Wheel Talk Newsletter: Drum roll, please!

It's Giro time!

The Vuelta a Burgos is behind us, and with it the Spanish block of races. Most of the top GC contenders who will be looking to contest either the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift made a test appearance at the Vuelta Femenina, Burgos, or the Itzulia, with a few notable exceptions. Obviously, the biggest name set to start the Giro on Saturday, who didn't race at all in Spain, is Demi Vollering, but Marlen Reusser is also on the startlist.

The world time trial champion hasn't raced since crashing out of the Tour of Flanders, but with an ITT in this year's Giro (even a half-uphill one), it's very exciting to see Reusser on the preliminary startlist.

ICYMI: During the offseason, I spoke with Elisa Longo Borghini about her Giro win in 2025. Read all about it, in Elisa's own words, here.

‘Perfectly imperfect’: Elisa Longo Borghini reflects on her 2025 Giro victory

As told exclusively to Escape, here’s the Italian champion’s account of winning last year’s Giro d’Italia.

Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

First things first: Some quick takeaways from Burgos...

(Can I just leave the first one from last week?): Mischa Bredewold is the moment

Fresh off an amazing win in the Itzulia, Mischa Bredewold was at it again. After helping Lorena Wiebes to two stage victories, the Dutch rider got her own chance to snag stage 3, and boy, did she. First, she destroyed the peloton on the final climb, and once she'd attacked the climbers and was with only Amanda Spratt and Silke Smulders, she attacked again, bridged to Mireia Benito, and then went and won the stage. Even when Benito forced Bredewold to pull into the finale, the former European champ couldn't be stopped from taking her fourth win in Spain.

The stage victory meant that Bredewold won a stage at every one of the Spanish races: stage 5 at the Vuelta, stage 1 at the Itzulia, and stage 3 in Burgos. Wild.

Behind, Wiebes still finished third on the stage, and it was clear that the then-race leader was thrilled to hand leadership to Bredewold for a day.

What was perhaps even more impressive was Bredewold's ride on Sunday. It was the stage that finally suited the pure climbers, and the stage that would determine the overall classification. Bredewold, not traditionally known as a climber, finished an amazing fifth, two seconds ahead of Maeva Squiban, Amanda Spratt, and Shirin van Anrooij.

To be fair, Lagunas de Neila is on the shorter side, but it was long enough for the climbers to emerge victorious.

Yara Kastelijn takes a step up

Matt broke down why the final stage meant so much to Kastelijn:

After 1,033 days, Yara Kastelijn is finally a winner again

After nearly three years of almosts, the Dutchwoman broke her drought at the Vuelta a Burgos on Sunday.

Escape CollectiveMatt de Neef

For Fenix-Premier Tech, Kastelijn's overall win puts them in the conversation for the Tour overall. Kastelijn isn't set to race the Giro next week, but after losing Pauliena Rooijakkers to UAE Team ADQ over the offseason (shoutout to the Dutch rider who finished third at the Tour in 2024 – Rooijakkers just announced her pregnancy on Monday, meaning she will be out of the peloton for the foreseeable future), Fenix-Premier Tech is down one GC contender. Kastelijn was supposed to be part of their attack plan at the Tour last year, along with Puck Pieterse, but it was Rooijakkers who came out on top.

Évita finally got her chance

The next best climber in the race was FDJ United-Suez's Évita Muzic, who rode to second overall on Sunday, 20 seconds behind Kastelijn. Muzic has been knocking at that door for so long, and even finished fourth overall at the Tour in 2024, but last year the French rider was on domestique duties for Demi Vollering. This was her chance to prove herself, and even if she didn't win the race, she came out of the Spanish block with some very consistent results, enough to have taken second overall in the Spanish Grander Tour (a name c…