Spanish riders also do not achieve Tour success in their own country

He has just crossed the Jaizkibel, the famous Basque hill, and the road winds down towards San Sebastian. Pello Bilbao sees that Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are within reach. Now he can do what he dreams of since the presentation of the Tour de France route in December. De Bask was on stage with tears in his eyes on Thursday at the team presentation for his own audience in Bilbao. He wants nothing more than to win in his native region.

On Saturday a flat tire played tricks on him. With the anger over that missed opportunity in his body, Bilbao gets to the front with 9 kilometers from the line and goes straight over them. But behind it, the Jumbo-Visma team pushes ahead of their sprinter Wout van Aert and the gap is slowly closing. Bilbao is caught up and will finish fifth.

At the team bus, crowds of fans receive him with thunderous applause. He pulls his mouth into a grimace and tilts his head, as if to say: there was no more to it.

Two faces

It was an opening weekend with two faces for the Spaniards. It was a disappointment in terms of sport, because the Basque classification man Mikel Landa, Bilbao’s teammate, also did not come close to a stage victory. And the Spanish leader Enric Mas of Movistar was unable to continue after a fall in stage 1.

It didn’t stop the home crowd from building a big party along the side. won for the third year in a row Le Grand Depart great looking. After cycling-crazy Brittany and the massive cycling love in Denmark, the start in the Spanish Basque Country was also a great success.

No one had doubted beforehand that it would be a cycling fest; the reputation of the Basque cycling fans is widespread. Every year thousands of supporters line up at the Tour of the Basque Country and the Clásica San Sebastian, and in the Tour they show up as soon as a mountain in the Pyrenees is climbed.

The Basques did not disappoint either. On Saturday, the parking lot at the top of the Côte de Pike, the last nasty climb of the first stage, was already full before nine in the morning. Halfway through the climb, dozens of supporters were seated, although the first riders would not pass for about eight hours. Once the time had come, there was not a bit of asphalt left on the helicopter images. Yet no accidents happened: at the very last moment, the crowd split before the riders like the Red Sea before Moses.

Once finished in Bilbao, the peloton was met by a crowd. While slaloming, riders tried to reach their team bus. There was absolutely no question of enforcing the corona measures that the Tour organization had set – wearing face masks, keeping your distance: even stage winner Adam Yates did not participate when his girlfriend tried to hug him afterwards with a face mask. The Brit pulled down the cap and pressed his lips against hers.

Long tradition and strong culture

Ask the Basques why cycling is so important to them, and you won’t get a clear answer. They just don’t know any better. “Cycling is important to us, we have a long tradition and strong culture in it,” said Santi Osoro, president of the cycling federation of the province of Gipuzkoa in the northeast of the Basque Country. It’s something you grow up with, says Abraham Olano, the Basque who became world road champion in 1995 and three years later, in Valkenburg, the world’s best time trialist. “When I was with friends, we always went cycling.” Omar Fraile, the Basque employed by Ineos Grenadiers, has to laugh at the question: “Everyone just likes cycling here.”

The fact is that Bilbao became a center of iron and steel production in the nineteenth century, thanks to the discovery of large quantities of iron ore. The arms manufacturers that subsequently sprung up in the city also turned out to be able to make excellent bicycle frames. They still exist: well-known bicycle brands such as Orbea and BH used to manufacture weapons. Moreover, the bicycle turned out to be an affordable means of transport for the workers in the industrial city.

Combined with the geography of the region, where the land is never flat and the roads never straight, it has proved to be fertile ground for many great pro cyclists, such as five-time Tour winner Miguel Indurain, world champions Abraham Olano and Igor Astarloa and sixteen-time Tour participant Haimar Zubeldia. Seven Basques are also participating in this Tour, half of the total number of Spanish participants.

Little success

However, it has been a while since a (Basque) Spaniard competed at the highest level. The last Grand Tour winner was Alberto Contador, who was the best in the Giro in 2015. Since 2018, when Fraile won the fourteenth stage, no Spaniard has achieved a stage victory in the Tour. In the ranking of number of victories of riders per country per year, Spain has not been in the top 5 since 2016.

“At the moment we don’t have riders of the highest level,” says president José Luis López Cerrón of the Spanish cycling federation. “About ten to fifteen years ago we had a unique generation with Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim Rodriguez and Oscar Freire, which made us the best cycling country in the world for five years in a row. Spain, or any country for that matter, may never again produce such an exceptional generation.”

Luis López Cerrón sees that competition has increased globally and cites Slovenia as an example. “That country does not have a cycling tradition like Spain or the Netherlands, but at the moment it does have two of the best riders in the world.” According to the chairman, Spanish cycling is in good shape. “Never before have so many people cycled in their spare time, we have a good competition calendar, an interesting number of teams and the association is financially healthy. With young riders like Carlos Rodriguez and Juan Ayuso, a good group is coming up again.”

To assure

At the wooden board table in the catacombs of the Antonio Elorza Velodrome in San Sebastian, former champion Olano and chairman Osoro say they are concerned. “We see the number of cyclists decreasing, which puts pressure on the sport,” says Osoro.

The consequences are visible in youth. Where Olano used to race with boys who were the same age as him, the age categories now consist of two years – otherwise there are too few participants. There are fewer associations where children can start cycling, says chairman Osoro. And fewer associations lead to fewer competitions and fewer new members. “It’s a downward spiral.”

Cycling has competition from other sports, including in the Basque Country. “Football is still more popular,” says Omar Fraile. In addition, the increased traffic volume is problematic, says Osoro. “I can well imagine that as a parent you no longer just send your child on the road.” And at the professional level, competition from abroad has indeed increased, Olano agrees. In addition, the opportunities to become a professional in Spain have declined, he says. “We used to have eight or nine professional teams, now only five. With only one, Movistar, at the highest level.”

According to Olano, the introduction of the ProTour in 2004, an international competition of races at the highest level, is to blame for this. “Before that, Spanish riders rode in their own country all year round, maybe sometimes in Portugal. from then on they had to go abroad to compete at the highest level.” The costs involved in this made many sponsors drop out. In addition, interest in local races declined: if they were not part of the ProTour, they were no longer shown on TV. The fact that the ProTour has now been replaced by the WorldTour does not change that. The calendar remains international.

Cycling at school

There are initiatives to reverse the trend. Since last year it has been possible to choose cycling, just like football, as a sport at school, says Osoro. “And local governments are increasingly trying to make roads more bicycle-friendly and safer.”

Moreover, the concerns in the Basque Country are not yet very acute, says Olano, pointing to a paper competition calendar from the federation. In the Basque Country, 82 races are still organized every year. “Some riders ride on Saturday morning and afternoon, and again on Sunday.”

But it’s good that an event like the Tour comes along, says Osoro. “The Tour is bigger than cycling, so people outside the sport also come into contact with it. I hope it encourages children to sit on a bike.”

It would have been great if a Spaniard had won a stage, but the man who was very close to it. Pello Bilbao, is panting at the team bus afterwards. “Unfortunately I couldn’t bring home the victory.”