Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux extends its stay in Spain after last week’s Tour of Valencia on the occasion of three one day races in the southern provinces of Murcia, Almeria and Jaén. The selections under the direction of Steven De Neef and Ioannis Tamouridis will participate to the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia (1.1, 12/02) on Saturday, the Clasica de Almeria (1.Pro, 13/02) on Sunday and the first edition of the Clasica Jaén Paraiso Interior (1.1, 14/02) on Monday.
The inaugural edition of Jaén Paraiso Interior will conclude the triptych on Monday with 187.9 kilometers of climbing and descending between Baeza and Ubeda, containing 40 kilometer of unpaved climbs. After a flat interlude halfway through the race, the unpaved climbs of Santa Eulalia (5.5km at 4.8%) and triple ascent towards the finish in Ubeda (8.2km aan 4.2%) animate the final. The same line up as for the Tour of Murcia completed by Hungarian rider Barnabás Peák will discover this first Spanish classic on unpaved roads.
« Within our line up for the Tour of Murcia we’ve got excellent options for both a breakaway with strong riders and a group sprint thanks to Kobe Goossens and Biniam Girmay. I’m looking forward to receiving to official start list, which will be an important source of information to determine our tactics. The day after in Almeria it is clear that we will focus on a bunch sprint with Alexander Kristoff, who finished close to the victory in one of the previous editions. The Norwegian sprinter improved his results each sprint day of the Tour of Valencia last week, approaching the victory with the support of his sprint train, so I’m looking forward to the final in Almeria on Sunday. I’m also curious to discover the third race in Jaén, which will definitely be a hard event. It is difficult to predict for all teams, however, the performances in Murcia might learn us a lot. I believe we can seize all three opportunities. »
