Ireland’s Ben Walsh and Seán Nolan will make their European stage race pro debut tomorrow when they are part of the EvoPro Racing line-up for Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro).
The Irish Continental team will be part of a peloton that
includes WorldTour squads such as Movistar, Lotto-Soudal, Groupama-FDJ and
Cofidis. There are also top ProConti teams in the field including Arkéa Samsic.
Walsh (21) was a top level junior and after a bad crash at the National Road Championships in 2019 he is on the way back. Nolan (19) has never ridden a pro stage race before and the next five days will be a big step up for both him and Walsh, though also a fantastic opportunity.
Enric Mas (Movistar) looks like the stand-out name in the field for the general classification if the climbs shape the final overall.
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The presence of numerous top sprinters in the field
suggests the biggest teams believe there will be several chances for the fast
men. Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Arnaud Demare (Groupama FDJ) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto
Soudal) are all among the starters.
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Tomorrow’s opening stage is some 168.9km from Elche to Ondara and while none of the four categorised climbs is major, two of them are over 7km in length. That means there is scope for the race to split if the pace is high, though a sprint from a bunch is also possible.
Thursday’s stage 2 - some 179km starting
and finishing in Alicante - is far not exactly pan flat, though it should still
finish in a bunch sprint.
There are four categorised climbs on
Friday’s third stage and the final one is a 7km ascent to the finish line atop Alto
de la Reina after 165km of racing, which will split the field to pieces.
Saturday’s penultimate stage is a completely
flat 14.3km TT from Xilxes to Playa Almenara followed by the final stage on
Sunday; a flat 91.2km from Paterna to Valencia.
As well as Ireland’s Walsh and Nolan, the EvoPro Racing line-up includes Jonny Brown, Jeroen Eyskens, Cyrus Monk, Oskar Nisu, Brendan Rhim and Vitor Zucco. Monk and Brown may be the men to watch.
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