Mikel Landa’s lament after knowing the route of the Tour de France 2027: “There is no longer a Tour for climbers”

Mikel Landa went to Paris to witness live this Thursday the presentation of the Tour de France 2027 hoping that his new team, the Euskaltelmay receive one of the invitations, although he acknowledged that the route includes less mountain than a climber like him would like.

“There is no longer a Tour for climbers. There are two time trials for specialists, mid-mountain stages and just enough high finishes,” said the veteran runner, who will turn 37 in December.

At that age, he has launched a new project with which he intends to help Euskaltel renew old laurels, starting with a return to the Tour in which the orange formation, ancestor of the current one, has not competed since 2013.

His name, his prestige, his five top-10 in the French round, two fourth places, could be an attraction to win one of the invitations, although he himself knows that they are very expensive.

“We are a very humble team, we know where we are, but we would like to grow and well, we want to be in the mix a little,” said the man from Alava, who recalled that they already know what it is to compete in the French round: “We have a history in the Tour and we don’t want to lose it.”

Euskaltel-Euskadi, invitation for 2027?

“The invitations are very expensive, cycling has become very globalized and we have to fight a lot,” added Landa.

With an eye on a journey that will begin in Edinburgh and that he has reduced the weight of the long and hard mountain stages that he is so good at and that he is betting more on shorter and more explosive climbs, Landa does not lose hope of “fighting for partial victories and perhaps the mountain jersey.”

“I think my time in the general classification, especially in the Tour, has passed,” acknowledges the veteran cyclist whose eyes are drawn to the two days that will be held in the Pyrenees.

“They are the ones I like the most,” confesses the Basque, who in particular looked at matchday 18, ending in Saint-Lary-Soulan and the climb to the hard pass of the Portet.

The explosive climbs that are now so fashionable are less suited to their characteristics: “They look more for the spectacle, that there are no dead kilometers, that even if the stage is short it is raced from kilometer zero. I was more favored by the long, exhausting, less explosive stages.”

“We would have to wait for those few opportunities that there are for climbers,” he said. Landa knows it will be difficult, especially because the current peloton is under the Slovenian’s dominance. Tadej Pogacar, which leaves few crumbs to the rest of the competitors.

“If he doesn’t have bad luck like in the Vuelta he can win his sixth Tour. With Isaac del Toro it is well understood. “I don’t know what calendar they will choose but at the moment everything is for them,” he said.

The Basque placed Pogacar in the wake of cyclists like Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault“a killer.” “But he also makes a spectacle of his victories. At least, even though he is a bully, he does it well.”