Mikel Landa will return to the Giro d’Italia this season, and after that he will also start in the Tour de France.
In 2020 Tour the Spaniard of Bahrain Victorious rode to fourth place in the overall classification.
“I’ve had a good rest, I’m ready, and I want to start my year in the Vuelta a Andalucia,” Landa told reporters. “And after Catalonia or Tirreno-Adriatico, I will be in the Itzulia”.
“But my main goal will be the Grand Tours and certainly in the Giro I’d like to be competitive, fighting for the podium and perhaps the victory.”
“More than other favourites and who will be there or who won’t, I look at the route to decide my strategy. Obviously the more mountains and the less time trialling the better. I will try to make the most of the mountain stages.”
“In 2017 managing to take fourth place (at the Tour) wasn’t something I had expected, while this year I was trying to be there. In 2017, I came to the Tour after doing the Giro and this year was a very different kind of season with all the effects of the COVID pandemic.”
His teammate Pello Bilbao also announced that he would ride both grand tours. The Spaniard was fifth in the Giro in 2020.
“I want to start the season well and at the end of the season it might be better to stop a little earlier and leave some room to recover, because this season actually follows the previous one immediately.”
Both Landa and Bilbao also want to make an appearance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo after the Tour de France.
