Tour of the Basque Country 2021 start list

The provisional line-up of the starters for the 2021 Tour of the Basque Country (April 5-10)

Mikel Landa attacks on stage five of the Tour of the Basque Country

(Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)

The Tour of the Basque Country – or Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco – begins on April 5 with a strong line-up of riders. Due to the Covid-19 the race did not take place in 2020 but is back for 2021 and has attracted some of the biggest names.

The six-stage WorldTour race is characterised by hills and mountains, so it is no surprise that there is a lack of sprinters on the start list.

Another former winner attending is Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) who will be looking to get an overall victory after missing out at Paris-Nice due to crashing on the final stage.

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Tour de France champion, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is also starting making this race the first time the two great Slovenians go head-to-head. Pogačar has won both of the stage races he has taken part in as well as a top ten at Strade Bianche.

Emauel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), who finished third in the last edition back in 2019, is also hoping to do similar or better this year.

Ineos Grenadiers have sent out a very strong line-up including on-form Brit, Adam Yates as well as the last two Giro d'Italia winners Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richard Carapaz.

Other top names on the list include Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech), Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).

Tour of the Basque Country 2021 start list

Astana-Premier Tech

FUGLSANG Jakob

RODRÍGUEZ Óscar

FRAILE Omar

DE BOD Stefan

IZAGIRRE Ion

ARANBURU Alex

SÁNCHEZ Luis León

Movistar Team

MAS Enric

RUBIO Einer

CARRETERO Héctor

VALVERDE Alejandro

SAMITIER Sergio

ARCAS Jorge

VERONA Carlos

Bahrain Victorious

LANDA Mikel

BILBAO Pello

ARASHIRO Yukiya

PADUN Mark

MÄDER Gino

VALLS Rafael

CAPECCHI Eros

Bora-Hansgrohe

BUCHMANN Emanuel

BENEDETTI Cesare

KONRAD Patrick

KELDERMAN Wilco

SCHELLING Ide

ALEOTTI Giovanni

SCHACHMANN Maximilian

Deceuninck - Quick-Step

CATTANEO Mattia

ČERNY Josef

VANSEVENANT Mauri

HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich

SERRY Pieter

GARRISON Ian

Ag2r-Citroën Team

COSNEFROY Benoît

O'CONNOR Ben

CALMEJANE Lilian

FRANK Mathias

WARBASSE Larry

PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien

PRODHOMME Nicolas

Lotto-Soudal

KRON Andreas

DE GENDT Thomas

HOLMES Matthew

CRAS Steff

MARCZYŃSKI Tomasz

OLDANI Stefano

CONCA Filippo

Israel Start-Up Nation

WOODS Michael

HERMANS Ben

IMPEY Daryl

NEILANDS Krists

PICCOLI James

CATAFORD Alexander

NIV Guy

Ineos Grenadiers

YATES Adam

CARAPAZ Richard

GEOGHEGAN HART Tao

DE PLUS Laurens

GOŁAŚ Michał

DUNBAR Eddie

AMADOR Andrey

Team BikeExchange

CHAVES Esteban

JUUL-JENSEN Chris

SMITH Dion

HOWSON Damien

NIEVE Mikel

SCHULTZ Nick

BOOKWALTER Brent

UAE Team Emirates

POGAČAR Tadej

COSTA Rui

MAJKA Rafał

HIRSCHI Marc

CONTI Valerio

POLANC Jan

COVI Alessandro

EF Education-Nippo

HIGUITA Sergio

URÁN Rigoberto

CARTHY Hugh

CAICEDO Jonathan Klever

CORT Magnus

HOWES Alex

CAMARGO Diego Andrés

Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

EIKING Odd Christian

ZIMMERMANN Georg

BELLICAUD Jeremy

DEVRIENDT Tom

LAMMERTINK Maurits

HERMANS Quinten

EVANS Alexander

Team Qhubeka-Assos

ARU Fabio

CLARKE Simon

HENAO Sergio Luis

LINDEMAN Bert-Jan

BENNETT Sean

SCHMID Mauro

SUNDERLAND Dylan

Groupama-FDJ

BRUNEL Alexys

ARMIRAIL Bruno

GAUDU David

LADAGNOUS Metthieu

VAN DEN BERG Lars

SEIGLE Romain

SCOTSON Miles

Team DSM

LEKNESSUND Andreas

VAN WILDER Ilan

GALL Felix

HAGA Chad

DONOVAN Mark

TUSVELD Martijn

COMBAUD Romain

Team Jumbo-Visma

ROGLIČ Primož

OOMEN Sam

FOSS Tobias

TOLHOEK Antwan

HARPER Chris

HOFSTEDE Lennard

VINGEGAARD Jonas

Trek-Segafredo

MOLLEMA Bauke

BERNARD Julien

CONCI Nicola

LÓPEZ Juan Pedro

KAMP Alexander

SKUJIŅŠ Toms

EG Niklas

Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

HERRADA Jesús

HERRADA José

MARTIN Guillaume

GESCHKE Simon

BARCELÓ Fernando

FERNÁNDEZ Rubén

PEREZ Anthony

Euskaltel-Euskadi

BIZKARRA Mikel

CUADRADO Unai

MATÉ Luis Ángel

ITURRIA Mikel

ARISTI Mikel

JUARISTI Txomin

MARTÍN Gotzon

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

CEPEDA Jefferson Alvaro

OSORIO Alejandro

LAZKANO Oier

ABERASTURI Jon

LASTRA Jonathan

BARRENETXEA Jon

IRISARRI Jon

Equipo Kern Pharma

GALVÁN Francisco

GARCÍA PIERNA Raúl

BERRADE Urko

AGIRRE Jon

MARQUEZ Marti

PARRA José Félix

ADRIÀ Roger

Burgos-BH

MADRAZO Ángel

OSORIO Juan Felipe

NAVARRO Daniel

CANAL Carlos

EZQUERRA Jesús

CABEDO Óscar

OKAMIKA Ander

Total Direct Energie

LATOUR Pierre

DE LA PARTE Víctor

DOUBEY Fabian

BURGAUDEAU Mathieu

RODRÍGUEZ Cristián

SIMON Julien

GRELLIER Fabien

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.