The Itzulia Basque Country organization announced the participating teams and changes have occurred in this year’s edition, which will be held from April 1st to 6th.
In addition to the 18 WorldTeams teams, six ProTeams were invited. However, two teams, Lotto Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech, which were expected for the event, are notably absent from the list of participants.
Why won’t the teams be present?
Rumors of the Lotto Dstny team’s absence from this year’s Tour of the Basque Country have been circulating for some time. It has also now emerged that Israel-Premier Tech has decided not to participate in this year’s edition of the six-day cycling race.
Both teams were guaranteed a place to compete in any WorldTour competition in 2024, having finished in the top two places in the UCI ProTeams standings last year. However, this is a right they have, not an obligation.
Other teams were invited to fill open positions
The fact that both teams withdrew allowed two extra places to be made available. As a result, the organization was allowed to invite six other teams of its choice. Those chosen were the Spanish teams Euskaltel-Euskadi, Equipo Kern-Pharma, Caja Rural Seguros RGA and Burgos-BH, the French team TotalEnergies and the Swiss team Q36.5.