Ollfardh wrote:
Ok, I'll pass this one on and hopefully we can get you a PCM2012 database by your next race

Ollfardh wrote:
Anyway, I'm glad that we have these discussions, although I don't want to go over every startlist. When we look at the upcoming WT races, I haven't made the final lists yet, but I was thinking of making a strong San Remo startlist with guys like Kristoff and Gasparotto. About Nibali, he's going to do at least 1 GT and I'll probably let him start in the Tirreno as well. Would that seem reasonable?

Here we are, in Almeria, within the beautiful region of Andalucia. We’re here for the Clásica de Almeria, a 1.HC race in sunny Spain. Well, it’s early in the year, so we don’t know if it will be that sunny. Nevertheless, we’ll certainly be enjoying the race.
The Clásica de Almeria is traditionally a race for the sprinters, but in most editions, only for the sprinters that can take hills well. But with some strong puncheurs starting here, you never know how tough the race can be made.
Last year, Michael Matthews won this race, ahead of Borut Bozic. They’re both not here to defend their title though, so we’ll get a different winner.




This edition of Clásica de Almeria is 184km long. We travel from Almeria to Roquetas de Mar, which is, in fact, just a few km south-west of the city Almeria
The profile looks easy, but this isn’t necessarily a boring mass sprint. About 17km of climbing is not that much, but at least something. Not to mention that the sprint is slightly uphill. Strong teams might be able to drop sprinters over the hills. The highest point reached will be 514m.
A Theo Bos-type would probably not survive this race in the peloton. Though, ironically, he won this race a few years ago. That was back in the 1.1 category times, though, but my point was, a guy like Kennedy won’t survive.



The startlist is quite surprising. Some good sprinters for sure, but some teams, like Euskaltel & Movistar, have beastly puncheur teams. They could’ve looked at the race profile first, but well, they might be aiming to drop the fast men. That won’t be easy though, seeing Ciolek & Brouwer on the startlist. Both of them have great sprinting trains behind them as well.



As said, sprinters that can tackle hills at least decently will be the favourites today. If the pace is hard(which I wouldn’t expect though), a puncheur with a good sprint might win here. Brouwer & Ciolek are the obvious favourites.


W.Brouwer(BEL)


G.Ciolek(MTN)
J.J. Rojas(MOV)
K.Dehaes(LTB)


O.Gatto(VIN)
M.Guido(MTN)
L.L.Sanchez(BEL)

TheManxMissile wrote:
@Jesl - If the entire report is not in Spanish i will be dissapointed

And Katusha and Astana won't win! Which is better