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| nickname = | discipline = Road | competition = UCI World Tour | type = Stage race | organiser = | director = | first = | number = 55 (as of 2015) | last = | firstwinner = | mostwins = (4 wins) | mostrecent = }} The Tour of the Basque Country (, (バスク語:Euskal Herriko Itzulia)) is an annual cycling stage race held in the Spanish Basque Country in April. It is one of 24 races that make up the UCI World Ranking calendar. ==History== The original Tour of the Basque Country had a troubled history, with 8 editions contested between 1924 and 1935, before the civil war seemingly wiped it out for good. In spite of its short tenure, it is mentioned and described in Ernest Hemingway's novel ''The Sun Also Rises''. In 1952, the Eibar Cycling Club (erstwhile backers of Spain's first national stage race, the pre-Vuelta a España ''Gran Premio República'') launched a new 3-day event called ''Gran Premio de la Bicicleta Eibarresa'' to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Former French national champion Louis Caput took the inaugural edition. In 1969, organizers opted to promote the race (by then 5 stages long) as ''IX Vuelta al País Vasco - XVIII Bicicleta Eibarresa'', effectively merging the Bicicleta Eibarresa into a reborn Tour of the Basque Country. However, the palmares of the Bicicleta Eibarresa (featuring Vuelta a España winners Jesús Loroño and Rolf Wolfshohl) is not recognized as part of the Tour of the Basque Country's history. The Eibar Cycling Club would relinquish control of the competition following the 1973 edition, while retaining the rights to the ''Bicicleta Eibarresa'' name, which has sporadically been reactivated to help promote other, lower ranked events. The first winner of the Tour of the Basque Country was Francis Pélissier from France, while the first winner of the 'modern' Tour (1969) was Jacques Anquetil, also of France. The most successful rider in the history of the Tour is José Antonio González Linares of Spain, who won the race four times in 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1978. The most recent edition (2015) was won by Spain's Joaquim Rodríguez, his first win in the race. The winner traditionally dons a basque beret on the podium. Because the Basque Country is a mountainous area, there are few flat stages, and thus the event favors those who are strong climbers. Most ascents in the Tour are not particularly high by professional cycling standards, but are often quite steep. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tour of the Basque Country」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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