Whenever the names of cycling's top stage racing specialists Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard are missing from a start list, the ensuing power vacuum makes for a much more aggressive GC battle, says 2024 Volta a Catalunya runner-up Mikel Landa.
Neither defending champion Pogačar, focussing on the Spring Classics in Belgium, nor Vingegaard, who cancelled his promised participation after injuring his hand in a crash in Paris-Nice, will be present in the 2025 Volta a Catalunya when it gets underway this Monday in San Feliu de Guixols.
For Landa, second in the 2024 Volta, fifth in 2023 and who has taken part in countless races with both the Dane and the Slovenian, "There's a different kind of mentality without them there."
"When they [Vingegaard and Pogačar] take part, people simply settle for second or are waiting for them to break a race open and start attacking," the Soudal-Quick Step rider told Cyclingnews during the Volta countdown.
"So that really affects the way the race develops. The Volta'll be a much more open race without them this year, probably there'll be a good fight between [Primoz] Roglič and [Juan] Ayuso."
"Those two should dominate but the rest of us could be close behind. Even though there are so many mountain stages, the Volta is a race that often ends up being decided by just a few seconds and this year could well not be any different."
Landa, who first rode the Volta when in his first WorldTour team, Euskaltel-Euskadi, back in 2013, says the toughness of the Volta is its defining characteristic.
"In fact I'd say it's one of the stage races that's changed the least since I started racing. When I started as a pro, it was always very hard, and very fast, and it still is."
"There are virtually no sprinters taking part, so even on the flatter stages, riders can try to break away. The seven days are always very hard, even the easier stages normally have 2,000 or 3,000 vertical metres of climbing. So it makes for a very intense week."
Having just taken eleventh in Strade Bianche and seventh in Tirreno-Adriatico, Landa himself is in encouragingly strong form and is optimistic about getting a top result, even if he knows the Volta offers much tougher challenges than any race so far this year.
Furthermore, as one of the many top riders set to race both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France this season, Landa also values the Volta as a reference point for how he'll be performing on the big climbs in May.
"Last year worked out very well, this year I'm in good shape too, so I'll see if I can be close to the best."
"Whatever happens, though, in weeklong stage races it's very hard to find stages with so many mountains as you get in Catalunya, with vertical climbing of four to five thousand metres some days. That's very similar to the last week of the Giro, so it's also very useful for later."
When it comes to climbing challenges, stage 6 features a formidable series of high mountains in central Catalunya, ending with the category 1 ascent to Queralt, making it the toughest day in the race, just as it was in 2024.
"It'll be a stage for the bravest of riders," Landa says, "I remember last year how nothing much happened on the toughest climb [the Hors Categorie Col de Pradell - Ed.] that day but then in the two climbs that followed, Pogačar blew the race apart."
"The summit finish stage to Monserrat [stage 4] will already have created GC differences as well, but even the last stage through Montjuic Park in Barcelona can decide the overall."
"There's a first high mountain stage to La Molina [stage 3]. But I remember in 2022 how Sergio Higuita and Richard Carapaz weren't the strongest on that climb, but they then managed to turn things around completely in a hilly stage just before the last day."
"For me, this race is never over until you reach the final finish line."
What also adds to the Volta's intensity, Landa points out, is that for some top riders, Catalunya is their last race prior to the Giro d'Italia, so that provides an extra degree of motivation to leave no stone unturned.
"For me personally, there's still too far to go to the Giro start to test myself fully, it's not like the time gap between the Dauphiné or Suisse, say, compared to the Tour de France."
"But for riders like Roglič and Ayuso, it's their last race until Italy. So in the Volta, they're going to want to put it all out there."
The Volta a Catalunya begins on Monday, with the opening stage starting and finishing in the coastal town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols. The race ends next Sunday in Barcelona.
