Mikel Landa

Mikel Landa Meana (born 13 December 1989) is a Spanish professional road cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam.

Like many Basque cyclists he began his career at the development team, in 2009, before graduating to the professional team in 2011.

After missing several early season races through illness, Landa made his first appearance for at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, finishing 11th overall.

Landa then rode his home race, the Tour of the Basque Country, where he won the second stage to take the race lead.

Landa led at the Giro del Trentino in his last warm up race before the Giro d'Italia.

He won Stage 2 to take the race lead, and successfully defended it on the following two stages despite attacks from Astana duo Tanel Kangert and Jakob Fuglsang to take overall victory by a single second over Kangert.

Landa abandoned the Giro d'Italia part-way through Stage 10 after being hampered by illness overnight and being diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis.

This came just a day after he had impressed in the Stage 9 individual time trial, after which he was sitting in 8th place overall.

Landa was named in the start list for the Tour de France.

He helped Chris Froome win the race for a third time by acting as a mountain domestique.

After three years with the squad, Landa left the team at the end of the 2013 season – due to its disestablishment – to join.

Landa won a stage of the 2014 Giro del Trentino before riding the Giro d'Italia as one of Fabio Aru's mountain domestiques.

He helped Aru to finish third overall.

His career breakthrough came at the 2015 Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and finished third overall.

Landa was born in Murgia (Álava), in the Basque Country in northern Spain.

In 2015, Landa attacked from a breakaway on the final climb of the day to win the fifth stage of his home race, the Tour of the Basque Country.

Landa rode the Giro d'Italia, again initially as a domestique for Aru.

On Stage 8, the second mountain top finish of the race to Campitello Matese, Landa finished second after following an attack by Aru, and then unsuccessfully chasing after leader Beñat Intxausti in an attempt to win the stage.

By doing so Landa rose to fifth place overall, 42 seconds down on leader Alberto Contador.

Landa rose to third overall on Stage 10, when Richie Porte was given a time penalty for accepting a wheel change from rider Simon Clarke.

On Stage 14, a 59.4 km individual time trial, Landa was caught on the road by Contador, losing over three minutes to him, and dropped to seventh overall, 4 minutes 55 seconds back.

However, the next day, Landa won the mountainous Stage 15 after attacking Contador on the final climb to Madonna di Campiglio, and proving stronger than Aru, who he finished six seconds ahead of.

Stage 16 was the queen stage of the race with five Italian Alpine peaks, including the Tonale Pass, the Mortirolo Pass and a mountain finish to Aprica.

On the first of two climbs to Aprica, Contador suffered a mechanical problem, after which and immediately pressed on the pace at the front, sparking a bit of controversy over respect and fair play.

After a long chase Contador eventually caught up with Landa, Aru and Steven Kruijswijk on the Mortirolo after being 52 seconds down at the start of the climb.

Contador then counter-attacked, with Landa proving stronger than Aru, who was unable to follow the move.

Landa rode away on the final ascent to Aprica, winning his second stage in a row by 38 seconds over Kruijswijk and Contador.

Aru finished 2 minutes and 51 seconds behind, and thus Landa moved ahead of his teammate to second overall.

However, on Stage 19 it was Aru who proved the stronger of the two, attacking on the final climb to Breuil-Cervinia and taking 1 minute and 18 seconds on Contador and Landa, who did not respond to his move.

On Stage 20, the last mountain stage, Landa attacked on the Colle delle Finestre, taking the Cima Coppi for crossing the highest point of the race in the lead as he crossed the summit with Ilnur Zakarin, a minute ahead of Aru and a minute and a half ahead of Contador.

However, Landa waited for Aru on the descent, and the pair were unable to take sufficient time from Contador on the remainder of the stage, before Aru attacked on the final climb to Sestriere to win the stage.

Although Contador lost two and a half minutes, he kept the maglia rosa with a lead of 2' 02" over Aru to win the Giro, with Landa finishing third overall 3 minutes 14 seconds back.

Landa rode the Vuelta a España again in support of Aru, after Astana's other leader Vincenzo Nibali was disqualified on the second stage for holding onto a team car.

Landa won the mountainous stage 11 from Andorra la Vella to Cortals d'Encamp from the breakaway, ignoring team orders to drop back and assist Aru.

However, Landa did work for Aru during the rest of the race as Aru traded the race lead with Tom Dumoulin, and played a key role in the decisive move on stage 20 when he and Aru dropped Dumoulin on the penultimate climb before being joined by teammates from the breakaway to ride away from Dumoulin, who lost over three minutes and thus the Vuelta to Aru.

In September 2015 Landa confirmed that he would join for the 2016 season.

In January 2017 it was announced that Landa would share leadership with Geraint Thomas at the Giro d'Italia.

However, on stage 9, as the peloton approached the final climb of the day to Blockhaus, Wilco Kelderman of collided with a stationary police motorcycle, that caused him to swerve to his right into the Sky riders, which resulted in Landa and the majority of his team mates being brought down.

Landa was able to remount and continue, but he finished almost 27 minutes down on the stage winner, Nairo Quintana.

In 2018, as president of the Euskadi Cycling Foundation, a new UCI Continental squad was established, with expectations of returning to the top races.