Gotzon Martín (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the Clásica Provincia de Chiriquí in Panama on October 18, and with it his team moved provisionally to 28th in the UCI team ranking, inside the top 30 that a ProTeam must reach to be considered for a Grand Tour wildcard in 2027.
Martín won the opening stage of the two-day UCI 2.2 race in Central America before finishing second the next day. Roberto González (Solution Tech-NIPPO Rali) won the sprint from a six-rider breakaway, with Martín given the same time. Martín finished the race 21 seconds ahead of González and 33 seconds ahead of Bolívar Espinosa, riding for Senafront Panamá. Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was seventh overall.
"Gotzon covered our backs very well in the breakaway. He arrived in a position to win the stage, but his chain came off," sporting director Jorge Azanza said after the stage.
Euskaltel also took the points classification through Martín, the under-23 classification through Hodei Muñoz and the team classification. Just two days earlier the Basque team were at another race in the region, the UCI 1.2 one-day race of the Gran Prix Chiriquí, which they also won through Xabier Berasategi, his first professional victory, with Isasa second. Those results added 93 points.
"Securing a place in the top 30 confirms the great effort of the entire squad throughout the year, especially in this final stretch of the season, when a very significant sacrifice has been made. It is a reward earned by everyone," Azanza said.
The ranking is not yet final. On October 19, Euskaltel had 2,912.26 points, ahead of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort on 2,879 and Team Picnic PostNL on 2,822. Bardiani CSF 7 Saber sat 31st on 2,694.15.
Picnic-PostNL’s points don’t matter hugely in this situation as they are WorldTour and, despite all the speculation, confirm they will remain a WorldTeam for 2027 so automatically will be racing all three Grand Tours.
Algeria to Panama
The Basque team have been travelling all over the world to races they wouldn’t normally be present at as they raced, quite literally, to get points in time for the end of the season. As well as Panama, the team saw some excellent results in Algeria at the Grand Prix El Djazaïr, held October 5–7. Danny van der Tuuk won the opening stage, Iker Mintegi took the overall for his first professional victory and Paul Hennequin won the final stage in a bunch sprint.
A couple of days later, Van der Tuuk was runner-up at the Classique La Capitale, where Euskaltel placed four riders in the top 10, and also finished third at the Classique Djamaa El Kbir, which rounded out a very successful Algerian block for the team. The three races brought 240 points, but left the team only 30th, 1.3 points ahead of MBH.
Algeria and Panama capped a season that also took the team to China, Turkey, Taiwan and Hong Kong in search of points. Axel van der Tuuk, Danny’s brother, told Nieuwsblad before the Panama trip: "The stress is really on. I check the standings roughly every day. After every race I check what the competition has done."
From 2026, UCI rules limit eligibility for a Grand Tour organiser's discretionary invitation to teams ranked among the 30 highest in the previous season's UCI World ranking by teams. A top-30 finish makes Euskaltel eligible for the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta a España, but it does not oblige any organiser to pick the team. Each race has 18 WorldTeams, three ProTeams with automatic invitations and two discretionary wildcards, with an extra place opening only if an automatic invitee declines, as Cofidis did when RCS Sport selected three wildcards for this year's Giro.
MBH and Bardiani have their sights on the Giro. Euskaltel is aiming at the Vuelta, where Mikel Landa would lead the team in 2027, the first season of his two-year deal and his return after 13 seasons away. Management had set the top-30 objective from the start of the season.
"We want to go to the Vuelta next year," Axel van der Tuuk told Nieuwsblad. "With Mikel Landa as the team's new leader. It would be so wonderful if I could line up there together with him."
