Bilbao welcomed the Grand Départ two years ago. It was July 1, 2023. The stage of the next day ended in Donostia after starting … In Vitoria. The Tour, in Euskadi. The Basque fans did not stop receiving praise. Institutional representatives insisted on the benefits of return to the country.
The carased return of the great sports events, also of cultural, has not resulted in benefits for Basque cycling. Twenty -four months after that historical appointment, representation in the platoon is reduced to two runners, Alex Aranburu and Ion Izagirre. It is the slightest so far from the 21st century. If Mikel Landa’s fall in the Giro, they would have been three. In any case, the lowest number in twenty -five editions.
This decrease is the logical consequence of a weight loss of Basque cycling within the World Tour, initiated with the disappearance of Euskaltel, whose best members ended up distributed among the most powerful blocks of world cycling. That outstanding generation matured without finding a relay like the one she gave to the previous one. The chain broke.
Ion Izagirre is 36 years old. Mikel Landa is in the 35. One and the other are approaching at the end of their careers hoping to still achieve good results. Alex Aranburu will turn 30 in September. And behind?
It contrasts this situation with the golden age that followed the departure of the Tour from Donostia in 1992. Miguel Indurain’s peak, the irruption of the archíris jaw Abraham Olano, from another world champion such as Igor Astarloa and of so many other international tall runners.
The three weeks of tour between today in Lille and Sunday 27 in Paris will evidence that lack at the same time that they will allow the Basque fan enjoying an unmatched show, of the offensive cycling that Tadej Pogacar, great favorite, of the response capacity of Jonas Vingegaard, of the overwhelming personality of Remco Evenepoel. It doesn’t matter the land. The Brittany Wall is the same as the ascent to the Tourmalet or the Madeleine, the side wind than the torrid temperatures.
The race begins in Lille the day after the death at 99 years of the oldest yellow jersey of the tour that was still alive, Jacques Marinelli, whom Jacques Goddet nicknamed ‘El Perico’ for the green jersey of his team, île-de-Franconce, and his light pedaling. He measured 1.58 meters and weighed 55 kilos when the 1949 Cantter Line Renaud singer, much higher, imposed a leader of leader too long for his holder.
“I attacked all the time,” Marinelli confessed after his retirement by evoking his greatest success. As Pogacar. The next day he started again to form a getaway that came ahead to the finish line. He kept the precious jersey for three days, took it away in the next stage and recovered it below to take it two more days. That tour ended, won by Fausto Coppi with Gino Bartali in second position.
Pogacar, unbeatable?
Marinelli will not be able to see Pogacar in action this time. Nor to Vingegaard, the main alternative to truncate the dream season of an unbeatable corridor in its wide range of land and capable of discussing the supremacy in the Milan-San Remo and the Paris-Roubaix to Mathieu van der Poel, one of the best classicals in history.
The Tour recovers a classic format with a first week suitable for the rollers that stretches at ten stages so that there is competition on July 14, National Festival in France. The first break will fall on Tuesday. Volocists will also have their opportunities.
A 33-kilometer flat counterreloj will establish the first differences between the great favorites, in addition to offering a spectacular duel of specialists Evenepoel-Haganna. After an incursion into the central massif, the Tour will enter the Pyrenees first and in the Alps later. For the last day he keeps the novelty of the passage in Montmartre before finishing in the Elysee fields.
How many days will we have to wait to attend Pogacar’s first attack? Will it show greater power or visma? Will Vingegaard respond? How far will Evenepoel’s endurance arrive in the high mountain? The answers, as of today.
