One of the most unique and – in my opinion – coolest races of the calendar brings us to Portugal for the Viana do Castelo. Notoriously, many different rider types can thrive on this course and while it is labeled as a cobbles race, you need much more than a decent cobbles stat to succeed here. In fact, you don’t even need a great cobbles stat at all. But more on that later.
Profile
The course comprises six laps with one big hill as the main attraction, but even outside of that, there’s little flat road, with lots of short ups and downs. The cobblestones, notably, are mostly on the downhill, with only brief sections between the long climbs. This makes for a fun course and, as mentioned, a variety of riders who fancy their chances.
Favorites
MM
HI
ST
CO
DH
Benoot
78
81
75
76
66
Jorgenson
79
78
79
68
69
Gamper
65
67
77
81
72
Van der Poel
74
77
78
72
79
De Gendt
68
73
77
75
66
Pithie
69
72
76
77
72
Serrano
69
73
76
76
72
Habimana
70
75
74
77
68
Swift
70
73
75
73
68
Ssabagwanya
74
75
80
67
72
Spengler
63
67
74
83
63
Rojas
73
76
76
68
70
Godon
72
75
75
70
68
Barthe
75
76
73
69
69
Rossi
68
70
75
77
65
Giulietti
67
69
75
75
74
Hvideberg
67
70
74
76
65
Neilands
63
69
74
78
71
Owen
67
69
73
78
74
Laurance
68
76
74
70
74
If you look at past editions, one of the biggest predictors of success here, rather than cobbles or hills on their own, is stamina. Look no further than Jorgenson, far from a great cobbles rider, who finished on the podium in all three previous years, and who will certainly aim to do so again now. As further proof, you can also add last year’s CT phenom Leonardo Basso (not here this year), as well as Godon, neither of whom is a great cobbles rider and yet they finished 2nd and 8th, respectively, last year.
The top favorite, nonetheless, does combine cobbles and hills like no other: It’s 2023 and 2024 winner Benoot.
The other riders are split into three categories, though there will be some overlap between them. First, there are those that are strongest on hills and rely on stamina, with limited pure cobbles ability. Those include Van der Poel (who also has easily the strongest downhill skills of any of these favorites), the Grieg duo of Swift and Ssabagwanya, Rojas, the aforementioned Godon and teammate Barthe as well as Laurance.
On the other hand, you have cobbles specialists who are decent to quite good on hills. Watch out especially for De Gendt and Pithie here, but Serrano and Habimana also fit the bill.
Finally, you have the pure cobblestone riders who are limited, though maybe not completely useless on hills. And don’t count these out! Gamper has actually won this race before in 2022, and Spengler will be ambitious here, too, even if he lacks the top end stamina that for example had Ruben Zepuntke, an otherwise similar rider, finish 11th last year. Rossi, Hvideberg, Neilands and Owen round out this category, of whom the Sauber rider might have the best shot at a strong result here.
Some of these riders will inevitably fall short and others not mentioned yet could surge forward. There are quite a few domestiques who could end up with a solid result here, names like Marte, Le Berre, Abrahamsen, Giulietti or Medvedev.
Would it be a huge surprise to see rookie Belletta already make his mark? Or what about some of the team leaders further down the list, such as DeNA’s Vangheluwe or Oliveira and Van Baarle for Deutsche WindGuard?
You let me know who you think will end up on top and who I might’ve missed beyond these names. And then we’re all looking forward to kandesbunzler’s report
Our win goal for the season and to be honest feels a straight shootout between MVP, Benoot and Jorgensen struggle to see anyone else getting involved and being the strongest sprinter of the 3 hoping that makes a difference in the finale
Love this race. In theory it's a very nice course for Rojas so might've been a mistake bringing Neilands who PCM could let lead instead. Would be very happy if we could pick up a top 10.
Always love coming back here with Jorgenson to see if this is the year he can finally win this race. Been so close in the past and expect another good race this time around.
No one on my team likes leaving the smooth pavement so I just sent my normal high-stamina MM/HI squad (Langellotti, Kinoshita, and Smith). Not really even expecting a Top 10, but placing 2-3 in that 10-25 range feels feasible based on what I'm seeing from the race history.
Fascinating race to see how the AI balances things now managers have had a year to react to PCM24 and create a more suited start list. This is the kind of race where version changes can completely rewrite the rules so the first year is always weird.
Agree MvdP, Jorgenson and Benoot are the three to beat.
For McCormick lots of "almost" riders, so if we stay interested we could get decent depth.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Not sure what to expect here. We don't have the best cobble-squad, but Laurance as a puncheur with some knowledge of cobbles might be able to sneak in a good result.
Viana do Castelo 
