For veteran Soudal-QuickStep leader Mikel Landa, the 2025 Vuelta a España is a test of his own condition after his terrible crash in the Giro d'Italia and of how the Belgian team will compete in Grand Tours without Remco Evenepoel in the years to come.
Remco Evenepoel's imminent departure from the squad for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe will radically change Soudal-QuickStep's goals in Grand Tours racing, given a pivot back to Classics racing and no direct Evenepole replacement.
Instead, Landa revealed, Soudal-QuickStep will target stage wins in the Grand Tours, starting with the 2025 Vuelta a España, in a dress rehearsal for the future.
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After his lengthy recovery from his stage 1 Giro d'Italia crash, Landa will be exploring his own condition, with an eye on the Italian Classics of the end of the season and the World Championships. His only race since the Giro was the recent Vuelta a Burgos.
"Burgos was a tough race, I couldn't do much, but at least I could break through my nerves of crashing after the Giro and get back to pushing myself to the limit. My back is still not in great shape, but I'm hoping that I can get through," Landa said in a pre-Vuelta press conference in Turin.
"I'm hoping I can get a stage win, that's my most realistic option, but even that could be tough."
His recovery from the Giro, he said, was relatively straightforward on the physical side in the first part, although the real tests came when he had to begin training hard. Mentally, though, the path back from such a shocking injury was more uneven, to the point where he says, "I couldn't bear to watch the Giro at all on TV.
"I was really upset about it. It was clear how the race was going to play out, with the toughest part in the third week, and I was angry at not being there. By the Tour, though, I was doing OK.
"It was very hard to have to leave the Giro like that, particularly when I was so motivated to do well and at my age I won't have so many more opportunities.
"Physically, my recovery was slow at first but it got quicker and quicker, to the point where almost without realising it I was back doing training on the rollers again.
"But getting back on the bike is always easy, it is training hard that is always the real challenge after an injury. So then in the last part the usual happened, I had good days and bad days, days when I could attain my objectives and days when I couldn't."
Landa said he was saddened by the news that Evenepoel would be leaving the team, after an initial year together in 2024 where they both raced well in the Tour, with the Belgian taking third and Landa taking fifth overall.
In Evenepoel's absence, Landa and teammates like Ventoux winner Valentin Paret-Peintre will have the chance to go for stage wins, an objective at which Soudal-QuickStep has ample practice in the past in Grand Tours prior to switching to GC goals with Evenepoel.
"Going for stages is something the team has in its DNA, and that's what we'll be doing here, so it's a bit of a practice, because that's what we'll be doing in Grand Tours," Landa said.
Whatever happens in the Vuelta, Landa will be using it to prepare for the final autumn Classics including Il Lombardia, where he took third back in 2022. He also hopes to participate at the World Championships. He's already been in touch with Spanish national coach Alejandro Valverde and his goal is to shine in the last part of the season.
"Before Burgos I wasn't so sure, but now I know I want to go through right til the end," the 35-year-old said. "I'm really keen to do as well as I can in Italy."
"Here in the first week, if there are 30 or 40 riders in the last part of a stage, I hope to be there, but if there are five or ten, I'm sure that I won't be."
"But then I'll look to do well in the second and third week, the last time we went up the Angliru [in 2023 - Ed.] I did pretty well" - finishing fourth and giving Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss a wheel to follow in the finale in the process - "And maybe that can happen again, too."
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