Mikel Landa (fractured vertebra) and Tom Pidcock (summer on the MTB) reveal their path to Vuelta a España

Landa had made the Giro d’Italia a major goal back in May, but his race ended on day one, after he crashed into a ditch in Albania. The Spaniard fractured a vertebra in the fall and had to immediately rule out the Tour de France, but three months later, he’s now preparing for his return.

That return won’t come in ‘his’ Basque Country, where the Clásica San Sebastián (Saturday) and Circuito de Getxo (Sunday) are being held this weekend. Landa will skip both and instead resume racing on Tuesday at the Vuelta a Burgos. Louis Vervaeke, who missed the Tour after a crash in the Critérium du Dauphiné, will also make his comeback there.

“I’m a little bit nervous, as it’s been a long time since my last race,” said Landa ahead of Burgos. “I am happy to pin on a number again, but at the same time, I don’t know what to expect because it’s my first race in three months and the injury I had was a difficult one. It will be an important test to see if I can ease back to racing. The plan is to just take it day by day and enjoy the race without any expectations.”

Pidcock has spent the past few weeks competing in mountain bike events for Q36.5. The Brit won the World Cup race in Andorra and was crowned European Champion in Portugal, but now he’s shifting his focus back to the road. He’ll return to racing next week at the Arctic Race of Norway, an ASO-organized event held in the far north.

That was confirmed by Kurt Bogaerts in a chat with CyclingWeekly, where he also mentioned that Pidcock will ride the World Championships in Rwanda. “Tom has really worked himself back up again physically during the break after the Giro. We've certainly noticed that in a few checks that we’ve done where we've seen it in the numbers that he has produced too,” said the Belgian.