Team Bahrain Victorious are back in Spain and back to racing, as the 69th Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucia (Ruta del Sol) gets underway tomorrow.
Winners last year when Wout Poels lifted the trophy, Victorious return to defend the title with a line-up ready to take on the mountainous route.
As usual, the parcour features narrow roads, uphill finishes, and some serious climbing that starts on the opening day, which includes no fewer than three first category ascents. On paper it’s also the toughest stage, with 4000m elevation gain over the 179km from Puente de Génave to Santiago de la Espada.
Landa comes to Andalucia on the back of a strong showing at Valenciana last week, where he rode in support of Pello Bilbao, and has finished on the podium here before, in 2020. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Columbian Buitrago – a stage winner at last year’s Giro d’Italia – topped the young riders’ classification at the Saudi Tour and is looking to build on his good form of 2022.
For Jack Haig, who won a stage and finished runner-up at La Ruta in 2020, it will be a first competitive start since a crash on stage 5 of last year’s Tour de France left him with multiple wrist fractures.
Day 2 will see the peloton cover 156 hilly kilometres, all leading up to the castle ruins above Alcalá La Real. The uphill 3.4km to the line are partially cobbled, and after the ‘flamme rouge’, the gradient rises to 11.5 per cent.
Friday’s profile is largely flat, but once again, there is a sting in the tail. This time it comes in the form of a final kilometre at 10pc, also over cobbles, with ramps up to 25pc before the finish at Alcalá de los Gazules.
On these days, last year’s Milan-Sanremo winner, Matej Mohorič, will come to the fore, and with him, new signing Andrea Pasqualon. The 35-year-old is one of three Italians representing Bahrain, along with Edoardo Zambanini, who makes his season debut, and veteran Damiano Caruso, winner of the mountains classification back in 2016. Their main role will be to support Landa and Buitrago on the hilly parts of the route.
The road goes up almost immediately on stage 4, with the first of several short but steep climbs, and there is barely any flat on the 165 kilometres between Olvera and Iznajar, during which the riders will face over 3000m of elevation gain.
The race concludes with another mountain stage, from Otura to Alhaurín de la Torre. The longest climb of this year’s edition – The Puerto del Sol – comes halfway through, before a final 85km which is mainly downhill and ends with the only flat finish of the week.
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