The Basque climber had already retired from the pink race in 2016 and 2021. But his career is dotted with a series of crazy injuries, so much so that his fans coined “Landism”
“The goal? To be still on the podium,” he had declared to the presentation of the teams in Albania. Instead, the Giro d’Italia 2025 ends up at the first stage for Mikel Landa, the man of the Soudal Quick-Step general. Less than 5 km from the finish, a fall throws it over the sidewalk to the side of the road, and the hopes of going up the saddle extinguish instantly. Faced with the images of the Basque climber taken away in a stretcher with a collar to immobilize it, you cannot help but think of every time the bad luck has spoiled her ambitions during the career, because there are very few of the tribulated runners like Mikel Landa. Today is already the third retreat from the pink race: on May 17, 2016 the then champion of Team Sky leaves the group due to a viral gastroenteritis, abandoning the tenth stage in the grip of severe abdominal pain. The Giro 2021 interrupts itself to the fifth fraction, when on 12 May the captain of the Bahrain Victorious is urgently transported to the hospital following a bad fall. Fracture of the clavicle. Out of 11 participations in Lombardy, Landa has retired 8 times. His last classic of the dead leaves dates back to 2023, when he finds himself on the asphalt at about sixty kilometers from the arrival, together with Michael Woods and Richard Carapaz. At the Zurich World Championships last year, it does not even have almost time to start: just under 220 kilometers from the arrival, falls and retires. A 2024 moreover already marked by the terrible accident and the fracture of the clavicle to the Giro of the Basque Country, exactly one day after the maxi fall that Ko puts, among others, Jonas Vingegaard, Primaz Roglic and Remco Evenepol.
philosophy of life
–
Bad luck is so part of the characterization of the character that his fans have coined a term, “landism”, to indicate that philosophy of life adopted by those who believe in despite everything, even when the chances of doing it are close to 0%. Landism is to hope that a fifth place at the Tour de France 2024 will be able to impulse to the 2025 season, especially in a Giro d’Italia in which the role of Gregario of Evenepoel should not be played, and then see all hope broken after just four hours of running.