The enemy within

On February 9, 2016. Beñat Intxausti landed in the Canary Islands, fresh from doing a few races in Spain on his debut for Team Sky. The Basque rider had placed third in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, sharing the podium with his team-mate Wout Poels. Knowing the weather in his home region of Bizkaia was going to be grim, he decided to fly to Gran Canaria for a solid week of training before travelling back to the Iberian Peninsula and racing in the Vuelta a Andalucía. His target was the Giro d’Italia, where he had won two stages in different editions and even worn the maglia rosa.

“I came back home on Monday, flew on Tuesday, then woke up ill on Wednesday,” Intxausti tells Procycling. “At first it was just a headache and flu-like symptoms, like feeling sore and uneasy in your muscles. I thought it was mere fatigue, so I went out for a normal training ride. After two hours, I was dead.” And so it began.