Team Jayco AlUla will have a mix of youth and experience as they head to the WorldTour stage race of Itzulia Basque Country, starting on Monday. Leading the team will be former Vuelta a España champion, Simon Yates.
Alongside Yates, in-form Italian youngster Davide De Pretto will join the team after his career best results last week in Coppi e Bartali, with Itzulia Basque Country the first WorldTour stage race of his career. Australian climber Lucas Hamilton and German Felix Engelhardt will be key players throughout the week which will see the peloton tackle the demanding yet beautiful terrain of the Basque Country.
The team’s reliable Danish domestique Chris Juul-Jensen will use his strength to support the team leaders and be looking for breakaway opportunities. Mauro Schmid and Edward Dunbar will make their return to the racing, both coming back from injury and will be eager to get some racing back in the legs to build on their condition for the season to come.
The 63rd edition of the race begins with a 10km time trial and will visit the towns of Irun, Kanbo, Ezpeleta, Altsasu, Etxarri Aranatz, Legutio, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Amorebieta-Etxano and Éibar, covering 833.6 kilometres over the six days of racing.
Itzulia Basque Country line-up: April 1st-6th
Davide De Pretto (ITA)
Edward Dunbar (IRL)
Felix Engelhardt (GER)
Lucas Hamilton (AUS)
Christopher Juul-Jensen (DEN)
Mauro Schmid (SUI)
Simon Yates (GBR)
Simon Yates:
¨Basque Country is one of my favourite places to race. It´s the sort of racing that I enjoy with short stages where you can really get involved and start to try things and be aggressive. We´ll see how I´ve come out of Catalunya and we will go from there.¨
Davide De Pretto:
¨I´m feeling very good, I´m in great shape and ready for my first WorldTour stage race. I´m feeling great in Team Jayco AlUla, and it is always a privilege to participate in any race with this team. I have never raced in the Basque Country before. It will be a hard race because the level is very high, the route is tough and there are many meters altitude difference in each stage, with short but very hard climbs. ¨
Pieter Weening-Sport Director:
¨We´d like to give Simon an opportunity to go after a result and the GC. From day one we have an individual time trial, so he needs to do a solid ride to be in contention. From there I think the stages are quite open until the last stage, so for the big GC contenders it will all be decided on the last day. We have Davide De Pretto and Lucas Hamilton who are also in good shape after Coppi e Bartali, and there will be some stages where they can go for a good result too. ¨
Photo: Sprint Cycling
