Mikel Landa aims (not only) for the podium in Catalunya: "It will be a much more open race without Tadej and Jonas"

This week is the Volta a Catalunya, one of the most important and prestigious stage races on the calendar. The last winner Tadej Pogacar is not present to defend his title, leaving the throne up for grabs since Jonas Vingegaard removed the race from his calendar too after complicated Paris-Nice.

In absence of the two overlords, Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso will start as the top favorites for the final GC. However, they will not be the only ones and there will be several riders who can make things difficult for them. Among them will be Mikel Landa, who had a decent start to new season.

"When they [Vingegaard and Pogacar] are there, people are either content to be second or are waiting for them to open the race and start attacking," the Soudal - Quick-Step rider told Cyclingnews. "That influences the development of the race a lot. It will be a much more open race without them, there will probably be a nice fight between [Primoz] Roglic and [Juan] Ayuso. Those two should dominate, but the rest of us could be very close."

After that, he analyzed the race and the course a bit: "Even though there are so many mountain stages, the Volta is a race that often ends up being decided by a few seconds and this year might not be any different. In fact, I'd say it's one of the stage races that has changed the least since I started racing. When I started as a pro, it was always very hard, and very fast, and it still is."

He also talked about his adventure last year, when he finished second behind Pogacar: "Last year I did very well, this year I'm also in good shape, so let's see if I can be close to the best. Whatever happens, though, in one-week stage races it's very difficult to find stages with as many mountains as there are in Catalunya, with vertical climbs of four to five thousand meters on some days. It's very similar to the last week of the Giro, so it's also very useful for later on."

Finally, he highlighted his ambitions for the week and compared it to that of the favorites: "For me, this race is never over until you get to the finish line. Personally, there's still too far to go before the start of the Giro to really test myself, it's not like the time difference between the Dauphiné or Suisse, for example, compared to the Tour de France. But for riders like Roglic and Ayuso, it's their last race until Giro. So in the Volta they're going to want to give it their all."