That Landa went with Evenepoel could be a good thing

2023-08-16 10:13:46

Mikel Landa in the Soudal de Evenepoel finds inventiveness that hardly fit him in Bahrain

Two Soudal mechanics confirm that Mikel Landa will race next year with Remco Evenepoel.

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— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) August 16, 2023

Rarely do I think the staff has been able to enjoy so much prominence in a movement that will be among the most important in the market.

Despite how much we have written and said, Mikel Landa is a cyclist with two podiums in the Giro, both fourth places in the Tour and stages in Vuelta y Giro.

Eternal contender, I think the last Tour has been very clear-sighted about his future, he didn’t have the podium and looking for a stage was impossible for him.

The step from going to a block like Soudal to supporting Remco seemed good to me from the moment the rumor arose, a rumor that is now reality and appeases a cascade of signings and movements that have filled quite a few headlines these days.

Remco Evenepoel will stay in Soudal, that is clear from the tweet so that Landa is his last man -let’s see if he is, because with Mikel it is difficult to know what will happen-.

This influences Carlos Rodríguez and Ineos and as we would say in Catalonia “retruc” in Movistar and its captaincy.

Remco joins the list of cyclists who fueled the famous #FreeLandastarted by Fabio Aru and continued by Chris Froome.

Landa’s options will now go through Evenepoel and his status in the race, completing a cycle of teams that speaks of the quality of the cyclist: from the start in Euskaltel to Bahrain through Astana, Team Sky and Movistar.

–written on july 29–

That Landa went with Evenepoel could be a good thing for both of them

Three years ago around these dates, the Vuelta a Burgos restored the cycling calendar after the closure due to Covid with Remco Evenepoel as a rocket, at such a level that it even earned a cover in Marca.

Shortly after the Belgian would come the brutal accident in Lombardy and a hiatus of nine months.

Those days, as Evenepoel walked, a sentence from Mikel Landa remained for posterity: «They won’t leave us even the crumbs» said the Basque before the push of the youngest.

Within a few weeks, Landa stayed at the gates of the Tour podiumfourth, not far from Richie Porte.

Hoy To think that Landa can return to this one in a position to step on the drawer of the best race is something utopian.

It is not that we have a “package” for Alava, it is a confirmation that we have just seen in the recently concluded Tour.

He was in a position to do something in the general classification for the time it took to reach the Pyrenees, favorable terrain for him, in theory.

He changed the objective towards the stages and neither.

The level of the Tour stages has been such that Van der Poel and Van Aert have not smelled them and people like Alaphilippe have left their lives without success.

Landa caught some escape, but not with those.

This week, he has shown concern about his future.

I don’t know if it was so much for having a team, I don’t think he would have a problem, although it is true that Bahrain would renew him downward, as in the redefinition of his objectives.

In this that the possible offer of the Soudal to sign Landa as a domestique for Remco Evenepoel.

What on paper might seem like a step backwards, I don’t think it would be.

Landa far exceeds the level of the world champion’s domestiques, he is a top level climber, who on specific days, and without the pressure of a general, would give great results.

Besides Landa’s experience would be very useful to Evenepoel.

All this would give Landa a new objective on the one hand and, on the other, a window of opportunity in a team with winning dynamics twelve months a year, something that the Basque does not have in hand.

As a climax, if things go better than expected, we would return to #FreeLanda and those nonsense that we used to say when Froome and Nairo, because in the end landism can take infinite and unpredictable forms.