Soudal-QuickStep’s misfortunes at this year’s Itzulia Basque Country showed no sign of letting up on Friday, as less than 24 hours after Remco Evenepoel’s untimely exit Mikel Landa became their second GC leader to crash out of the race.
Both Landa and first-year Belgian teammate Gil Gelders were unlucky enough to crash at the foot of the Urkiola climb, with some 95 kilometres left to race. For Landa, he suffered a broken collarbone.
The two riders, along with Movistar’s Gonzalo Serrano and Sánchez Pelayo, were all DNFs for stage 5. Landa was transported away by ambulance in a neck brace for further checkups.
“Mikel, runner-up at the Volta a Catalunya last month, was taken to the local hospital where X-rays revealed that he has suffered a fracture to his clavicle. He will now undergo further investigation to determine the best path for his recovery,” a team statement said.
Gelders was “given medical attention on the spot and was treated for abrasions”.
The latest crash to blight this year’s centenary edition of Itzulia Basque Country comes a scant one day after Evenepoel was one of 11 abandons following a mass crash that devastated the race.
The litany of GC abandons in this year’s Itzulia began even before the race started, with the exit of Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) after a training recon crash. Then David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) was not able to start stage 3 after he took a fall 4km from the finish and injured his right hand. That was followed by injuries to race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on stage 4.
Evenepoel suffered a broken collarbone and shoulder blade and will now miss the Ardennes Classics, although his Tour de France debut, where Landa is expected to play a key mountain domestique’s role, does not remain in doubt.
Placed 27th overall when he crashed out, Landa has had a stunning start to the season, finishing second overall in the Volta a Catalunya. That was his best GC result since he took second overall in Itzulia last year behind Vingegaard, followed by a third in the Flèche Wallonne, another race he now seems certain to miss.
Third in the 2022 Giro d’Italia, Landa has had a number of major crashes in his career, with the previous one a serious fall in stage 5 of the 2021 Giro that also left him with a broken collarbone and out of the race.
Landa has also turned in some major performances in the Itzulia, including two runner-up spots, in 2018 and 2023, and also two stage wins in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile, Soudal-QuickStep battle on at the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country with just four riders remaining: James Knox, William Lecerf, Pieter Serry and Louis Vervaeke. The race concludes Saturday with stage 6’s finale at Eibar.
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