“This is my most uncertain Vuelta” – Mikel Landa still not 100% after injury-hit 2026 season

Mikel Landa will begin the 2026 Vuelta a Espana unsure of exactly what he can achieve after admitting he has still not fully recovered from the injuries that derailed much of his season. The Soudal – Quick-Step rider has ruled out setting any major targets before the race begins in Monaco on Saturday, August 22.

“This is my most uncertain Vuelta,” Landa said ahead of the start. “I’ve had a bad year, I’m coming back from a long injury and I haven’t recovered 100 per cent. I’ll try to survive the first week and then see what objectives I can set myself.”

It is a very different position from the one in which Landa would normally approach a Grand Tour. The 36-year-old has spent much of 2026 dealing with the consequences of a crash at Itzulia Basque Country, where he suffered a small pelvic fracture that forced him to miss the Giro d'Italia.

Persistent back problems then kept him out of the Tour de France, leaving the Vuelta as his only opportunity to race a Grand Tour this season.

Landa will therefore use the opening stages to discover what his body can handle before deciding whether stages, the general classification or simply completing the race becomes the priority.

“I’m not arriving in the best condition, but there’s no other option,” he admitted. “I’m coming here without pressure. I know where I am and the team knows as well. I’ll give my best. It would be worse not to race the Vuelta. Hopefully I can enjoy it, even if it’s only for a day or two.”

Enjoyment has been in short supply during the months since his Itzulia crash. Asked whether he had at least been able to enjoy riding while training, Landa offered an especially blunt response. “Not even in training.”

That difficult recovery explains why simply returning to a Grand Tour start line carries greater importance than usual. Landa has traditionally entered three-week races with GC ambitions, finishing fourth at the Tour de France and twice reaching the Giro d'Italia podium during his career, but he is unwilling to attach a finishing position to this Vuelta before knowing how his body responds. “Look at everything with optimism, especially after coming from such a low point,” he said.

His immediate ambition is similarly modest: “To be at a Grand Tour with better preparation and in better condition.”

The Vuelta also comes during the closing months of Landa's spell with Soudal – Quick-Step. He will leave the Belgian team at the end of 2026 before returning to Euskaltel-Euskadi for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

That move will take the Basque rider back to the organisation with which he began his professional career, but his immediate concern is getting through three weeks of racing after a season in which both the Giro and Tour disappeared from his programme through injury.

There will be no attempt to manufacture expectations before Monaco. Landa knows he is below his preferred level, Soudal know the same, and the opening week will determine whether his Vuelta develops into something more ambitious.

For now, the plan is exactly as Landa described it: get through those first stages, assess how his body responds and only then decide what is realistically available to him.