Hello and welcome to a new year of fantasy cycling! Of course there have already been several races, but now the action is hotting up and I finally have a few minutes to pen some thoughts on the upcoming early season races. Volta ao Algarve and the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol kick off tomorrow. They’re both five stages long and offer a good chance for some early season success before the bigger challenges to come.
Volta ao Algarve
The Portuguese offering consists of a well rounded route with a couple of sprint stages, two for the climbers, and a final individual time trial to finish things off. It’s in a similar vein to last year’s route, so we can expect some similar results. Now let’s take a look at who’s taking part and try and bumble our way through some predictions. I’ve had varied success so far with some totally random team compositions, so I’m deciding to take these races a little more seriously. Well not too seriously, they’ll still be a crazy pick or two thrown in to spice things up.
Algarve Riders
So to the general classification (GC) riders first and the start list is dominated by three prominent teams, Ineos, Bora, and UAE. Ineos are bringing a really strong team to this race and lead with Arensman (14 credits), Martinez (18 credits), with Pidcock (14 credits) making his road season debut. Martinez has just returned from the Colombian nationals and is ready for his first race in Europe. Arensman has a good outing supporting Tao Geoghegan Hart at Valenciana and even picked up 2nd place on the last stage. Who knows what strategy they’ll implement here, but I expect fairly strong races from both riders. Bora also arrive with two strong GC contenders in Higuita (20 credits) and Hindley (16 credits), neither have started the season with too many fireworks, but maybe now is the time for them to turn on the afterburners and show us a little of what they’re made of. Rounding out the favourites is Almeida (24 credits), who has warmed up at the Palma classics with no results to write home about as yet. Usually, for a 24 crediter to be worth it, they have to dominate the race, and whilst I think Almeida will do well, he might not be worth it. Other contenders to consider are Madouas, Costa, Johannessen, Van Wilder, Foss, and Barguil.
The sprinter and stage hunter type riders are headlined by Jakobsen (14 credits) and he’s joined by Ganna, Cort, Kristoff, Küng, Hofstetter, and Trentin to name a few. Some of the bargains to think about include Penhoët, Mihkels, Onley, Van Uden, Vacek, and Wærenskjold available for 6 credits; and it looks a little bleak at 4 credits, but maybe guys like Vader or Pellaud fancy their chances on a day or two.
Ruta Del Sol
Andalucia is almost 100% a punchy climbers race. None of the stages finish with pure climbs, but there is sufficient difficulty to give plenty of opportunities to anyone who can sprint on an uphill section. As such, there aren’t many sprinters attending this one and there’s no time trial to mix up the stages either. So a 9 rider stack of climbers it is and it may prove tricky to select a well rounded team, here’s why.
Ruta Del Sol Riders
Tadej Pogačar (28 credits) blasted into the 2023 road season with an emphatic at the Spanish gravel classic Jaén Paraiso Interior on the 13th and he’s fully expected to take the win here and probably win at least two stages. Well that’s what we all expect anyway, anything less and it’ll be a surprise. His competition includes Mas (22 credits), Carlos Rodriguez (18 credits), Landa (16 credits), Geoghegan Hart (16 credits), and Haig (14 credits). Mas is making his season debut whereas Rodriguez and Hart both had a good outing at the recently completed Valenciana with Hart the best on GC on that occasion. Bahrain are taking a pretty strong team with Mohoric, Caruso, and Buitrago backing up Landa and Haig. Who knows what their plan is, but Landa was also going well in Valenciana, so my money is on him.
Seeing as this is punchy kind of race, these are the other names who should fancy their chances on the numerous uphill finishes. Teuns and Covi are both available for 12 credits; whilst there’s the likes of Strong, Garcia Cortina, Oldani, and Wellens available for 10. The bargain bin here contains some really exciting prospects. At 8 credits you can have Rota, Kron, Battistella, and Zana; at 6 there are Zambanini, Cepeda, Fraile, Eenkhoorn, and Colleoni; and down at 4 we have the usual outside bets that you may want to take a punt on if you’ve gone top heavy, but I have no specific recommendations here.
There are plenty of directions you can go for both races. Me? I’m going to keep enjoying this experimental phase that concludes with the UAE Tour next week and pick a couple of outsiders to back up the big guns, but my teams will look a whole lot more normal this time out as I try and find that sweet spot before Paris-Nice. I hope this has given you food for thought, and we should be in for five days of great racing! Oh, and the league code is 986859730 if you haven’t signed up already. Happy picking!
The Pelotonian 