Daniel Martínez (Ineos) and Sergio Higuita (Bora) will be the two Colombians with the most options to compete in the Tour of the Basque Country from this Monday and both will seek to put the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who defends the title, against the wall.
The Basque Country is the cold race, narrow roads, constant up and down, stages with a lot of traps and treacherousa test that can take its toll on a runner, either due to a heavy fall or the aftermath of a respiratory illness, thanks to the harsh climate.
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Martínez arrives with a strong Ineos team, which will have two more cards: Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates, a structure that is tested, again, with a view to the Tour de France.
The Colombian cyclist comes from winning the national road time trial, from being third in the Tour of the Algarve and to occupy that same position in Paris-Nice, where he endured in the high mountains alongside Roglic, his breakthrough this year.
Higuita comes with the label of favorite, because the victory in the Tour of Catalonia says so.
He will have great support from the Russian Aleksandr Vlasov, who won the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana and is the second option of the German team Bora.
Roglic is the favourite. Last year he left his Jumbo Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard in second place and sent his compatriot Tadej Pogacar to third.
The Slovenian is coming for his third crown, the same as the Swiss Tony Rominger and the Irishman Sean Kelly, as he also won in 2018.
Vingegaard is second in the squad, as the Tour de France runner-up is having a good season, after winning the Drome Classic and following Pogacar in the general classification in the Tirreno-Adriatico.
The other Colombians will be Sebastián Henao (Astana), Jesús David Peña (BikeEchange), who is making his World Tour debut, Daniel Méndez (Kern Pharma) and the two EF cyclists, Rigoberto Urán and Diego Camargo.
Uran is a question mark. He arrives in the Basque country to find the ideal pedal stroke and after having been 14 in the Tirreno-Adriatico.
the other rivals
The Basque Country will have strong people from the peloton in its ranks from today. Remco Evenepoel comes from being second in the Valencian Community and winning in Agarve, so it will be one of the protagonists of the competition. A week’s worth of tests is good for you.
What’s more, Diego Ulissi, Enric Mas and Julian Alaphilippe can say something. This year, as is traditional, the Basque Country presents a complicated route. It starts with an individual time trial of 7.5 kilometers, which has a third category mountain prize in the intermediate.
There will not be a high finish, the only section that looks anything like this is the last one, which after 135 km, will end in Arrate.
That day there will be seven mountain passes, two of the third, two of the second and three of the first category, the last of them two kilometers from the end.
The other days present a mountainous route, but without a high end, which forces cyclists to be aware of the movements, nobody can be neglected.
the tour
1st Hondarribia-Hondarribia 7.5 (CRI) 5
2nd Leitza-Viana 207.9 6
3rd Laudio-Amurrio 181.7 7
4th Vitoria-Zamudio 185.6 8
5th Zamudio-Mallabia 163.8 9
6th Eibar-Arrate (High) 135.7
Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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