The early-season races are well underway and a hint of spring is in the air - with the Spring Classics, of course. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is the pivotal turning point of February to mark a refocus for one-day events across Europe, leaving behind the adjustments made with new teammates and equipment, as well as warmer climates, from fine-tuning tests in Australia, Colombia and the Arabian Peninsula.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) begins his Classics season on home turf alongside last year’s Omloop winner Dylan van Baarle. Challengers include Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) and a solid trio from Soudal-QuickStep - Kasper Asgreen, Julian Alaphilippe and Yves Lampaert.
World Champion Lotte Kopecky returns in defence of her win last year at Omloop Women, joined on the powerhouse SD Worx-Protime squad by Tour de France winner Demi Vollering and Lorena Wiebes. The punchy climbs will be a playground for attacks from other riders, including Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM Racing), Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Arlenis Sierra (Movistar), who made a late move last year.
Sunday sees many of the same contenders clash again in Belgium, the men at the 1.Pro Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and the women at Omloop van het Hageland. Stage racing at the UAE Tour and Tour du Rwanda wrap up over the weekend.
Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) begins his preparations for a third Grand Tour victory on Thursday at O Gran Camiño. The UCI 2.1 stage race is loaded with luminaries, including Egan Bernal and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
Monday saw racing with the opening stage of the UAE Tour, which was won for a second consecutive year by Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), who stayed in front of a major crash in the final kilometre. The train for Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) was disrupted by the chaos, and he finished in the lead pack but in 22nd position. A stacked list of sprinters are expected to battle on three more flat stages, including Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla).
Across the opening three days of racing of the eight-stage Tour du Rwanda, Soudal-QuickStep Devo Team and Israel-Premier Tech have battled for stage wins and the early GC lead. Bingoal WB and Team Polti Kometa tried to crash the party on stage 3’s 140.3km mountain day, with Jhonatan Restrepo of Team Polti taking the win to vault into the top 5, and Soudal’s Pepijn Reinderink moving into the overall lead.
Stage racing in the US started last weekend with the low-key Valley of the Sun, which now sees domestic teams eyeing the three-day Tucson Bicycle Classic, also in Arizona, for the weekend.
The cyclocross season draws to a close at Internationale Sluitingsprijs in Oostmalle, Belgium on Sunday, while more off-road racing begins a surge of activity, from cross-country mountain bike racing in Spain to gravel racing in Australia and the US.
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Weekend wrap
Before jumping straight in, here's a round-up of the weekend's biggest results.
Volta ao Algarve had some heavy hitters in the fray across five days in Portugal, with sights set on the Alto da Fóia, an individual time trial and then the Alto do Malhão for the finale. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) proved his early form was set as he secured the overall victory on the Alto do Malhão.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) proved a formidable opponent, as he won stage 3 and launched a threatening attack on the final day, but Evenepoel grabbed hold his GC lead with a dominant ride on the stage 4 individual time trial and added the punctuation mark with second place on the Malhão. Bora-Hansgrohe's Daniel Martínez surged to the summit to win his second stage of the race on Sunday, and he secured second place in the final standings.
Making headlines in Spain last week was the Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta del Sol, but not for the usual race results. Scheduled to take place from February 14-18 with 628km of hilly racing, the Ruta del Sol was decided after the 4.9 km time trial stage, won by Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny). Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) made season debuts in Spain, but did not factor in the top five.
The blocked roads from farmer protests, which were staged in Spain and across Europe, disrupted traffic across the region and disrupted this year’s race before the first stage. Organisers were only able to hold the time trial, after cancelling four road stages across several days of trying to reconfigure the event. When police were diverted to manage the chaos created by the protests, a lack of support to provide rider and spectator safety resulted in the abbreviated race.
For the women, Team SD Worx-Protime began their winning ways at the four-day Setmana Ciclista Valenciana-Vuelta Comunitat, held February 15-18. Marlen Reusser won the GC title and her teammate Niamh Fisher-Black took third overall, while Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) was second.
On stage 2, Reusser attacked with 5.9km left to race and soloed to her first victory of the season, and held the GC lead the rest of the way. Proving strong at her season opener, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won the opening and closing stages of the four-day Spanish race.
In South America and Australia, gravel racing took centre stage. Laurens ten Dam held off Rob Britton by 45 minutes to win the non-stop Trancordilleras Rally Colombia, covering 1,045km across the Andes mountains in just under 73 hours. On the eight-day stage race, a pair of US riders won the overall titles, Utah-based Griffin Easter for the men and Whitney Allison of Colorado for the women.
In Victoria, Mark O’Brien and Courtney Sherwell won the elite categories of the first edition of Sutton Grange Winery Uncorked Gravel. In the men's contest, Tali Lane-Welsh took second and Adam Blazevic was third, with RADL GRVL winner Tasman Nankervis holding on for fourth. For the elite women, Tilly Field was second and Celestine Frantz third.
UAE Tour
When: Monday, February 19 to Sunday, February 25
Where: United Arab Emirates
Length: 985km
The UAE Tour returns for a sixth edition in 2024, taking place over seven days from Madinat Zayed on February 19 to Jebel Hafeet on February 25. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), already a winner at the Tour of Oman, is the heavy favourite, having finished on the podium in the last four editions, including the overall title in 2020.
In fact, the UAE Team Emirates is more than solid, with Yates joined by Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine, the pair looking to dominate on the flat 12km individual time trial on stage 2.
Last year's runner-up Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) is back and could focus on climbing stages such as the Hafeet climb. Making his debut at the race is Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who will also focus on climbing days along with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious).
