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.
Instead, the field is replete with climbers aiming for general classification success with defending champion Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) looking to defend his title.
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
