Euskaltel-Euskadi went on an international UCI point hunt at the end of the season to secure eligibility for a wildcard for the 2027 Vuelta a España. Star signing Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) is returning to the squad for the new season, with the team’s late push in Algeria and Panama pushing them up the rankings.
The team eventually finished 28th in the 2026 UCI team rankings. Teams must be inside the top 30 to qualify for wildcard invites to Grand Tours. Just because they have managed the top 30 does not confirm their place in the race, though. Each Grand Tour has 18 WorldTeams, three automatically invited ProTeams and two wildcards.
"The truth is that without signing Mikel, I don't think we would have mounted this operation," team sports director Pablo Urtasun told AS. "For a modest team the budget is limited, but Mikel brings you visibility and big results, which can change many things."
The top 30 had not been the team’s target at the start of the season after missing out the year before, and reaching it was not an easy task. Urtasun said that the team was in the top 30 until May before dropping to around 34th place. When it was announced that Landa had signed a two-year deal with the team on August 1st the motivation in the team was reignited despite the almost 500-point gap between them and the top 30.
The directors of the team decided that new races must be added to the calendar. They were already racing a lot in Asia, with the Hong Kong Cyclothon originally down as their final race. The team then added multiple races in Algeria and Panama. Flights were changed and riders in Hong Kong went straight to Central America instead.
"The reality is that we did everything at the last minute," Urtasun said. "We got the visas for Algeria on the very day we flew. In record time. Our main rival, Bardiani, did not imagine anything like that."
Landa flew to Panama to support the team at its final race. "For him, we would have gone to race even in Antarctica if necessary to collect the points," Urtasun said.
Photo: Toni Baixauli / CxclingWhat a Vuelta programme needs
The 2027 roster is reported to have 22 riders. Urtasun said it was effectively closed, but a sponsor offering more budget over the winter would change that. "Having two or four more riders always brings you a lot," he said. "Also, with Mikel we can be at races such as Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tirreno-Adriatico, for example. Hopefully," he added.
"Ultimately, it is not that you race a bigger calendar, but one at a higher level, and therefore you need more riders, more staff, more structure. Everything grows," he said.
When Fundación Euskadi announced the signing, it named Euskaltel, Kutxabank and Basque Country as the project's backers. It linked Landa's arrival to UCI points, invitations to bigger races and the development of young riders.
Urtasun said Euskaltel would prepare specifically for the Vuelta if it receives an invitation. Landa won stage 20 of this year's race from the breakaway, his first Grand Tour stage win in nine years. "Achieving a victory at La Vuelta, like the one he took this year on the queen stage, could mark a before and after for us," Urtasun said.
Stage wins may suit Landa's own priorities now. In March, before that win, he told MARCA: "It is getting harder, so I prefer to be a little more involved in the fight for a stage and, even so, also be in the general classification, but perhaps without that obsession with being on the podium."
At the 2027 Tour de France presentation on October 22, Landa also said he would like to return to that race with Euskaltel but the Spanish team taking on the likes of Unibet Rose Rockets would be a stretch and it would likely be the Tour or La Vuelta, not both.
