Chasing the Tour de France dream: Abel Balderstone
With Spanish Pro Team Caja Rural – Seguros RGA having been granted a wildcard spot at this year’s Tour de France, Catalan rider Abel Balderstone is quietly eyeing up a Tour debut on home roads.
From his base at Ca n’Amat, Balderstone has grown into a well-rounded figure in the pro peloton. Twelve months ago, he stood on the top step of the Spanish national time trial podium, a result that turned heads and lent him a new kind of weight within the team.
“The move from amateur to pro was quite fast”, he recalls. “Suddenly I was training with different people, travelling further, and racing for results that matter more on the team sheet.”
Winning the Spanish time trial title sharpened that change. “It put me more in the spotlight and opened doors inside the cycling world”, the Catalan professional cyclist says. “It also helped me believe more in myself. When you see your name next to riders who’ve been around for years, it makes you think: ‘I belong here, too.’”
His preparation to important races includes carefully planned race blocks blended with altitude training in order to keep him fresh for the Tour de France-window. “I’m trying to build a schedule that lets me peak at the right time”, he says, “mixing races with training camps in the high mountains, so I can handle both the physical load and the pressure.”
Déja vu
The 2026 Tour de France starting in Catalonia gives Abel Balderstone a rare sense of déjà vu: the roads he once rode as a boy, the hills he trained on with friends, and the villages he passed on weekend rides will now form the backdrop of cycling’s biggest race. For him, this Tour unfolding on terrain and streets he knows by heart, cheered on by the same people who watched him grow up, is ‘going to be very special’.
“For someone who grew up in Ullastrell, the idea of the Tour de France beginning within an hour of his front door feels almost surreal”, Balderstone comments. “Racing the Tour has been my dream since I was a kid. Knowing it could start right here, in Barcelona, adds an extra layer of motivation. It’s like a perfect version of that dream.”
As of yet he is not sure if you will make the final line-up yet though, so the talk of “Tour rider” is therefore still wrapped in cautious optimism.
“Nothing’s guaranteed”, he says. “You have to earn your place, so we’ll see if I can secure that spot within the team.”
Read the full interview with Abel Balderstone ahead of the Grand Départ in Barcelona in Nafent Magazine volume 18, the Tour de France special, available in our webshop.
Catalonia’s cycling scene has been on the rise for years, and Balderstone can feel it in the conversations and the way even small towns cram onto the streets. “Cycling has grown a lot here”, he says. “There are more fans, more kids getting on bikes, more people watching the races on TV and wanting to come out to see them live.”
“I think there’ll be huge crowds watching at home, and even more flooding the streets. It’s going to be something special, something I will remember forever.”
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