59th Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) 8 - 13 April

[Sestriere]

Noone made a thread for this race yet and it starts tomorrow? Seems like someone has to take responsibility...

Route
The race keeps some of it's most traditional features like the finish in Arrate as well as a mid-length TT, which however falls under some innovation as it takes place on day one this time around. Other than that, the course definitely isn't the hardest we have seen, yet it favours as always the punchy climbers who don't shy away from the TT bike.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6

Startlist
As always the Tour of the Basque countries draws some of the best climbers and classics riders to northern Spain that will present themselves on different form trajectories towards the Ardennes and Grand Tours. This year some of the favourites for stage wins and GC (both go hand in hand in this race) are: Landa, Teuns, Buchmann, Schachmann, Fuglsang, Lutsenko, the Izagirres, L.L. Sánchez (holy smokes, Astana!), Alaphilippe, Mas, Thomas, Kwiatkowski, A. Yates, D. Martin, Pogacar, Martínez and others.

1. Movistar Team
1 LANDA Mikel
2 BETANCUR Carlos
3 FERNÁNDEZ Rubén
4 PEDRERO Antonio
5 ROJAS José Joaquín
6 ANACONA Winner
7 VERONA Carlos

2. Bahrain Merida
11 BOLE Grega
12 DENNIS Rohan
13 WANG Meiyin
14 PADUN Mark
15 PIBERNIK Luka
16 TEUNS Dylan
17 WILLIAMS Stephen

3. BORA - hansgrohe
21 BUCHMANN Emanuel
22 BENEDETTI Cesare
23 KONRAD Patrick
24 MCCARTHY Jay
25 MÜHLBERGER Gregor
26 POLJAŃSKI Paweł
27 SCHACHMANN Maximilian

4. Astana Pro Team
31 FUGLSANG Jakob
32 BILBAO Pello
33 FRAILE Omar
34 IZAGIRRE Gorka
35 IZAGIRRE Ion
36 LUTSENKO Alexey
37 SÁNCHEZ Luis León

5. Deceuninck - Quick Step
41 ALAPHILIPPE Julian
42 CAVAGNA Rémi
43 DEVENYNS Dries
44 HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
45 MAS Enric
46 SERRY Pieter
47 VAKOČ Petr

6. AG2R La Mondiale
51 GENIEZ Alexandre
52 CHEREL Mickaël
53 CHEVRIER Clément
54 FRANK Mathias
55 DUPONT Hubert
56 PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien
57 WARBASSE Larry

7. Lotto Soudal
61 VANENDERT Jelle
62 ARMÉE Sander
63 HANSEN Adam
64 LAMBRECHT Bjorg
65 MARCZYŃSKI Tomasz
66 MONFORT Maxime
67 VAN DER SANDE Tosh

8. Team Katusha - Alpecin
71 BATTAGLIN Enrico
72 SMIT Willie
73 GUERREIRO Ruben
74 CRAS Steff
75 GONÇALVES José
76 NAVARRO Daniel
77 STRAKHOV Dmitry

9. Team Sky
81 THOMAS Geraint
82 CASTROVIEJO Jonathan
83 DE LA CRUZ David
84 ELISSONDE Kenny
85 GOŁAŚ Michał
86 KWIATKOWSKI Michał
87 ROSA Diego

10. Mitchelton-Scott
91 YATES Adam
92 ALBASINI Michael
93 HAMILTON Lucas
94 HOWSON Damien
95 NIEVE Mikel
96 SCHULTZ Nick
97 GRMAY Tsgabu

11. UAE-Team Emirates
101 MARTIN Dan
102 HENAO Sergio
103 MORI Manuele
104 POGAČAR Tadej
105 RAVASI Edward
106 SUTHERLAND Rory
107 ULISSI Diego

12. EF Education First
111 MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe
112 BENNETT Sean
113 CARTHY Hugh
114 CLARKE Simon
115 CRADDOCK Lawson
116 HOWES Alex
117 BROWN Nathan

13. CCC Team
121 BEVIN Patrick
122 ANTUNES Amaro
123 DE LA PARTE Víctor
124 DE MARCHI Alessandro
125 KOCH Jonas
126 PAUWELS Serge
127 ZOIDL Riccardo

14. Team Dimension Data
131 KING Ben
132 CUMMINGS Steve
133 DLAMINI Nic
134 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques
135 GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel
136 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte
137 WYSS Danilo

15. Groupama - FDJ
141 MOLARD Rudy
142 ARMIRAIL Bruno
143 GAUDU David
144 MADOUAS Valentin
145 ROUX Anthony
146 SEIGLE Romain
147 VINCENT Léo

16. Team Sunweb
151 ROCHE Nicolas
152 HAMILTON Chris
153 HINDLEY Jai
154 HIRSCHI Marc
155 OOMEN Sam
156 STORER Michael
157 STORK Florian

17. Team Jumbo-Visma
161 BENNETT George
162 KUSS Sepp
163 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan
164 MARTIN Tony
165 OLIVIER Daan
166 POWLESS Neilson
167 VINGEGAARD Jonas

18. Trek - Segafredo
171 MOLLEMA Bauke
172 BERNARD Julien
173 CONCI Nicola
174 FELLINE Fabio
175 IRIZAR Markel
176 SKUJIŅŠ Toms
177 STETINA Peter

19. Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
181 HERRADA Jesús
182 ATAPUMA Darwin
183 CHETOUT Loïc
184 EDET Nicolas
185 HANSEN Jesper
186 MATÉ Luis Ángel
187 PEREZ Anthony

