MotoGP - Aleix Espargaro makes his racing debut in Austria: "A huge challenge!"

Last weekend, Aleix Espargaro made his debut with the Honda factory team at the Dutch TT in Assen, shaking up the MotoGP field as a replacement for the injured Luca Marini. Ten days later, the 35-year-old veteran from Granollers faces a completely different challenge: He will make his debut as a professional road cyclist at the Tour of Austria.

As early as mid-December 2024, Espargaro announced that, following his retirement as a regular MotoGP rider , he would serve as an ambassador for the Lidl-Trek team, starting January 1, 2025. There, the three-time Grand Prix winner's primary goal was to introduce road cycling to a new target audience, share his experiences as a top athlete with the team's athletes, and, above all, support young riders in their development.

Participation in prestigious races had already been announced at the time. The Spanish daily newspaper 'AS' reported at the time that he would be competing in the Tour of Burgos from August 5th to 9th, but Espargaro apparently couldn't wait that long. As he and his Lidl Trek team announced on their social media channels last week, the Spaniard will already be participating in the 'Tour of Austria' from July 9th to 13th.

"This is a dream come true for me, to compete in a professional cycling race against the best teams in the world," Espargaro beamed during his substitute appearance at the Dutch TT in Assen. At the same time, he already knew: "I have a huge challenge ahead of me. It's going to be a really tough tour. Almost a week full of stages with steep and long climbs, plus the best teams in the world. It's going to be tough."

The Tour of Austria consists of five different stages. The first stage starts at 11 a.m. on July 9th in Steyr's main square and covers 167.8 kilometers and 2,433 meters of elevation gain—certainly not an easy stage to begin with. One more stage follows each day before the 'Tour of Austria 2025' concludes on July 13th in the Montfort town of Großfeldkirch in Vorarlberg, after a total of 714.2 kilometers and 13,753 meters of elevation gain. Twenty teams and 140 riders will be competing. It will be exciting to see how Espargaro ultimately performs.