Tour du Rwanda
When: Sunday, February 18 to Sunday, February 25
Where: Rwanda
Length: 740km
The 16th edition of Tour du Rwanda returns with demanding climbs across the eight days of racing and has added a 13-kilometer, mid-week individual time trial in Musanze. The gruelling ascent of Mount Kigali remains a fixture to reshape the GC, which will be featured on stage 6, the summit reached after 93 kilometres starting in Musanze.
A total of 16 teams are in the field, led by UCI ProTeam Bingoal WB. Among the UCI Continental Teams are the Development Team DSM-Firmenish and a pair of teams based in Rwanda - Java-Inovotec and May Stars.
O Gran Camiño
When: Thursday, February 22 to Sunday, February 25
Where: Spain
Length: 501.2km
O Gran Camiño is scheduled for February 22-25, now in its third edition. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) makes his season debut, joined by Cian Uijtdebroeks and Wilco Kelderman. Ineos Grenadiers brings Egan Bernal, Josh Tarling and Michal Kwiatkowski, while Richard Carapaz and Neilson Powless line up for EF Education-EasyPost.
One of the notable riders expected to not race because of a COVID-19 positive earlier in the month is Movistar’s Nairo Quintana. Instead, the Spanish team will send Ruben Guerreiro, Iván Sosa and Will Barta.
After an opening 14.8km time trial at Torre de Hércules, the race takes on steep slopes of three road stages, culminating in Pontevedra with a double ascent of Monte Aloia in the Tui Natural Park. Last year, the race was reduced to three stages after the opening day was suspended because of a snowstorm.
Galician weather is far from predictable, having noted the disruption last year with poor weather. This year, warmer weather should bring only some showers and sunny conditions in north-west Spain.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
When: Saturday, February 24
Where: Belgium
Length: 202km
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be the first WorldTour race for men on European soil, taking place this Saturday, February 24, for a 79th time. Last year, Dylan van Baarle marked his debut for Jumbo-Visma with a solid solo victory.
The race takes place in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, on many of the same cobbles and bergs as the Tour of Flanders five weeks down the line. The route for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad remains the same, starting at 't Kuipke in Gent and taking in loops to hit all of the important hellingen outside of Oudenaarde. The famous Muur-Kapelmuur and Bosberg must be conquered with 15.7km and 11.8km to go before the finish.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women
When: Saturday, February 24
Where: Belgium
Length: 127.4km
'Opening Weekend' for the women takes place across 127.4km between Ghent and Ninove at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women. It is in its 19th year, but just the second outing on the Women's WorldTour.
Last year's winner, Lotte Kopecky, is back with a strong SD Worx-Protime squad, which includes Demi Vollering and Lorena Wiebes.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women's race route traditionally includes five cobbled sectors and nine climbs, including the final two ascents over the Muur-Kapelmuur and the Bosberg before the finish in Ninove, making it one of the more challenging routes of the Spring Classics.
International Chelva XCO
Mountain bike racing takes place in Spain on the weekend, with Peter Sagan and Jolanda Neff, the headliners, in cross-country races in Valencia, Spain, at the HC class Internationales Chelva XCO event.
Sagan and Sina Frei line up for Specialized Factory Racing in the elite races, while Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli brings a stacked women’s squad of Evie Richards and Jolanda Neff, as well as last year’s men’s winner Vlad Dascalu.
The 2024 Chelva course is a 4.2km hilly circuit with three sharp climbs in the first half and a tight turn from a downhill section at the finish. XCO races for U23 riders and junior women take place on Saturday, while junior men compete prior to the elite women and men on Sunday.
Tucson Bicycle Classic
2024 marks the 36th year for the Tucson Bicycle Classic, a three-day USA Cycling stage race contested with categories for pro teams and amateurs.
Racing in the desert southwest begins on Friday, February 23 with a 4.8-mile (7.7km) Marana Time Trial. The course is a straightforward out-and-back flat contest that runs parallel to Interstate 10, north-west of downtown Tucson, Arizona.
Saturday is the stage 2 Sahuarita Road Race on the south side of Tucson in Green Valley, which uses a 20.3-mile (33km) looped course with an early climb each lap of Twin Buttes. The finish line comes halfway up the climb of the last pass, which will be on the fourth lap for both pro women and pro men. The pro men start the 82-mile ride at 8:00 local time, while the women take the course at 11:52.
GC winners are crowned after the stage 3 Oro Valley Circuit Race on Sunday, a short 4.2-mile (6.8km) route with just four corners. Set in the Oro Valley, riders cover 224 feet of elevation gain on each of the 11 laps, for a total of 46.2 miles (74.8km) for both pro fields. The uphill finish is adjacent to scenic Naranja Park, the pro women racing from 12:30 to 14:40 and the pro men taking the course at 14:50 with the finish expected at 16:40.
French one-day races
The last races of the early season in France are both 1.Pro for the men's peloton. The Faun-Ardèche Classic on February 24 is a very hilly 165.9km. The Drôme Classic on February 25 is longer, at 189km.
Clasica de Almeria
The one-day Clasica de Almeria on February 25 is the last chance for women's teams to secure a pre-season win ahead of the Spring Classics. The 137km race from Puebla de Vicar to Vera is hilly, with a mid-race ascent but a long descent into the finish.
Internationale Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle
The final cyclocross race of the 2023-2024 season will be Sunday, February 25 in Oostmalle, Belgium for the Internationale Sluitingsprijs. Last year the C1 elite men's contest was won by Laurens Sweeck ahead of Lars van der Haar. Annemarie Worst outdistanced Manon Bakker.
