Basque Country

The Itzulia's spiritual summit. The sanctuary of Arrate stands at 581 metres on the balcony above Eibar, and the Tour of the Basque Country has been deciding itself up here since the 1940s. The queen stage starts and ends in Eibar almost every year, and the recent winners over the climb read like a who's who of the sport: Roglič, Yates, Vingegaard, Rodríguez. The race line goes via Usartza, four and a half kilometres near nine percent with the final three sitting around ten. At the top there is a church, a bar and half of Gipuzkoa on race day. On any other day there is just the view and the silence.

The sanctuary climb of Bizkaia. From Durango the road through Mañaria rears to the pass at 713 metres, six kilometres near nine percent with a steepest stretch over fourteen, beneath the bare limestone wall of Anboto where Basque legend keeps the goddess Mari. The Subida a Urkiola finished here for the better part of a century, 1931 to 2009, and its winners run from Julio Jiménez through Lejarreta, Delgado, Rominger and Chiappucci to Piepoli, who took it four times. The 2011 Vuelta gave the sanctuary the race's final categorised summit. Hard, holy and utterly Basque.

The Clásica's modern launchpad. Erlaitz climbs out of Irun into the granite country of the Aiako Harria, and its core is the hardest sustained climbing in this canon, under four kilometres at better than ten percent on a narrow road through the trees. It entered the Clásica route in 2019, summit around 43 kilometres from the line, and a nineteen year old Remco Evenepoel rode away from the race on it that very first year. Past the pass the road runs on toward the Peñas de Aya, three granite teeth that mark the border country. Quiet, savage and still slightly secret.

Bizkaia's mythical pass. The Vuelta has crossed the Sollube since 1964, and the monument at the alto honours Jesús Loroño, the climber from these valleys who won the 1957 Vuelta in front of his own people. From the fishing port of Bermeo the classic road climbs a little over four kilometres at eight percent to the 384 metre pass, and an antenna road carries on to 681 metres for the full sweep over the Urdaibai estuary. In 1937 this hillside was a Civil War battlefield, and the name still carries weight in Basque memory. Climb it from the sea and you understand why.

The most famous view in Euskadi, earned by bike. From Bakio the road climbs three and a half kilometres at better than eight percent, with a ramp near fifteen, to the saddle above San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, the hermitage islet tied to the coast by a stone causeway and 241 steps. Game of Thrones cast it as Dragonstone. The 2023 Tour de France climbed it on the opening stage out of Bilbao, its only race appearance and an instant classic. Come at first light, ring the hermitage bell three times like the pilgrims do, and have the Biscay coast to yourself.