Battered Final Stage Of Itzulia Basque Country — The 20-Year-Old American Attacks On The Alto De Asentzio And Descends Alone Into Bergara For Ineos Grenadiers
Andrew 'AJ' August has taken the biggest victory of his young career, soloing to the Stage 6 win at the Itzulia Basque Country on a day when the Basque hills were lashed by persistent rain and the general classification battle behind him reached its frantic conclusion. The 20-year-old American, riding for Ineos Grenadiers, attacked from the front group on the final climb of the Alto de Asentzio with 12.3 kilometres remaining and never looked back, navigating a treacherous wet descent into Bergara with the composure of a rider twice his experience.
It was August's first WorldTour victory and only his second professional win, following a stage triumph at the Volta a Catalunya earlier this season. The Rochester, New York native — who turned twenty in January — had been given freedom to ride aggressively by his Ineos Grenadiers directeurs sportifs after the team's GC ambitions evaporated earlier in the week. He used that freedom to devastating effect, initially attacking alongside Raúl García Pierna of Movistar before dropping the Spaniard with a second, sharper acceleration inside the final kilometre of the Asentzio ascent.
The descent that followed was the stage's decisive passage. With rain hammering the narrow Basque roads and visibility reduced to a matter of metres in the valley fog, August rode with a fluency on the wet tarmac that astonished the television commentators. His gap, which had been 18 seconds at the summit, grew to 42 seconds by the time the road flattened out for the final two kilometres into Bergara's town centre. He crossed the line sitting up, arms raised briefly before gripping the bars again on the slick finish straight — a moment of measured celebration from a rider who understands that wet roads demand respect even after the race is won.
Behind August, the general classification battle played out in a manner that Paul Seixas would later describe as the most stressful hour of his racing life. The 19-year-old Frenchman, who had dominated proceedings from the opening time trial in Bilbao through to his hat-trick of stage wins, found himself isolated on the final climb after his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates were shelled out of the front group one by one in the crosswinds of the valley approach. Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility sensed vulnerability and attacked repeatedly on the Asentzio, clawing back significant time on the young leader, while Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe held firm in third.
Seixas survived — but only just. His final general classification margin of 2 minutes 30 seconds over Lipowitz and 2:33 over Johannessen looked comfortable on paper, but the gap had been halved in the space of a single rain-soaked afternoon. The Frenchman's overall victory, confirmed when the final rider crossed the line in Bergara, made him the first French winner of a WorldTour stage race in nineteen years — a statistic that speaks both to the depth of his talent and to the length of the drought that preceded him. His historic sweep of all five classification jerseys — general classification, points, mountains, youth, and combativity — remains the defining image of the 2026 Itzulia.
For August and Ineos Grenadiers, the stage victory represents a continuation of the British team's remarkable 2026 renaissance. After two seasons of diminishing returns that prompted questions about the team's long-term direction, Ineos have now accumulated sixteen victories before mid-April — more than they managed in the entirety of 2024. August, recruited from the Hagens Berman Jayco development pathway after a standout U23 season in 2025, is the youngest of the team's emerging generation and, on the evidence of his Bergara solo, potentially the most explosive.
The stage result in full: 1. AJ August (Ineos Grenadiers) in 3h 28' 12"; 2. Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) at 42"; 3. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) at 1' 03"; 4. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) at 1' 11"; 5. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) at 1' 15". The final general classification: 1. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM); 2. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) at 2' 30"; 3. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) at 2' 33".