Tour of the Basque Country – Stage 1 Preview
By @EchelonsHub
The Route
The opening day of the Itzulia. It’s a short prologue and it’s very explosive. Only 7.6 kilometers, but they feature some climbing, descending and tight streets in the middle of Hondarribia.
After 1.5 kilometers the riders face 600 meters at 7.5% where some of the main differences will be made. It is crucial to go all out this small hilltop, but keep the power over the top, and then take a breather in the descent to keep the explosivity through the final kilometers, which are relatively rolling and face quite some technical corners in the town.
The Weather
A breeze from the north. Shouldn’t make too much difference in such a small and covered route.
The Favourites
Primoz Roglic & Jonas Vingegaard – It is a route that will have high influence from the climbs. Roglic is highly explosive, not just for the long climbs, and he’s shown at the Vuelta that he’s not scared of taking big risks and winning a stage like this. Vingegaard, being a strong time-trialist.
Julian Alaphilippe & Remco Evenepoel – An interesting mix. Evenepoel will not enjoy the technical section and is not a sharp rider, however he’s a brilliant time-trialist and can very well succeed. Alaphilippe is better suited, with the sharp efforts that will come aplenty, but he’s not so inconsistent. Both a win and a spot outside the Top5 would not be surprising for both.
INEOS – With Adam Yates, Ben Tulett, Daniel Martinez and Geraint Thomas, there are several riders who can succeed in such a stage for a strong result, although the GC will be the main ambition.
It’s still a very complicated prologue where surprises can happen. Although with Roglic or Evenepoel it becomes very hard for one to happen. Still, some riders like Ion Izagirre, Pierre Latour and Andreas Leknessund are strong time-trialists who can do the climbs very well too and can go for a top result.
Pello Bilbao, Alessandro Covi, Stefan de Bod, Nelson Oliveira, Sergio Higuita and Mark Padun are all legitimate outsiders. Feeling on the day will be crucial, the route is short and technical enough that risks can be highly beneficial and make the whole difference when mere seconds will decide the stage.
Prediction Time
⭐⭐⭐Roglic, Evenepoel
⭐⭐Vingegaard, Alaphilippe, D.Martinez, I.Izagirre
⭐A.Yates, Tulett, Thomas, Bilbao, Latour, Leknessund, Higuita, N.Oliveira
Competition will be tough, but it’s still hard to imagine Roglic not winning a stage like this. Until he does, I will confidently back him to do what he does best.
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