The peloton had to patiently wait an extra year for the inaugural Itzulia Women after the event was canceled last year but the three-day race held from May 13-15 will kick off the stage racing season on the Women’s WorldTour in Spain, a location that has become a mecca for professional women’s cycling.
Itzulia Women is organized by OCETA that also run the long-standing six-day Itzulia Basque Country men’s stage race won by Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers).
It is among the growing list of men’s events adding women’s races to their repertoire in recent years including Vuelta Andalucia, Tour de Suisse, and Tour de Romandie, along with Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Tour de France Femmes, and reportedly the soon-to- return women’s version of Milan-San Remo, to name a few.
The event represents a growing national road racing scene for women across Spain, too. In its absence last year, there were a total of 12 days of world-class racing to offer the professional peloton with a series of UCI 1.1- level races that culminated at the inaugural Vuelta a Burgos Women WorldTour stage race won by now-retired Anna van der Breggen (then SD Worx) just three seconds ahead of Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar).
Itzulia Women and the return of RideLondon Classique as a three-day race (May 27-29) add two more top-tier stage races, alongside Vuelta a Burgos, to the WorldTour calendar this month.
Many of the top teams are already in Spain, which has become a hotbed for pre-and post-Classics training camps and racing, preparing for Itzulia Women at Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia Ruta Del Sol won by Arlenis Sierra (Movistar), and a host of UCI 1.1 one-day races where Olivia Baril (Valvar-Travel & Service) won the Grand Prix Ciudad de Eibar, Sara Gigante (Movistar) won the Women’s Navarre and Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) won the Navarra Women’s Elite Classics.
They will likely remain in the area, too, after Itzulia Women to race Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria (May 17) and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (May 19-22). Not to mention the Ceratizit Challenge by la Vuelta held in September.
Races like Itzulia Women and Vuelta a Burgos lead the way in the sport’s growth in Spain so do teams like Movistar Team Women, a team that prides itself on developing the female cyclists and has become one of the top teams in the world in just five seasons .
The team current house Spanish riders Alicia Gonzalez, Sheyla Gutierrez, Sara Martin, Lourdes Oyarbide and Gloria Rodriguez, while also bringing in international talents Netherland’s Annemiek van Vleuten, Denmark’s Emma Norsgaard, Cuba’s Arlenis Sierra, and Australia’s Sarah Gigante.
The three-day race will travel through three territories of Euskadi – Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and will finish along the route of the Donostiako Klasikoa Women’s race –Clásica San Sebastián – features Jaizkibel pass and the Murgil ‘wall’. A total of 363.6km will be covered and include 13 classified mountain passes and six intermediate sprints, two in each stage.
Cyclingnews has published the full route details and route maps and profiles.
Lining up for the start in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Capital City of the Basque Country, will be 22 total teams. There are 12 WorldTour squads confirmed, only seeing the absence of Jumbo-Visma and Uno-X Women Pro Cycling.
Ten Continental teams will be on the start list including Spain-based squads Massi-Tactic, Eneicat-RBH Global, Bizkaia Durango, Labbora Kutxa Fundacion Euskadi and Sopela Women’s Team.
The mountainous route will cater to the strongest climbers, and while would-be faovurite Annemiek van Vleuten is currently recovering from a fractured wrist, Movistar will field Gigante, who recently took her first win for the Spanish team at Emakumeen Navarra, and her teammate Paula Patiño was third.
The terrain will be somewhat similar to that of the one-day events held earlier in the week, and so watch for a continuation strong performances from Ewers, who won Navarra Women’s Elite Classics, and BikeExchange duo Ane Santesteban and Kristen Faulkner, who stood on the podium.
Spanish Champion Mavi Garcia, racing for UAE Team ADQ, turned will be a rider to watch having recently finished second overall at the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta del Sol.
Certainly the top-tier teams will field their best rider for both climbing and breakaways. Trek-Segafredo with Lucinda Brand and Shirin van Anrooij will form a strong duo. BikeExchange will also field Amanda Spratt, who on good form, would be an out-right favorite.
SD Worx will line-up with a series of contenders in Ashleigh Moolman Passion, Demi Vollering, Niamh Fisher-Black, and Anna Shackley. Liane Lippert (Team DSM), finishing with two podiums; Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl, will be looking to transfer her form into the stage races. As will FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope’s sensation Marta Cavalli, who won Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne.
However, if the recent stage races and one-day races in Spain are any indication of potential success, watch for the smaller teams to take their opportunities – think about riders like Olivia Baril (Valcar-Travel & Service) who won in Eibar and Spain’s Mireia Benito (Massi-Tactic) forced the day’s break and finished fourth at Navarra.