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Canadian-heavy Rally Cycling team set for Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Anderson, Dal-Cin, Britton and De Vos to race 23-km team chrono

January 30, 2018
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Anticipation is high for this week’s 69th Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, a five-stage, UCI-rated 2.1 race in Spain that starts Wednesday. Ten WorldTour squads are in the mix, and the Rally Cycling men’s side, in its first season as a Pro Continental outfit, is sending four of its five Canadians along with three Americans. In all, it will be a race in which many riders make their 2018 debuts.

Ryan Anderson, Adam De Vos, Rob Britton and Matteo Dal-Cin join Evan Huffman, Colin Joyce and Emerson Oronte in Rally’s season opener, while another lineup starts the Dubai Tour on February 6.

Sky is sending a very strong team that will contend with BMC for Stage 3’s team time trial glory. The team’s Dutchman Wout Poels won in 2016 and he’ll be looking to return to the top step. Two-time winner Alejandro Valverde, who has already shown good form in January at the Challenge Mallorca races, will wear the number 1 in lieu of his reigning champion teammate Nairo Quintana.


Initially it looked like Hugo Houle would make his Astana debut at the Volta a Valenciana, but now it is more likely his first race will be Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia Costa Calida on February 10.

The Course
The race starts and ends with sprinter’s routes, ones that EF-Drapac’s two new fast men, Sacha Modolo and Dan McLay, will target. Team CEO Jonathan Vaughters said, “I think Valencia is a really good opportunity for us to start playing a little bit with our new sprint capabilities in Dan McLay and Sacha Modolo. That’s what I’m looking for this week more so than a general classification performance.”

EF-Drapac’s new sprinters Sacha Modolo and Dan McLay will look for opportunities on Stages 1 and 5.

Stage 2 is a hilly one that features a stiff climb that peaks 30-km from the finish line; its 3-km section of nearly 10% will create a small group to fight it out in Albuixech. The next day is a grueling team time trial that has been shortened from 30-km to 23-km. Organizers and riders are worried about the coastal winds as the race heads southwest from Benitatxell to Calpe. Teams will be hoping not to lose any riders in the first two days.

Rally has been working on its team chrono form in training camp.

Stage 4 is the queen stage, with six categorized climbs before the summit finish, a 4.6-km haul of 8.4%. The champion will be decided on the slopes.