Tour of the Basque Country: a five-star battle for a casting worthy of the Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard sera notamment opposé à son ex-coéquipier Primoz Roglic MAXPPP – ROBERTO BETTINI

Hormis Tadej Pogacar, toutes les têtes d’affiche attendues sur le Tour de France se mesureront lors des six étapes jusqu’à samedi

With Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, the Tour of the Basque Country offers an exceptional line-up starting this Monday for a week which should be rich in lessons in view of the Tour de France.< /p>

Apart from Tadej Pogacar, who continues to prepare for the Giro in his corner, all the headliners expected on the Tour de France will compete during the six stages until Saturday. And they will be well supported since riders like Sepp Kuss, Jai Hindley, Juan Ayuso, Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock, Felix Gall, Mattias Skjelmose, Warren Barguil and David Gaudu, will also be there to brighten up the week between the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

A final stage including seven climbs

This casting worthy of a Tour de France promises sparks on a course that is inevitably hilly, given the configuration of the Basque Country with a final stage on Saturday in Eibar that is particularly mountainous including seven climbs in just 138&nbsp ;km, including the brutal Krabelin (5 km at 9.6 %).

The week is full of points of interest. This will be the first time that we find three of the four main candidates for victory in the Tour de France in the same race this year.

Vingegaard reunites with Roglic

It will also be the first time that Vingegaard, double winner of the Tour de France, will be pitted against his former teammate Roglic since the Slovenian's departure from the Visma team this winter.

The form of Roglic, who is now racing for the German team Bora, will be particularly scrutinized after his very disappointing Paris-Nice (10th place overall). He is generally comfortable in the Basque Country where he won twice, in 2018 and 2021.

Vingegaard, outgoing winner, is already in great shape as shown by his overwhelming victories on the Gran Camino and Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Tour of the Basque Country will also be an opportunity for Remco Evenepoel to compete for the first time this year against Vingegaard and we will follow with interest his duo with Mikel Landa, recruited this winter to be his sherpa in the mountains.

A region passionate about cycling

The Basque is doing well at the moment and remains in a good second place at the Tour of Catalonia behind Pogacar. "I’can’t wait to return to the Basque Country", underlines Evenepoel, three-time winner of the Clasica San Sebastian, "and I am particularly looking forward to doing this race with Mikel in his native region who is so passionate about cycling".

The Belgian will aim for the leader's jersey from the first stage on Monday, a 10km time trial in Irun.