Stage 3 of the 63rd edition of Itzulia Basque Country started in the little French village of Ezpeleta, and finished 190,9 km later on the Spanish side, in Altsasu. After two days of racing in the rain, the weather was much more pleasant and spring like, but the climbing ramped up a notch. The stage incorporated over 3,000 vertical metres, split between six classified climbs, starting from kilometre zero with the 7.8km ascent to Otxindo. Four hours & 41 minutes later, an uphill sprint finish saw two Bahrain riders in the thick of the action, with Edoardo Zambanini crossing the line in 2nd, and Nikias Arndt 5th.

Sports Director Neil Stephens commented after the race: “Today was another tricky stage in the Basque Country. It wasn’t one of the big mountain stages but it wasn’t an easy one either. We had a big hope to try to go to for a sprint finish with Nikas and we are satisfied that we were fighting for the victory. We didn’t win today but we were able to do a good job. The boys got nearly everything right, athough they did get separated a little bit in the finale. One of the guys who had already done his job was able to come back, and almost won the stage himself! Zambanini did an excellent job supporting Arndt earlier on and then made a remarkable comeback to secure the runner-up position. Second in the stage and then fifth with Nikias as well, so although as I said, a win would have been fantastic, I am very satisfied to see that we can put it together. We performed better than yesterday and almost took a stage win in the Basque Country, which gives us the confidence we needed to go into the hard stages in the next few days. We have improved on the work from yesterday and we are going to keep on fighting every day.”

Edoardo Zambanini reflected: “From the last climb we were in a good position. From 5 km to go the whole bunch was a »machine.« We were quite well positioned, always in the front, and there was also a crash in the back. And then in the last km, we were again in the mix. I was on the corner in about 10th position and at that time Nikias was more right and further forward. I went left, I was quite well positioned and then I tried to sprint.”