Remco Evenepoel’s key climbing support rider Mikel Landa is certain that the Tour de France’s first, unusually early, encounter with the high mountains on Tuesday will offer what the Basque star describes as “the first big test of the race.”
Tuesday’s return to France will see the Tour tackle the Galibier, one of the best-known and toughest Alpine ascents that has featured 39 times in cycling’s biggest bike race. For the fortieth occasion and in a replica of the 2019 stage finale over the climb, the Galibier will come be tackled again from its southern side before a rapid drop down to the finish in Valloire.
The 34-year-old Landa looks to be is in good shape for his eighth Tour, with a recent fifth place in the Spanish Nationals concrete evidence of his form, and his mixed early sensations early on in the Tour, he says, were probably due to the Italian heat.
When he transferred across from Bahrain Victorious last winter, Soudal-Quick Step made no secret that the Basque racer signed to help Evenepoel in the Tour and on Tuesday, in the Alps, his mission will likely be under the spotlight for the first time.
“It will be the first big [climbing] test,” Landa told Spanish newspaper AS on Monday.
“It’s a short, hard stage with a fast finish to end it with. I imagine UAE will take control of the race and we’ll have to follow them. It won’t be a definitive day, but it will be an important one.”
Ten years Evenepoel’s senior, Landa began racing with the Belgian star at the Volta ao Algarve way back in February, working hard for the Belgian on its two hilliest stages as the Soudal-QuickStep leader rode towards overall victory. Since then he’s been with Evenepoel again at the Itzulia-Basque Country, which both riders abandoned with important injuries, in Landa's case breaking his collarbone on stage 5. The two then returned to racing together at the Critérium du Dauphiné and now at the Tour.
“I think he’s calmer when he has me with him, and that’s important for me, too,” Landa observed. “I tell him to keep calm because the Tour is long and above all, you have to know how to measure your efforts.”
“This is his first Tour de France and there’s a great deal of expectation surrounding him. If he finishes in the top five or top three, that would be good. But it’s the race which decides where everybody finishes.”
“My key objective is to be with Remco,” he told AS. “Right to the end, giving everything for him. Then we’ll have to see how the race plays out, if I have to look at GC a little or fight for a stage. It’ll all become clear as we go on.”
Riding through the hills of central Italy on two tough first stages, and currently lying 21st overall, “It’s hard to draw conclusions though I didn’t feel great. But I’d like to think that was because of the heat.”
On Tuesday, in any case, Landa will certainly have a much better chance to find out about his underlying climbing form and race condition - as will all the Tour favourites, too, including Evenepoel.
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