20. Euskadi Basque Country - Murias
191 BIZKARRA Mikel
192 SAMITIER Sergio
193 SÁEZ Héctor
194 ITURRIA Mikel
195 BARCELÓ Fernando
196 BRAVO Garikoitz
197 RODRÍGUEZ Óscar

21. Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
201 RODRÍGUEZ Cristián
202 AMEZQUETA Julen
203 ABERASTURI Jon
204 IRISARRI Jon
205 LASTRA Jonathan
206 GONZÁLEZ David
207 ARANBURU Alex

22. Manzana Postobon
211 REYES Aldemar
212 SAENZ Nicolas
213 GARCÍA Jhojan
214 JARAMILLO Daniel
215 SUAZA Bernardo
216 SIERRA Yecid
217 QUINTERO Carlos

23. Burgos-BH
221 MADRAZO Ángel
222 BOL Jetse
223 FERNANDES José
224 SESSLER Nícolas
225 EZQUERRA Jesús
226 RUBIO Diego
227 VILELA Ricardo

 

[RedheadDane]

4. Astana Pro Team
31 FUGLSANG Jakob
32 BILBAO Pello
33 FRAILE Omar
34 IZAGIRRE Gorka
35 IZAGIRRE Ion
36 LUTSENKO Alexey
37 SÁNCHEZ Luis León

Already have a GC win this year.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

4. Astana Pro Team
31 FUGLSANG Jakob
32 BILBAO Pello
33 FRAILE Omar
34 IZAGIRRE Gorka
35 IZAGIRRE Ion
36 LUTSENKO Alexey
37 SÁNCHEZ Luis León

Already have a GC win this year.

The crazy thing is that there are only three other riders in the entire field who also have that (Anacona, Pogacar and Hamilton).

 

[Lequack]

Last year's winner Roglic is not riding but it doing the Romandie at the end of the month.

 

[Laplaz]

Astana's team is insane. Nonetheless I still think Adam Yates will win the GC.

 

[Escarabajo]

On paper Adam Yates seems to be the favorite There are other with chances of course but to a lesser degree IMHO.

 

[Serpentin]

Astanas team so strong they don´t even have Doms anymore :lol:

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Last year's winner Roglic is not riding but it doing the Romandie at the end of the month.

Any particular reason he isn't riding?

 

[bajbar]

Re: Re:

Last year's winner Roglic is not riding but it doing the Romandie at the end of the month.

Any particular reason he isn't riding?

Doing two GTs in a season means less one week races

 

[Koronin]

Astana has an interesting team for this race.

 

[Gigs_98]

Obvious betancur win is obvious

 

[Akuryo]

Enric Mas will once again smash everyone at Arrate. Obviously.

 

[Red Rick]

Adam Yates to get 2nd.

 

[Bardamu]

Mollema to get 9th.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Seems like a bit of an easy route. Im curious to what stage 2 will look like, in bad conditions that could be pretty brutal, but I dont really know what kind of surface that is. Strade Bianche in Pais Vasco?

The analyst on feltet.dk (incredibly respected) has Geraint Thomas as the favourite for this race, but I just don't see it. Am I missing something?

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

Seems like a bit of an easy route. Im curious to what stage 2 will look like, in bad conditions that could be pretty brutal, but I dont really know what kind of surface that is. Strade Bianche in Pais Vasco?

The analyst on feltet.dk (incredibly respected) has Geraint Thomas as the favourite for this race, but I just don't see it. Am I missing something?

I doubt Thomas will be even top 10 in this race

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Seems like a bit of an easy route. Im curious to what stage 2 will look like, in bad conditions that could be pretty brutal, but I dont really know what kind of surface that is. Strade Bianche in Pais Vasco?

The analyst on feltet.dk (incredibly respected) has Geraint Thomas as the favourite for this race, but I just don't see it. Am I missing something?

No, I think he overestimates Sky riders and Richie Porte a bit too much. He hasn't been in good shape.

The strange thing is that he doesn't even have him as the favourite for the time trial (Alaphilippe above Kwiatkowski whom he apparently expects to disappear during the week).

 

[Velolover2]

No crazy muritos this year. Might change the dynamics of the race a bit.

Astana has the numbers like the Steppers in the classics. Should use it to their advantage.

 

[Velolover2]

Is stage 2 on gravel or cobbles btw?

 

[Jungle Cycle]

isn't the itt profile a little harder than it is in the picture ??

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Seems like a bit of an easy route. Im curious to what stage 2 will look like, in bad conditions that could be pretty brutal, but I dont really know what kind of surface that is. Strade Bianche in Pais Vasco?

The analyst on feltet.dk (incredibly respected) has Geraint Thomas as the favourite for this race, but I just don't see it. Am I missing something?

No, I think he overestimates Sky riders and Richie Porte a bit too much. He hasn't been in good shape.

The strange thing is that he doesn't even have him as the favourite for the time trial (Alaphilippe above Kwiatkowski whom he apparently expects to disappear during the week).

Agree on Porte at least. he had him 3rd in Catalunya and I was like, what? He seems to do that all the time and even he obviously cant be objective and on the money all the time. But I was shocked to see Geraint as the favourite given the route, recent results, bad wather on Teide etc.

 

[wirral]

Rain for the TT? Looks possible.

 

[Red Rick]

Apparently that climb in the itt is about 900m at 15% so we have a great case of y axis brainfarts

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

It's Euskal Herriko Itzulia!!!

Apparently that climb in the itt is about 900m at 15% so we have a great case of y axis brainfarts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUAeoMmCi3A

That's the climb. Alabert will murder everyone.

 

[Lequack]

So I guess Adam Yates tow in the ITT?

Climb profile:

Better stage profile: