Luis Ángel Maté: "Our objective this year, we hope, is to be in the Vuelta a España"

The Euskaltel - Euskadi rider has talked about his recent form and team plans in a recent interview, where he opens about the team's goals for the year, the possibility of being at the Tour de France 2023 as the team would in that case start at home, and his own form on what is his 15th season.

Asked, by VeloNews, if the team had ambitions of being at the Tour this year, Maté had this to day: “No, the Tour was never in the plan this year. We are a team with our feet on the ground. This year we didn’t have the capacity to go to the Tour. Our objective this year, we hope, is to be in the Vuelta a España. We will go step by step, with our feet on the ground.”

With the Tour de France 2023 having it's Grand Depart in Bilbao, and having it's opening stages within the Basque Country, for sure the orange team will have it's eyes on getting that wildcard even if it's a big ask. With the contingent of French teams at Pro Continental level, wildcards are quite complicated for non-French squads unless they rank high up in the UCI Pro Teams ranking.

He added, “we are realistic, ee want to keep growing, little by little, and to be realistic, I see the Tour a little bit too much right now. My form isn’t great right now, this is a big week for racing here in Andalucía, so we hope to do something important.”

Maté has started his season in Mallorca with a set of decent results, having it's best at the Trofeo Pollença with a 27th spot. Yesterday he was on the attack on the opening edition of the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior, and he'll be riding the Vuelta a Andalucia this week in search of an elusive win, one he hasn't obtained since 2011: “I hope to continue with the team. My numbers are good, and I am still very motivated. I think I still have a lot to bring to cycling, and I hope to keep racing a few more seasons.”