Clásica de Almería 2021 [FULL RACE]

February 14, 2021

Clásica de Almería 2021 – Pueblo de Vicar – Roquetas de Mar : 183,3 km

With its coastal route and pan-flat finish, Clásica de Almería is a race for the sprinters and a rare opportunity for them to add a prestigious one-day race to their palmares. Only one can claim the coveted title however, who will it be?
The route for the 34th edition of Clásica de Almería is largely unchanged from previous years and aside from setting off from a new start town, Puebla de Vicar, the riders will follow the same snaking route through the Almerian hills before hopping onto the pan-flat coastal road that leads all the way to the iconic finish in Roquetas del Mar. There are four categorised climbs for the riders to conquer, but the toughest of these – the Cat-2 Alto de Celin, Cat-3 Alto de La Alqueria and Cat-3 Alto de Fuente Marbella – all fall in the first half of the race. Splits in the main peloton are highly unlikely on these climbs, their purpose is rather to chip away at a rider’s energy reserves and ensure that not everyone arrives at the finish with fresh legs.

A fraught, crash-marred finale in strong crosswinds in the Clásica de Alméria could not prevent Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo from claiming Qhubeka-Assos’ first victory of 2021 with a finely calculated, devastating late acceleration for the finish.

Despite losing sprinter Alvaro Hodeg to a crash and Mark Cavendish then also reportedly suffering a mechanical, the remainder of the Belgian Deceuninck-Quick Step squad kept a much-challenged but consistently firm grip on the closing kilometres of the windswept Clásica, all the while retaining solid options on victory in the shape of one-day specialist Florian Senéchál.

But all the Belgian team’s hard work and Senéchál’s strong lead-out in the last 200 metres in the coastal finish town in Roquetas del Mar proved powerless when facing Nizzolo’s ferocious final dash for the line.

Even though the 32-year-old Italian had opted to get past Sénéchal on the longer side of the right-hand curve leading immediately onto the finish line on the broad boulevard of Avenida Juan Carlos I, Nizzolo still had the power to finish well over a bike length ahead, with Bora-Hansgrohe’s Martin Laas in third.

“I never expected to start this season so well, so I’m very pleased,” Nizzolo said afterwards, “it was a tricky finish, quite stressful and a bit technical in parts, and what made it really hard was the wind.”

“But I got great support from my teammates when I needed it and this shows I’m in good form for the Classics too, which are my big goals of the first part of the season.”

Fourth and third in bunch sprints in the Etoile de Besseges showed promising form for the 32-year-old Italian and Almería is his first victory, too since he took both the European Road-Race and the Italian National Championships in the space of a few days last year.

However, Nizzolo abandoned the Tour de France last year with a knee injury but in just his second event since last summer the Italian is clearly back on track.

Despite its hilly first half and a strong early break, hard work by UAE Team Emirates, Deceuninck-Quick Step and the Astana Pro Team further raised already high odds that the 34th edition of the 183 kilometre Clásica would come down a bunch sprint.

Locally-born veteran Luis Angel Maté made his first outing with his new 2021 team Euskaltel-Euskadi a memorable one by securing the King of the Mountains title on the race’s biggest climb, the second category Alto de Celin.

But for all the Lynx of Marbella, as he is nicknamed, with Robbe Ghys (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Alex Molenaar (Burgos-BH), Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa), Oier Lazkano (Caja-Rural) and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Trek-Segafredo) collectively attempted to push their advantage out on the early series of ascents, their advantage never rose above four minutes.

The six were reeled by the halfway point of the 183 kilometre Clasica as the route headed back to the Mediterranean coastline. And the break which substituted them, comprising Savva Novikov (Kern Pharma), 2019 Vuelta a España stage winner Angel Madrazo (Burgos – BH), Samuele Rivi (Eolo Kometo and Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF) could barely gain a minute’s advantage before Astana, Bora-Hansgrohe and Cofidis began pegging them back again.

An uneasy half-hour truce that followed as the peloton ground through the never-ending ‘sea’ of plastic greenhouses in Almeria’s coastal hinterland was suddenly broken when the race entered exposed terrain with around 30 kilometres to go.

A wave of the arm by Tim Declercq was enough for Deceuninck-Quick Step to unleash hostilities, with support from fellow-Belgian squad Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles seeing the two squads attempt to split, or at the very least reduce an overly large peloton in size, in the gusting crosswinds. But even as Deceuninck were upping the pace, a series of crashes in the middle of the pack, one involving Hodeg, saw the peloton shrink even more.

Despite the difficulties in controlling the peloton on a circuit with more than its fair share of road furniture, the Belgians’ solid efforts, combined with some more limited assistance from AG2R-Citroen and Bora-Hansgrohe also ensured that there were no further breakaways. On top of that one key rival sprinter, Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) was left out of the running because of a mechanical.

Then in the fraught closing kilometre, Deceuninck-Quick Step did their utmost to press home their advantage with Sénéchal. However, Nizzolo’s late surge proved too powerful for any of his rivals and the Frenchman had to settle for second.

