February Preview

*All schedule information, as always, courtesy of ProCyclingStats.com.

The shortest month of the year is absolutely packed with cycling.

Most of the professional racing in February will take place in warmer climates like Spain, Portugal, Southern France, and the Middle East. There are too many races to preview each with the detail that most deserve, but I will run through the most important races based on the start lists and routes.

The AlUla Tour (formerly the Saudi Tour) is starting as I write this at 5:00 AM (American Eastern Standard Time) January 30th with a sprint stage. In all, it is five stages with three for sprinters and two for climbers/puncheurs. As a 2.1 (third category) race, the field is not particularly strong on the GC side of things. Simon Yates is my favorite for the overall title (though I do not think he wants to ride this race; it is likely that AlUla, which is now a co-sponsor of his team, is making him do it). Dylan Groenewegen and Tim Merlier should have some nice battles in the sprints.

Tomorrow the Volta a la Communitat Valenciana commences, which is the first .Pro race of the year. It is a five-day stage race in Spain with hills and/or medium mountains every day. There is no incentive for sprinters to turn up, and the climbers will go at it. Brandon McNulty, Aleksandr Vlasov, Pello Bilbao, Jai Hindley, Santiago Buitrago, Lennard Kamna, and Pavel Sivakov should be the main protagonists.

Also starting tomorrow is Etoile de Besseges (2.1), yet another five-day stage race, this one in France. Mads Pedersen usually opens his season here and this year is no different. I have him as my favorite to win every stage including the final time trial. Ben Healy is also entered and could do some damage, but I do not think the stages are hard enough for him.

A series of 1.1 and 2.1 races take place in Spain, Turkey, and France the rest of the month. Some will contain some hitters, but there are just too many to preview. In fact, there are too many, period. Spanish and French teams have a huge advantage in their ability to farm these small races for UCI points. These races are essentially meaningless to the big riders (and includes most World Tour riders) but stacked together, they offer enough points to ensure the difference between relegation and maintaining World Tour status.

The best one should be O Gran Camino, a hilly 2.1 four-day race in Spain later in the month. This race is known now for featuring Jonas Vingegaard, with his teammate young Cian Uijtdebroeks (the hardest name to spell in cycling), as well as Egan Bernal and David Gaudu as big-name climbers. If Jonas brings anywhere near his top form, it will not be a close race.

As far as the .Pro schedule, there is the Figuera Champions Classic in Portugal (featuring Remco Evenepeol, Marc Hirschi, Joao Almeida, and Mikel Landa) February 10. This is a warm up race for Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta. The course is balanced beautifully between a nailed-on sprint and an attacking small group or solo rider taking the dub. Remco is my selection to open his account in style.

Then in Oman, there is the Muscat Classic (1.1 with minimal competition and I do not know the route yet). Then the Tour of Oman (2.Pro), another five-stage affair in the Desert, features Adam Yates for the GC. He is warming up for the UAE Tour with this one. He’s also UAE’s sacrificial lamb sent to the Middle East for sponsor obligations (Tadej Pogacar has graduated from that duty). Yates should not have much trouble dismembering the opposing cavalry assembled on the mountains of Oman.

Back in Portugal, Algarve is a five-stage race featuring the hitters from Figuera, plus Wout van Aert, Sepp Kuss, and other stars. Algarve is usually one of the best races in February, and one of the best .Pro races of the whole year. Pogi won his first career GC title at the fresh age of 19 here in 2019 (defeating established climbing stars) The race has two hill-top finishes and a time trial, as well as two sprint stages. Remco has won the Volta twice and will be a big favorite to do it again.

In Southern Spain, the Vuelta a Andalucia – Ruta del Sol is, you guessed it, a five-day stage race. Last year Pogi dominated this race, and while the field will be a little less this time around, Juan Ayuso should be interesting to watch. Can he step up from being decimated in last year’s Vuelta a Espana by Jumbo-Visma? As he angles toward the Tour de France this July, Andalucia is good place to start his season. Every stage is normally hilly.

The UAE Tour (from February 19 to 25) is a seven-day World Tour race with a flat time trial, one easy mountain (Jebel Jais), one moderate mountain (Jebel Hafeet), and four pan-flat sprint stages.The GC field is a looking like a walk for Adam Yates at the moment, but the sprint contingent is strong. There is always the potential for echelons in the windy desert which shook up the GC scenario last year, with Remco and Luke Plapp of all people gaining time on Yates on the first stage, before Yates did his normal nuclear effort on Jebel Hafeet to salvage a podium finish for the home team. If the crosswinds begin, Yates needs to get into a forward echelon so as not to lose time. He’ll smash them on Hafeet.

But the biggest race in February is Omloop Nieuwsblad, the first Cobbled Classic of the year. I’m excited to see Wout van Aert here as well as Arnaud De Lie and most of the rest of the hardiest Northern Cobblers. Visma-Lease a Bike will be hard to beat.

Then there is Kuurne-Brussels-Kurrne, which is 1.Pro race but definitely considered more prestigious than the average second-category race. This is often a sprinters’ classic, but has been won by attacking riders in the past.

Concurrent with the Opening Weekend (of Belgian cobbles), there are two hilly French 1.Pro races which usually garner some decent fields. But they fly under the radar because everybody is focused on Belgium. No need to split screen for them.

That is it for the February racing of major relevance (at least with current routes and start lists available). March is when the season will really kick off in earnest; most of these races in February are preparation for March and April. That is not to say they are easy to win (the level is high in almost every race from 1.1 up to World Tour now) but every rider in the professional peloton would trade 10 1.1 victories for one Monument. So these races, despite being hard and fast, are not the additions to the big riders’ palmares that make a difference.

On that note, I still recommend watching as much of February racing as possible. These races are good form indicators for who is going to succeed in the bigger races to come this spring. Remco and Jonas will race; Roglic and Pogacar will wait until March. Wout van Aert debuts in February Spain with two 1.1 races: Clasica de Almeria and Clasica Jaen. Mathieu van der Poel’s opener is unknown, but he’s still fairly tied up eviscerating the mere mortals who dare to line up next to him on the cyclocross course. The only member of the PCS top ten I have yet to mention is sprinter Jasper Philipsen, whose schedule is also mostly unknown. Alpecin-Deceuninck are the new EF, keeping the fans in the dark for as long as possible.

Speaking of EF Education – EasyPost, Neilson Powless just revealed his program for 2024 in an interview with CyclingNews.com. He pretty much took my advice to open his season later and focus heavily on the three Monuments he can realistically contend for, as well as Dwars door Vlaanderen and the full Ardennes week before a break then the Tour de France for stages. Good man.

That was a digression from the February discussion, but it did not quite warrant another full essay when I just previewed American hopefuls in one of my longer efforts.

So the best time to start watching European bike racing was last week (or in 2018 like I did, when Chris Froome launched an 80-kilometer solo raid on Stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia to conquer Rome). The second best time is tomorrow, with two races opening up the European stage-racing calendar. I’m stoked!

Jamie