Favorites stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country 2025 | With the absence of riders like Ganna and Evenepoel, opportunities open up for a French rider

We love a good time trial on day one! The course is 16.5 kilometers from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Baskonia Alavés. It is a time trial with one third-category climb, although, at 900 meters at 2.4 percent, it hardly qualifies as such. A nice little loop has been laid out, so there are no long, straight roads back to the starting point. However, it is not very technical, with only a few right-angled turns. Great for the specialists!

The official channels refer to 'steep climbs' in part one of the time trial, but we do not find these in the profile maps. 'From Libiano, it is a fast course, which made it favorable for the specialists.' The start and finish locations are close, making the start and finish a bit more technical.

times
Start: 08:15 AM EDT
Finish: 11:40 AM EDT

The weather will be fantastic on the first day in the Basque Country. The temperature will rise to a maximum of 20 degrees in the afternoon, and there will be hardly any wind, which is always good news for sensitive time trial bikes.

Looking for time trial specialists, Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna, and Joshua Tarling are not on the start list. But there are some solid, fast riders in the race. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in particular, hopes for a strong start, with Brandon McNulty, João Almeida, and Isaac Del Toro as very good time trialists.

The other GC contenders will have to focus on limiting the damage. However, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Finn Fisher-Black, Daniel Felipe Martínez and Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Soudal-Quick Step duo Maximilian Schachmann and Ilan Van Wilder are in good form and may even be able to compete for the win.

Because there are not many other real specialists except for Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, we are also curious about Visma | Lease a Bike, which always performs well in time trials, with Victor Campenaerts and Wilco Kelderman as long-time specialists. Finally, we mention Ethan Hayter of Quick Step, who in his best days belonged to the absolute world top in this discipline.  

Top favorites: Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Ethan Hayter (Soudal-Quick Step)
Outsiders: João Almeida and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-Quick Step) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Aleksandr Vlasov and Daniel Felipe Martínez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Victor Campenaerts and Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike)

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])