The long wait is over and the first European pro road race of the 2022 season gets underway tomorrow, Sunday, in Spain with Irish involvement in Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana to keep us interested.
Matt Teggart and Rory Townsend have both been named in the WiV SunGod line-up, the British UCI Continental team that operated as Canyon dhb SunGod last year.
They will be the only Irish riders in action tomorrow when the first European road race of the year rolls out of La Nucia on the Costa Blanca for 175km of racing into Valencia.
Townsend (26), who contemplated quitting pro cycling just a few months ago, returns to WiV SunGod for a sixth season, having started out with the team as a 21-year-old back in 2017.
Teggart (26), another Irish international, is returning to Continental level this year having raced with elite teams in France for the past two seasons. Before that he rode with EvoPro Racing, Team Wiggins and An Post-Chainreaction.
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For both. tomorrow's race will be a challenge but it is definitely within the grasp of both, and their team. While there are no WorldTour teams in the race, ProConti teams Total Energies and Arkéa Samsic will be there in the 120-rider field.
The race features two climbs - the 14km Col de Rates close to the start and then the cat 3 Alto de Barx, which is 3.3km averaging 6.5 per cent and is crested with about 85km to go.
After the short descent of that climb the remainder if the race is pan flat and the most likely scenario is sprint for victory from a reduced peloton, which would suit Teggart and Townsend.
Niccolò Bonifazio and Chris Lawless headline for Total Energies while last year's 3rd place finisher, Amaury Capiot, carries Arkéa Samsic's hopes. Sacha Modolo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) and Gabriel Cullaigh - the British rider now racing with new Continental team St Piran after two mixed years at Movistar - could also feature.
Last year the race returned after a long hiatus, since 2005, with the finish coming down to a 35-rider sprint. This year the course is slightly harder as the climb mid-race is a new feature and may split things to a greater extent, though it is still a long way from the finish.
