The 2024 road racing season steps up another level this weekend with the opening men’s and women’s races on the European calendar overlapping with the final stages of the men’s Tour Down Under and the Benidorm cyclocross World Cup.
The men’s Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969 and the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia Sant Jordi in Mallorca kick off a packed five-week unofficial ‘early-season’ calendar of racing that runs through February to the Spring Classics, that begin with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium on February 24.
The early season is one of the busiest times of the year. Every team, sponsor and rider want some early victories to boost morale and show they are ready for 2024. There are also a haul of UCI ranking points available, which are vital to WorldTour status and ProTeam invitations to future WorldTour races.
The early-season events help riders work on their race fitness and race craft after long blocks of winter training, new teammates get to race together for the first time, sprint leads outs are tested and polished, and everyone lays the foundations for the bigger goals later in the season.
Multiple options for the men
From Valencia and next week’s Challenge Mallorca races, the men and their teams can follow a variation of calendars depending on their ambitions, season plans and abilities. WorldTour, ProTeam and Continental teams race together in a myriad of races.
The early calendar includes Etoile de Bessèges and other races in the south of France, the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Tour Colombia, the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal, the Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta Del Sol, the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia, the Tour of Oman, men’s and women’s UAE Tour WorldTour races, and many others.
While the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and some Classics contenders may opt to combine or precede training at altitude with their 2024 debuts, most teams will run double or even triple race programmes.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) are racing less and training in the spring, while the sprinters are especially keen to rack up early season victories.
From team camps to early racing in Spain
Most teams have spent a large part of December and January in Spain at training camps, taking advantage of…
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