The Euskaltel-Euskadi cycling team is risking part of its future this week: goal of finishing the year among the 30 best in the world
In the hunt for the top 30. The road cycling season is approaching its end, but there are still races to be held and many points at stake, maxims that in the case of some teams take on great significance given the situation they are going through or in which they find themselves.
It is the case of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The orange formation has been in full use for a few days now so that its runners try to score as many points as possible. The reason is clear: try to finish among the top 30 in the ranking.
The regulations of the International Cycling Union (UCI) requires teams to be among the top 30 in the team ranking at the end of this season to be eligible for an invitation to a cycling grand tour: Giro d’Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta.
The doubt of Team Picnic PostNL
Beyond the need to finish in the top 30 of the ranking, there is the doubt that it will happen next season with Team Picnic PostNL. The Dutch team, which so far has only achieved three victories this year, could give up its World Tour place in 2027 due to economic reasons, a loss that could open the possibility for the organizers to ‘play back’ a lower category team, but it is still not clear what could happen in the event that the Netherlands team became a continental category.
That is to say, if the Basque team does not finish the year among the top 30, they would not be able to compete. The Return next year, which two other continental category teams have done, the EKern Pharma and Burgos-Burpellet-BH team. A priori, Unipublic could extend the same number of invitations as this year, but the Spanish continental teams, in this case Euskaltelyou need to be in the top 30 to qualify for one of them.
At the time of writing these lines, Euskaltel occupies 29th place in the ranking with 2,730.26 points, compared to 2,815 in the MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort (29) and the 2,730 of the Team Picnic PostNL, that closes the block of the first 30, among which are the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and Burgos-Burpellet-BH.
Euskaltel multiplies
To achieve his goal, the Euskaltel-Euskadi has deployed all its available troops, and will compete in five more tests this week, in Italy, France and Panama with 15 cyclists distributed among the three competitive fronts. Jon Agirre, Nico Alustiza, Mikel Bizkarra, Jonathan Lastra, Marco Martín, Iker Mintegi and Louis Suttondirected by Pablo Urtasun, will race in Italy the Giro del Veneto (1.Pro)and lto Veneto Classic (1.Pro)on Sunday (1:00 p.m.).
The big news is the participation in two races in Panamahe Chiriquí Grand Prix (1.2)on Thursday, and Classic Province of Chiriquí (2.2)to be celebrated in two stages, Saturday and Sunday. Xabier Berasategi, Xabier Isasa, Gotzon Martín, Hodei Muñoz and Gari Ugarte They will be the five orange runners in the running, under the sports direction of Jorge Azanza.
Finally, on Sunday (2:20 p.m.), Txomin Juaristi and Axel and Danny van der Tuuk will dispute the Time of Nations (1.1, France) in Les Herbiers on a demanding 45.4 kilometer route.
