Bahrain Victorious and Mikel Landa’s Tour de France dream: 2023 Team Preview

Spain’s Grand Tour hopes increasingly seem to focus on the nation’s younger generation of racers like Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) or Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). But for veteran Mikel Landa and Bahrain Victorious, as his long-sought podium place in the Giro d’Italia proved last May, it’s never too late to keep rolling the dice.

Landa’s third place in the Giro d’Italia, taken after seven years of trying to return to the podium of a Grand Tour, was a reward for his tenacity in the face of relentless bad luck, crashes and illnesses. 

That result mattered to Landa enormously. But next July, as he leads Bahrain Victorious in the Tour de France for his first participation in three years in cycling’s blue riband event, Landa says he views the once-in-a-lifetime chance to be present for a Grand Départ on home soil in his native Basque Country as a reason to celebrate no matter the outcome.

“Riding on the roads I know so well is a chance that I just couldn’t miss,” he told reporters. “Although the 2023 route does suit me as well, with not so much time trialling and lots of mountain stages.”

At 33, Landa’s goals of finishing “close to the podium” in the Tour sound realistic rather than unambitious. But as well as captivating fans far beyond the Basque Country for years, his unpredictable flashes of brilliance have both seen him take two fourth places already at the Tour and pull off plenty of other surprise successes. Who would have thought, for example, that Landa could secure a podium finish in Il Lombardia last October when the start-list featured such a massive number of Classics stars? 

Furthermore, Bahrain Victorious’ Tour GC options will be considerably strengthened next year by the presence of Landa’s Basque teammate Pello Bilbao. The man from Gernika has never finished in the top three of a Grand Tour, but his reliable performances overall could provide an interesting foil to Landa in a Tour where the home soil start in Bilbao means both will be hugely motivated to perform well.

While Landa’s wildly varying series of stage racing results makes each of his Grand Tour participations feel like a voyage in the dark, as a team Bahrain Victorious will have another key date in their 2023 calendar in the most unpredictable Classic of them all: Milan-San Remo, where Matej Mohoric made a daring Poggio descent to win last year’s race.

Much of the talk in the build-up to La Primavera will doubtless centre on dropper posts and their roles in downhill attacks. But that technical innovation will no longer be a surprise element in March, and Mohoric himself has said that he thinks what is already one of the hardest races to read in advance will be “tricky”  next year.

“I doubt the race is going to finish the same way it did last year - surely the others will try to attack before the Poggio and make a difference on the climb, but I'll still try to do my best, get to the top with as little gap as possible and come back on the descent,” he told reporters earlier this month.

"Even if comes down to the last kilometres, I still think I have a chance to attack and anticipate the sprint, or possibly do the sprint. I'll decide in the heat of the moment. It's an intense final - one of the best in cycling."

As one of cycling's most versatile racers, Mohoric is then set to be one of the rare individuals to try to make his mark on all the Spring Classics, with a fifth place in Paris-Roubaix in 2022 and a fourth place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2020 ample justification for such a broad program.

But if Mohoric will then likely go onto the Tour to try to repeat his brace of  breakaway stage wins from 2021, the alterations in the battle plans for Bahrain Victorious in the summer go far beyond the return of Bilbao and Landa to the Tour.

For one thing, one notable absentee from the Tour de France line-up for Bahrain Victorious will be Luis León Sánchez. One of the most experienced Spanish racers with several Tour stage wins to his name and whose presence with Fred Wright in the breaks last summer kept the team’s flag flying in the teeth of an extremely difficult Grand Tour, Sánchez has quit Bahrain to return to Astana Qazaqstan for 2023. How greatly his absence will be missed will depend largely on how well Landa, Mohoric and Bilbao fare in the Tour, of course, but as a support rider, too, as well as in the breakaways, the gap left by Sánchez may well be noted.

The knock-on effect of Bahrain Victorious switch of strategy for the Tour will be most notable in the Giro d’Italia. Bereft of their usual Italian GC contenders Bilbao and Landa, Jack Haig is expected to step up to the plate, while 2021 podium finisher Damiano Caruso also makes his return to the event where the Italian veteran took the most impressive success of his career. Caruso’s Tour, like Haig’s, was wrecked by circumstances beyond his control, in this case COVID-19 in the third week, so they both have points to prove come next May.

Another intriguing addition to the Bahrain Giro d’Italia line-up will be Gino Mäder, following a year of hitting the goal-posts for the Swiss prodigy. He was on the attack constantly in the last nine days of the Vuelta a España but his four breaks reaped painfully scant reward. After his dramatic stage in the Giro in 2021 in the first week ahead of the main GC favourites, Mäder will doubtless be motivated for more.

The loss of newly retired Sonny Colbrelli for the cobbled Classics and the departed Dylan Teuns for the Ardennes will raise expectations on Mohoric to perform across the board and not just in Milano-Sanremo.

However, Bahrain Victorious do have a former Liège winner, Wout Poels, in their ranks, while Colombian climber Santiago Buitrago is yet another young Bahrain Victorious racer to watch. And given Fred Wright could well up his game in Flanders as well, Mohoric will certainly not be alone on the cobbles in the North this year.

However, the Tour de France tends to eclipse almost every other race, and after their dismal 2022 race, the spotlight will burn even more brightly on Landa and Bilbo this summer.

Other storylines to follow in 2023

• Jack Haig in the Giro d’Italia. Missing in race action since he crashed out of this summer’s Tour de France in the first week, his November announcement that he’d be heading towards the Giro d’Italia in 2023 made perfect sense.
  After all, another bad crash early in the 2021 Tour had already put paid to his chances there as well, though the Australian revived his season in the Vuelta with a podium finish. 2022 looked hugely promising after fifth place overall at the Criterium du Dauphine, but it all went awry again in July. The Giro, as he told reporters in November, could be more suited to his skill set, and he has already been checking out the climbs with that in mind.
• The Rise of Fred Wright. After shining at the Tour of Flanders and constantly lighting up the breaks in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España this season, the 23-year-old has clearly yet to reach his ceiling. Bahrain Victorious have extended his contract to 2025 and a seventh place in Flanders as well as those multiple Grand Tour stage bids suggest there is much more to come.
• The sprint tandem of Nikiaus Arndt and Phil Bauhaus. One of the less noticed developments in the 2023 contract market is that Bahrain Victorious inhouse sprinter has been joined by another German fastman, Nikiaus Arndt, as well as speedy Italian Andrea Pascualon.
  “I think they've really strengthened the support for Phil Bahaus, and his lead-out train. He's someone that has always not quite had the guys to deliver him in that way," Fred Wright told Cyclingnews.
  "I think he really can compete with some of the best sprinters, so I think that's quite exciting. Arndt is coming in and he's basically Phil's best mate. I think that's perfect. Also, guys like him and Pasqualon are great Classics riders, so we've really bolstered the Classics team.” To what effect, we’ll find out in 2023.