A few years ago, when the Vuelta did not yet belong to ASO, the French company that owns the Tour, it penetrated a few kilometers in Vizcaya due to some unexpected works. It was as if the end of the world was suddenly announced. The passage was made stealthily and without making any noise. It was a time still in turmoil and with too many people circulating with bodyguards around the Basque Country.
“Now we go with total normality. We started going for the first time in 2011 and there is no problem with the city councils or with any of the three councils,” he explains. Javier Guillentest director.
Until the passing through Navarre, at the end of the last century, was complicated. One night, while the Vuelta was sleeping in hotels in Pamplona, they burned a few of the organization’s motorcycles and that was a drama because without motorcycles, although it may seem otherwise, you cannot organize a cycling race.
The return of 2011
In 2011 the Vuelta circulated counting the days that were missing for the race to reach Euskadi. He did it with a departure in Oyon, a small town in Alava, next to Logroño, and famous for its aluminum factories. Then it came to Bilbao, as will happen this Wednesday, and the revolution was armed, but the good one, the lively one, the sports one. Won Igor Antonat that time leader of the group Euskaltel. He was one of his own who came alone to Bilbao’s Gran Vía to raise his arms and make history. The bustle was impressive.
Since then, the Basque Country has been gaining prominence in the race to the point that not only has the presence of the event normalized, but it has ceased to be a media aspect that could be used for political claims.
In fact, the race began in the Basque Country two years ago, from Irún, where the stage starts today when it was impossible to start the race in the Netherlands, as has happened now, due to the pandemic.
the great quarry
There is no place on the peninsula where so many cyclists arise. The Basque quarry is above the rest and if you search through history, runners capable of everything from the times of Jesus Loronoin the 50s of the 20th century.
Euskaltel has returned to the international peloton with the idea of getting older and so that the orange jackets once again flood the roads of the Pyrenees, in the Tour. And precisely the French round leaves next year from Bilbao -today’s finish line will serve as a rehearsal because the first stage will end there in 2023- to spend three days and tour the three Basque provinces before heading towards the french basque country and end up in Bayonne, although this last aspect is not yet official.
