First time at the Tour de France: Team portrait of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Julian Schultz
· 09.02.2026
"A dream becomes reality": on Caja Rural's official social media account, it is immediately clear how important the first participation in the Tour de France (4 to 26 July) for the Spanish team. The Instagram post has been at the top of the list for a few days now - and is likely to stay there for a while. After all, the second-division team from northern Spain will be visible to an audience of millions for the first time in a few months and will be able to showcase itself and its sponsors in a media-effective manner.
The current Caja Rural team was once recruited from the Club Ciclista Burunda. A cycling club from the Basque town of Alsasua, which produced a number of World Tour professionals. The most prominent names include Egoi Martínez, who won the mountain jersey at the Vuelta in 2006 in the Euskaltel-Euskadi jersey, and Patxi Vila, who switched to sports management after his career at Lampre ended and is currently looking after Florian Lipowitz & Co. at Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe. Caja Rural has held a professional licence since 2010, with the Spanish equivalent of the Volks- und Raiffeisenbank (Caja Rural) and its in-house insurer (Seguros RGA) acting as the main sponsors.
Fourth place at the Vuelta
In the recent past, the team made a name for itself at the last Tour of Spain. Behind the financially strong teams of UAE, Visma and Red Bull, Caja Rural finished fourth in the team classification in 2025, laying the foundations for one of the two wildcards from the A.S.O.. Among other things, the Spaniards received the Preference over the Unibet Rose Rocketswhich many experts already saw at the Tour due to the French racing licence and the notable addition of Dylan Groenewegen.
"We followed the same principle as in previous years. In other words, we used the second division overall classification at the end of the 2025 season," said Tour Director Christian Prudhomme, giving an insight into the allocation process. "Caja Rural is 25th, but due to the withdrawal of Arkea-B&B Hotels and the merger between Lotto and Intermarché, that corresponds to 23rd place," he added to the French news agency AFP. The fact that the 113th edition of the Tour de France starts in Spain, more precisely in Barcelona, is also likely to have influenced the A.S.O.'s decision.
Preference over Unibet Rose Rockets
Prudhomme at least hinted that Caja Rural would be allowed to start at the Tour for the first time due to its Spanish history as well as its sporting qualification. The race director singled out Abel Balderstone as an example. "He's Spanish, of course, but also Catalan," said Prudhomme about the classics rider with the not necessarily Spanish-sounding surname. In contrast, the powerful Tour boss gave the Rockets a little verbal slap in the face: "They don't pretend to be French, they have more Dutch riders."
Caja Rural's Tour line-up has of course not yet been finalised this early in the season. However, the aforementioned Abel Balderstone should be sure of a starting place. The 25-year-old not only comes from the Barcelona area, where the Tour de France starts with a team time trial, but also has something to offer in sporting terms. With 13th place overall at the Vuelta, he was the best Spanish rider at a Grand Tour last season and also secured the national time trial title.
The most notable Caja Rural rider is new signing Fernando Gaviria, who is the only professional in the squad to have already gained experience at the Tour de France. In 2018, the Colombian rode into the yellow jersey after a sprint victory at the start and followed it up with another stage win. However, the 31-year-old, who also rode for UAE Team Emirates in the meantime, has yet to finish a Tour. Gaviria's greatest success to date came in 2017 when he won the points classification at the Giro d'Italia.
New racing machine from MMR
In addition to Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, MMR, a relatively unknown bike manufacturer in this country, will also be present at the Tour of France for the first time. The brand from Avilés on the Spanish Atlantic coast has been supplying the team with equipment since 2022 - and also chose meaningful words after the wildcard award: "For us, this Tour is not just a race. It is the confirmation of a journey that we have been undertaking together for years."
It will be exciting to see which racing bikes from MMR will be on display on the way from Barcelona to Paris. This is because a previously unreleased model was used in the first races of the still young season, such as the Alula Tour or the Tour of Valencia. The Spanish bike manufacturer also hinted that "new models will be released soon". The new racing bike follows the concept of a modern race all-rounder and is presumably intended to achieve the difficult balancing act of low weight and good aerodynamics.
The unknown bike, about which no information has been leaked so far, would be positioned between MMR's two official team bikes: The Adrenaline SL is mainly used by Caja Rural on demanding mountain stages, while the Adrenaline Aero specialises in flat terrain and has been Gaviria's main workhorse in the races so far. At the end of the day, Balderstone & Co. probably won't care which equipment they are provided with. After all, the Tour premiere alone will be a dream come true for the team.
Julian Schultz
Editor
