Only nine Spanish cyclists, the fewest since 1972, and no great hopes in the Tour de France

The eight Movistar riders, at the presentation of the Tour at Tivoli in Copenhagen.THOMAS SAMSON (AFP)

In Copenhagen, 21 degrees and a sun that takes centuries to set, there is talk of the Tour de France and covid, and little is said about the Spanish.

The Tour is talked about because the great cycling race starts with a 13-kilometre time trial from the Danish capital, almost from the Little Mermaid and other stories by Andersen.

There is talk of covid, and of morality, hypocrisy and other values, because the International Cycling Union (UCI) in mediation with the organization, has decided that more antigen tests than ever are mandatory for cyclists and team personnel, and , at the same time, rob their result of any value: in the light of the two lines of a positive, the teams will be able to decide if their runner keeps running or not, with no more burden than the balance between their morale and their objectives, and the health status, the strength of the runner's symptoms.

The doubt, thus, prevails: if positive, would Pogacar, to speak of the great favorite, do what Berrettini did, the Italian who withdrew from Wimbledon despite the fact that he had no obligation to do so, alleging his responsibility before his colleagues?

Little or nothing is said about the Spanish, about the cyclists, because they are few and, except for Enric Mas, loaded with not very great personal aspirations.

There will only be nine on the starting line of the Tour, the least amount in the last 50 years, since 1972 in which only two teammates from Bic, Ocaña and Aranzabal, participated.

The usual Kas de Langarica, Perurena, José Manuel Fuente and López Carril did not ride that Tour as he had already competed in the Vuelta, with victory for Tarangu, and the Giro in which the Asturian climber made Merckx suffer.

Mas, Erviti, Gorka Izagirre, Verona and Torres, in Movistar, plus Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Marc Soler (UAE), Luisle (Bahrain) and Castroviejo (Ineos) represent 5% of the 176 participants, less than the third part of the value of two decades ago, when the 43 Spaniards of 2003, the Tour del Centenario,

or the 41 of 2007, the first Contador Tour, represented 22% of the peloton.

Spain was the country with the most cyclists both years, even more than France, while in 2022 it is the sixth, tied with Germany and Australia, and after France, Belgium, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Last week the great revolution of Spanish cycling took place in Mallorca, a long-awaited generational change, whose echoes have not yet reached Denmark nor will they reach Paris, where the Tour ends on July 24.

Neither Raúl García Pierna nor Carlos Rodríguez, who were proclaimed champions of Spain in, respectively, time trial and road race, will still make their Tour debut.

The Madrid native from Tres Cantos and the Granada native from Almuñécar are cyclists from the generation of hope, the Z generation, born in the century, both in February 2001, when Alejandro Valverde, who still works, was already pedaling like a champion.

Like theirs, the fans are waiting breathlessly for the great confirmation of Juan Ayuso and Igor Arrieta, born at the end of 2002, the other two members of the group of so-called golden juniors in Spanish cycling.

The four became professionals without going through the amateur category, from high school to the labor market without going through university, following the trend that Remco Evenepoel and other young people who fell in love followed in the rest of Europe.

Raúl García and Carlos Rodríguez will ride the Vuelta, their first big one, and until they get to the Tour it's about counting down the days and trying to enjoy what's there.

Ion Izagirre will run as a free man in Guillaume Martin's Cofidis.

Two victories of the 33-year-old Gipuzkoan, one stage, that of the Joux Plane, in the 2016 Tour and that of Formigal in the 2020 Vuelta, symbolize in a certain way the decline of Spanish cycling two decades after the five Tours of Indurain and 10 years have passed since the chained final victories of Pereiro, Contador, on two occasions, and Sastre.

That of the Joux Plane, the year after Valverde's podium in the Tour, can be understood as the epilogue of the last great Spanish era in the great

;

the one he got in the 2020 Vuelta, as a goodbye to all this.

After that victory in Formigal, 96 more stages have been disputed between Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

In none more was there a Spanish victory.

Marc Soler, 28, the great hope of doing nothing, the new Indurain, proclaimed himself, will run the Tour in the role of Pogacar's luxury domestique, and he is happier than if he had to carry the weight of an entire cycling ;

Luis León, 38, will continue as a great rider at the service of the Bahrain bosses, and Castroviejo, 35, remains untouched as Ineos road captain.

Younger, Mas, 27, the leader of Movistar, finished fifth and sixth in his two previous Tours and in this one he aspires to at least finish in the top five

, if not on the podium, and not far from the big favorites, Pogacar, Roglic and Vingegaard.

In his team, completed by the Portuguese Oliveira, the American Jorgenson and the Austrian Mühlberger, Erviti, Torres and Izagirre will be his devoted gregarious, while Verona, in moral and courageous rise after his victory in a stage of the Dauphiné, will fight to win some day of great escape.

Neither Iván García Cortina nor Alex Aranburu, his youngsters with a winning spirit, signed to win races and grow in the shade of the great Valverde tree, which dries up the roots around it, will ride the Tour.

It is all that the best Spanish team can propose, which seeks to survive in an ecosystem contrary to its style.

Both Eusebio Unzue, his boss, and Telefónica, his financier, believe that only the very big races, the Tour, the Vuelta, some monument,

They attract the attention of those who are not very fond of cycling, and their programming and signings try to go in that direction, while cycling in the rest of the world is struggling in a fight to get points in tests of all kinds around the world to stay in the WorldTour, the Cycling Champions, the league that gives access to all the great races.

And Unzue confesses: “The system would have to be changed.

We have to race to put on a show, not to score points”.

“The system should be changed.

We have to race to put on a show, not to score points”.

“The system should be changed.

We have to race to put on a show, not to score points”.

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