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Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works

Race thread: 🇪🇸 Tour of Basque Country, Apr 6 – 11 (itzulia.eus)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works to c/procycling@lemmy.world

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This 6-stage race (Monday to Saturday) starts with a Time Trial, and then goes on with a collection of steep hills everyday. Even the Time Trial is not flat at all, starting with a 2.5 km climb, and finishing with a smaller but steeper one.

PCS page

🌞 Weather forecast: a very un-Basque weather (no rain), and the first days are going to be very hot for the season.

🚴‍♂️ Teams:

We'll get to see Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek), Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon), Roglitch🇸🇮 and Lipowitz🇩🇪 (Bora) for GC. Perhaps Landa (🇪🇸 Soudal-QS), McNulty (🇺🇸 UAE), Uijtdebroeks (🇧🇪 Movistar) and one Ineos behind them. For stages, we can watch the 2 Basques from Cofidis who are always in shape at this time of the year when they smell home: I. Izagirre🇪🇸 and Aranburu🇪🇸 who just made 1^st^ and 4^th^ on the Indurain GP – where Q. Simmons (🇺🇸 Lidl-Trek) 2^nd^ seemed to have finally found his good legs too; as well as the EF team (Healy🇮🇪 and others); I am not about the shape of Astana riders at the moment.

🗺 General map (they picked the separatist version, where Spain and France do not exist, and the Basque Country includes parts in France):

Stage 1 (Monday 6, Time Trial)

Stage 2 (Tuesday 7)

Stage 3 (Wednesday 8)

Stage 4 (Thursday 9)

Stage 5 (Friday 10)

Stage 6 (Saturday 11, last day)

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[–] Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Stage 1 (ITT)

Well, there were a couple of surprises...

Two of the favourites failed: Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) wasn't in the game, and Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) was rather far too.

The margin Seixas (🇫🇷 Décathlon) created was larger than expected. Of course, the failure of the guys listed above helped.

I didn't think of Van Wilder (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) as a potential chance. Yet, he scored a good result today. On the contrary, Uijtdebroeks (🇧🇪 Movistar) failed and is out of the game already.

We seem to have several leadership issues (or abundance that may become an advantage or an issue later).

As a result of the fist event, will Skjelmose🇩🇰 and Großschartner🇦🇹 (or McNulty🇺🇸?) become the respective leaders of Lidl-Trek and UAE? Perhaps it is too soon to decide, and will happen what will happen on the courses.

Bora ends up with a two-headed lead with both Roglitch🇸🇮 and Lipowitz🇩🇪 producing solid performances. It is a bit the same at Ineos, with Vauquelin🇫🇷 and August🇺🇸.

The first FDJ comes after 1 minute... And G. Martin🇫🇷, who usually cannot hope anything about stages given his negative punch and has to rely on GC, is significantly farther...

Picnic continues its year in hell.

ITTs are generally terrible for small teams, this one doesn't differ. First Pro Team riders are, I believe, I. Izagirre (🇪🇸 Cofidis) and Kron (🇩🇰 Uno-X), 24^th^ at 1 minute.

[–] CarstenBoll@feddit.dk 2 points 4 days ago

Ironically, that's a fantastic ITT by Kron.