Mark Cavendish and his Bahrain McLaren teammates have the full backing of Tour de France leader Mikel Landa, who will return to racing next week at the Vuelta a Burgos.

The race (July 28-August 1) will be the team's first major competition since leaving Paris-Nice midway through March, when Europe began phasing out COVID-19 blockades in nearly every major country. Since Bahrain, McLaren's riders and staff have taken significant pay cuts, with Brent Copeland taking over as general manager for Mitchelton Scott. Meanwhile, McLaren was forced to lay off some 1,200 workers at its British base, raising fears that the automaker would drop its secondary title sponsorship of the team at the end of the season due to financial problems.

However, the team had a strong start to the 2020 season before the lockdown was imposed, winning five races, including a stage win in Paris-Nice. Tour de France leader Mikel Landa will lead the team's GC challenge in Burgos, while Cavendish will "test his chances" in stages 2 and 4, which are likely to end in bunch sprints, according to the team.

"He will have a final training camp in Germany with his sprinter teammates before heading to Burgos with a few others.

"We are heading to Burgos to support Mikel Landa. He is training full gas for the Tour de France and is in incredible shape."

Landa will be supported in the mountains by Pero Bilbao, Damiano Caruso, and Eros Capecchi, with Marco Haller, Heinrich Haussler, and Cavendish looking to sprint All seven are on the Tour de France long list.

"It's time," said Rod Ellingworth! said Rod Ellingworth.

"I've been training in three places in the last few weeks. Andorra, Italy, and Germany. The training camps all finished this past Saturday and we have a few more days before the race in Burgos next week. Everyone is in good condition and above all healthy."

Sportif director Gorazd Štangelj expects Landa to be ready to run, even with the competitive field available. Landa won this race in 2017 while with Team Sky, but moved to Bahrain McLaren via Movistar; he was overshadowed in the spring of 2020 when he was hit by a car while training, but finished third overall at Ruta del Sol in February. Cavendish competed in both the Saudi Tour and the UAE Tour, but is still looking for his first road race win since the start of 2018.

"We are looking forward to an exciting race with our key rider Mikel Landa leading Team Bahrain McLaren," Stangeri said.

"We will see Mikel go full gas for the GC, starting with the semi-hard first stage: Burgos Cathedral - Burgos Castillo - (157km), which Mikel won in 2017. Then there are two tough mountain stages: stage 3: Sahentes de la Lola to Picon Blanco (150km) and stage 5: Covarrubias to Lagos Castillo (157km): Covarrubias to Lagunas de Neira (158km), both It will be an Ors category finish."