Uijtdebroeks surprises with Grand Tour choice as Enric Mas targets Giro d’Italia debut

Earlier this month Uijtdebroeks looked ahead to the new season in an interview with Marca, explaining that the plan was initially built around Italy or Spain. 

“We have already talked about it a lot,” he said about his race programme for 2026, in the year he switches from Visma | Lease a Bike to Movistar. “I will ride the Ardennes Classics. After that we will choose between the Giro and the Vuelta. The La Vuelta route is very hard and I like it a lot, but the Giro also attracts me, it is the first Grand Tour of the year and starting early motivates me.” 

In that conversation the Tour de France was not mentioned as part of his immediate plans.

That picture changed on Thursday during Movistar’s team presentation, where Uijtdebroeks took to the stage and left no room for doubt. “I will make my Tour de France debut next year. It will be my first time and I really want to get the maximum out of it,” he said, setting out an ambitious target for his first season in service of the Spanish team.

The Tour will not be his only major goal. Uijtdebroeks has highlighted several week long stage races and one day tests as key markers on the road to July. “The Tour of the Basque Country is a very important race, I really want to perform at the highest level there, just like in the Ardennes Classics,” he explained. 

Movistar’s broader plans for 2026 also feature a significant shift for Enric Mas, whose programme will look very different from previous seasons. The Mallorcan will make his Giro d’Italia debut after a long recovery from the thrombophlebitis that sidelined him last summer. 

At the team presentation in Valencia he chose his words carefully, aware of how much depends on his knee holding up. “Recovered and very motivated,” he said, keeping expectations in check while acknowledging how difficult it was to watch La Vuelta from home. “These are things that happen in sport and in life. You have to accept it.”

Mas has only recently resumed training, easing back into group rides as he rebuilds the rhythm lost over the past months. His season is expected to begin at the Challenge Mallorca before he moves through a series of training camps and key races on the way to Italy. 

If all goes to plan, he will tackle the Giro for the first time, use July as a rare chance to reset instead of facing the usual Tour de France pressure, and then line up again at his beloved Vuelta a España.