A series of five consecutive one-day races on the Spanish island of Mallorca sort-of kicked off the European cycling season (Spain hosted a few one-day races before Mallorca, won by Dylan Groenewegen and Michael Matthews, respectively).
The first race of the series, called Trofeo Calvia, took place on January 24. This race was 150 kilometers with over 3,100 meters of climbing in mostly shallow climbs. This is the type of course that in a Grand Tour would be one for a breakaway, but in a one-day race should be difficult enough for GC types to kill off the puncheurs and whatever scapegoat break was up the road.
A small breakaway of three riders attacked early and was given practically no chance to succeed. The strange component in the break was the presence of Simon Carr, a Franco-British cyclist riding for EF Education-EasyPost. A World Tour rider with his condition should not be going into a morning breakaway in a small race like this (Carr has won a stage of the 2023 Tour of the Alps, a .Pro race, and placed 11th in Strade Bianchi in 2021). But since he did that, he is not a man you want to give a long leash to.
With the weak nature of the domestiques and only a few top climbers in the race (Brandon McNulty, Marc Soler, and Aleksandr Vlasov) it was not a given that a strong man in the breakaway would be easy to bring back.
Eventually, the big boys did attack and whittled the peloton down to a dozen riders, before the UAE boys and Vlasov bridged up to Carr. The EF man hung on, however, and McNulty suffered with a cramp in both legs in the finale. Vlasov butchered the sprint and Carr took a famous victory from the early break!
Carr should have some big things coming in 2024. McNulty and Vlasov in look to be in strong early-season form, too.
The next race in the series was called Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitix. This was a bunch sprint won by Soudal-Quick Step’s young Frenchman Paul Magnier after a stong leadout by 21-year-old American Luke Lamperti who finished in third.
Trofeo Serra Tramuntana was another hilly affair with McNulty and Vlasov the strong favorites. They rode well but ended up in a group with Lennert Van Eetfelt, a young Belgian on Lotto-Dstny. McNulty opened the sprint too early and Van Eetfelt came around to claim his second professional victory.
Trofeo Polleca – Port d’Andratx was the final opportunity in the series for the climbers to test their legs and get a result. Pelayo Sanchez of Movistar won the sprint out of a small group containing most of the protagonists of the Challenge Mallorca.
Trofeo Palma was a sprint won by Gerben Thijssen of Belgium and Intermarche – Wanty. There is some debate that he might be their guy for the Tour de France sprints over Biniam Grmay… I don’t see it. Grmay is a much more versatile and probably at his peak a quicker man anyways. Plus, you have to take the Eritrean because of the story. Bini managed to win a small race in Australia already this year after a poor Tour Down Under, so let’s see if he can get a result in the Classics this year.
Anyway, this series produced some solid entertainment for January. It especially was nice to see some young guys get hard-earned wins. I don’t read too much into the results for predicting the rest of the season, except when it confirms my prior biases 🙂 See Below.
The Challenge Mallorca also helped justify one of my positions: seated squarely on the McNulty hype train. I’m hopeful for his 2024 campaign and the future. If I am reading his Strava correctly, he has mostly kept his powder dry this winter, which I think is brilliant. He will be a lot stronger come UAE Tour and Paris-Nice and hopefully the Ardennes and the Giro d’Italia. His next race is the Volta a la Communitat Valenciana, which is always a competitive early-season test. The field there is decent, so we will see how he goes against the likes of early-season Jai Hindley and Pello Bilbao, for example.
A large chunk of the peloton, particularly the top sprinters, will now head over to the Middle East for a few stage races in the Desert, culminating with the UAE Tour, which is the next WorldTour race. I’ll have a full February preview up soon.
Thanks to Twitter user and member of the Domestique Cycling Podcast Dieter Loos for shouting out my Lazkano essay! Within a few hours that became by far my most successful post yet (eclipsing, by dozens of times over, second place.)
And welcome to my new readers!
I’m super motivated and full of ideas; it also feels like this project is finally gaining traction. My goal was 100 essays in 2024, but at the rate I’m going lately (and if I’m covering 1.1 races lol) I’m going to blow that out of the water. I may even compile and edit these pieces into a book at the end of the year, in the style of legendary GCN/Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby. Now that I have mentioned the man for whom I am the unofficial chairman of his fan club, he probably warrants an entire separate essay on this blog. That would be a doozy… I’m rambling now.
Back soon,
Jamie
Puncheur 
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