Itzulia Women 2023

Itzulia Women facts

The three-day Itzulia Women made its debut in 2022. Taking in the mountainous terrain of the Basque Country in northern Spain, the event was organised by OCETA sports association that also run the long-standing six-day Itzulia Basque Country men's stage race that is held in April. 

In its second addition, Itzulia Women falls on the calendar in the middle of an important block of Spanish stage races, La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es taking place May 1-7 and then Vuelta a Burgos Feminas scheduled May 18-21.

Last year Itzulia Women travelled through a trio of Euskadi territories in the Basque Country - Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa - and featured 363.6km with 13 classified mountain passes and six intermediate sprints.

The mountainous route catered to the strong climbers among the 22 teams which lined up for the start in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque Country. All but two of the Women’s WorldTour squads competed, only Jumbo-Visma and Uno-X Women Pro Cycling being absent. 

Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) dominated the inaugural Itzulia Women by winning all three stages and the general classification. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon-SRAM) finished the Basque stage race as overall runner-up, 47 seconds behind Vollering, with Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) completing the podium at 1:07 minutes.

Vollering also won the points classification while Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) took home the polka-dot jersey as the mountain classification winner.