The next WorldTour stage race is the Itzulia Basque Country 2025. The race, which is also known as Vuelta al País Vasco, will feature Enric Mas, who will repeat as leader in Movistar Team's lineup after the Volta a Catalunya just last week.
This edition of the Itzulia is presented as a golden opportunity both for the Balearic rider, who has not won since October 2022, and for Movistar Team itself, due to the absence of the main cycling stars (Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel).
The telephone team has not been able to maintain the level of its great start of the season, and in this Itzulia Basque Country they want to get back on the right track. For this, in addition to Mas, the team will also take two of its best riders: Javier Romo and Pablo Castrillo.
All 3 cyclists have shown a good overall level so far in 2025:
- Enric Mas: came 3rd overall in the Volta a Catalunya, his first podium in one of the main one-week tours of the calendar, only behind Roglic and Juan Ayuso, and ahead of Mikel Landa.
- Pablo Castrillo: he has competed in 3 stage races so far, and in all of them he has been one of Movistar's most outstanding climbers. His best result came in the UAE Tour, in a race where Pogacar was also there, and where Castrillo was 6th overall thanks to his great individual time trial (6th) and his good performances in Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet.
- Javier Romo: the rider from Toledo will reappear after his hard crash in the Drôme Classic, which caused him a facial contusion. Before that, Romo chained stage win and 2nd overall in the Tour Down Under, 4th in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and 7th in the Ardèche Classic.
The confidence of Enric Mas
In addition to having two super gregarios like Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo, Enric Mas will arrive at the Itzulia with his confidence sky high. After finishing 3rd in the Volta, the Spaniard said that the Tour of the Basque Country is his main goal for the first part of the season:
"It's the first time in my life that I feel very good in a Volta a Catalunya. It gives me the motivation to keep working and get to the Basque Country super well, which is my first goal of the year. That's what I wanted, to do a good Volta here and then a super Itzulia."
So why is Movistar Team "obliged" to win? Apart from the aforementioned trio of stars and the absence of the main names in the peloton, in principle the telefónico team does not expect a very strong rivalry in the fight for the general classification.
There will be names to compete, that's for sure, but at the level that Mas, Castrillo and Romo are at, the Telefonica team should have the chance to win in this next edition of the Itzulia Basque Country.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
Loading
1 Comments