Simultaneous races in Spain and Portugal
This week, the men's ProSeries calendar features two parallel programs in Spain and Portugal. On Sunday, two one-day races, the Figueira Champions Classic and the Clásica de Almería, kick off the week. From Wednesday to Sunday, the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta and the Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta Ciclista Del Sol overlap. Plenty of action, though it may be slightly overshadowed by the UAE Tour, a UCI WorldTour event where Tadej Pogačar (1200) is set to start his season.
Clásica de Almería: Route and favorites
Although the first half of the race includes some climbs, the final section is flat, making it likely to be decided in a sprint.
Bryan Coquard (800), Arnaud De Lie (800), Matteo Moschetti (200), Arnaud Démare (400), Alberto Dainese (400), Max Kanter (400), Giovanni Lonardi (400), Ivan García Cortina (400), Luca Mozzato (400), and Gleb Syritsa (200) are some of the top sprinters on the start list.
Figueira Champions Classic: Route and favorites
The Portuguese race features a 192 km hilly course, where riders will complete three laps of a final circuit that includes climbs to Rua Parque Forestal (2.3 km at 7.8%) and Enforca Cães (0.8 km at 7.3%).
João Almeida (1200), Julian Alaphilippe (600), Romain Bardet (800), Ion Izagirre (400), Ilan Van Wilder (800), Rui Costa (400), Dylan Teuns (400), Mathis Vacek (400), Ruben Guerreiro (400), Antonio Morgado (200), Paul Magnier (200), and Jesús Herrada (200) are some of the riders best suited for this course.
Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta Ciclista Del Sol: Route and favorites
The Spanish race consists of five stages, with the first two being the toughest and likely to define the general classification. The last three stages are expected to be settled in some form of a sprint.
Thomas Pidcock (800), Enric Mas (800), Tobias Halland Johannessen (600), and Egan Bernal (600) are some of the top riders on the provisional start list, which is still incomplete.
Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta: Route and Favorites
The Volta ao Algarve consists of five stages: two flat stages (stages 1 and 3), one mountain stage finishing at Alto de Foia (8.5 km at 5%) (stage 2), one hilly stage (stage 4), and a final 19 km time trial with an uphill finish (stage 5).
The start list for the Portuguese race is outstanding: Jonas Vingegaard (1200), Primož Roglič (1200), João Almeida (1200), Wout Van Aert (1200), Biniam Girmay (1000), Arnaud De Lie (800), Romain Bardet (800), Ilan Van Wilder (800), Geraint Thomas (800), Filippo Ganna (800), Stefan Küng (800), and Julian Alaphilippe (600) are among the top participants.
Photo: © Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta