Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar are set to face off for the first time in a stage race since the 2020 Tour de France at the Itzulia Basque Country, which start on Monday.
You can watch all stages of Itzulia Basque Country on our site HERE
Pogacar ousted Roglic from the yellow jersey lead on the last day of competitive racing to take the overall lead and win the Tour de France in an impressive and unexpected manner.
Roglic then bounced back with a win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège ahead of Pogacar a few weeks later in the one-day race.
This season, Pogacar won back-to-back WorldTour races at the UAE Tour and the Tirreno-Adriatico, while Roglic was close to winning the Paris-Nice, but crashed twice on the final stage which dropped him down the general classification.
However, there are other contenders aside from the Slovenians – including Ineos duo Richard Carapaz-Adam Yates, Alejandro Valverde, Mikel Landa or Hugh Carthy.
Paris-Nice winner, Max Schachmann of Bora-hansgrohe, won three stages in the 2019 edition of the Tour of the Basque Country and will fancy his chances of a strong campaign again.
Today is the first stage of six – a 13.9-kilometre time trial in Bilbao. The Tour is scheduled to finish on April 10 with a 111.9km mountain stage, ending in Arrate in Eibar.