Results :
1 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos 4:18:44
2 Florian Senechal (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
3 Martin Laas (Est) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
5 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Bingoal WB
6 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
7 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Movistar Team
8 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
9 Marc Sarreau (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
10 Imerio Cima (Ita) Gazprom-RusVelo
11 Marco Canola (Ita) Gazprom-RusVelo
12 Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Nor) Team BikeExchange
13 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) Total Direct Energie
14 Jordi Warlop (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
15 Bert Van Lerberghe (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
16 Damien Touze (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
17 Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col) UAE Team Emirates
18 Filippo Fiorelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
19 Jesus Ezquerra Muela (Spa) Burgos-BH
20 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
21 Umberto Marengo (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
22 Mikel Aristi Gardoki (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
23 Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Pol) Bingoal WB
24 Andrea Vendrame (Ita) AG2R Citroën Team
25 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
26 Attilio Viviani (Ita) Cofidis
27 Pier Andre Cote (Can) Rally Cycling
28 Cedric Beullens (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
29 Jetse Bol (Ned) Burgos-BH
30 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Rally Cycling
31 Daniel Savini (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
32 Yevgeniy Gidich (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech
33 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Team Qhubeka Assos
34 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
35 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) UAE Team Emirates
36 Alex Jaime Fernandez (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
37 Savva Novikov (Rus) Equipo Kern Pharma
38 Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
39 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
40 Julen Irizar Laskurain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
41 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech
42 Dries Van Gestel (Bel) Total Direct Energie
43 Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech
44 Gonzalo Serrano (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:09
45 Juan Sebastian Molano Benavides (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:11
46 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
47 Antonio Jesus Soto Guirao (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
48 Samuele Zoccarato (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
49 Petr Rikunov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
50 Sergei Chernetskii (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
51 Lawrence Naesen (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team
52 Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
53 Yevgeniy Fedorov (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech
54 Javier Romo Oliver (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech
55 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
56 Davide Martinelli (Ita) Astana-Premier Tech
57 Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
58 Diego Rubio Hernandez (Spa) Burgos-BH
59 Juri Hollmann (Ger) Movistar Team
60 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Movistar Team
61 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
62 Anthony Jullien (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
63 Diego Lopez Fuentes (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
64 Johan Jacobs (Swi) Movistar Team
65 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) Rally Cycling
66 Jacopo Mosca (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:19
67 Sean Bennett (USA) Team Qhubeka Assos
68 Cristian Rodriguez Martin (Spa) Total Direct Energie 0:00:24
69 Filippo Zana (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
70 Patrick Gamper (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
71 Xabier Mikel Azparren Irurzun (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
72 Mattia Frapporti (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
73 Rui Oliveira (Por) UAE Team Emirates
74 Nicholas Schultz (Aus) Team BikeExchange
75 Emil Vinjebo (Den) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:00:29
76 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Team Qhubeka Assos
77 Michael Hepburn (Aus) Team BikeExchange 0:00:35
78 Callum Scotson (Aus) Team BikeExchange
79 Jannik Steimle (Ger) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:38
80 Nicola Conci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
81 Nathan Haas (Aus) Cofidis 0:00:42
82 Kenneth Vanbilsen (Bel) Cofidis
83 Jon Irisarri Ricon (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
84 Christopher Lawless (GBr) Total Direct Energie
85 Cesare Benedetti (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:45
86 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:47
87 Stan Dewulf (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team
88 Dion Smith (NZl) Team BikeExchange 0:00:58
89 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
90 Aaron Van Poucke (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
91 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Total Direct Energie 0:01:10
92 Maximilian Walscheid (Ger) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:01:12
93 Jack Bauer (NZl) Team BikeExchange
94 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:36
95 Mathias Norsgaard (Den) Movistar Team
96 Stijn Steels (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
97 Tom Paquot (Bel) Bingoal WB
98 Loïc Vliegen (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
99 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Total Direct Energie
100 André Carvalho (Por) Cofidis
101 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:42
102 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:01:47
103 Alex Colman (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:02:01
104 Taco van der Hoorn (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
105 Ward Vanhoof (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
106 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team
107 Alexander Kamp (Den) Trek-Segafredo
108 Oliviero Troia (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:04
109 John Archibald (GBr) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team 0:02:12
110 Nikita Stalnov (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 0:03:41
111 Alvaro Cuadros Morata (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:03:54
112 Hector Saez Benito (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
113 Victor Lafay (Fra) Cofidis
114 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cofidis
115 Kenny De Ketele (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
116 Robbe Ghys (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
117 Tom Wirtgen (Lux) Bingoal WB
118 Marco Marcato (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:04:35
119 Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Spa) Burgos-BH
120 David Gonzalez Lopez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
121 Oier Lazkano Lopez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
122 Carlos Garcia Pierna (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
123 Enrique Sanz Unzue (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
124 Jose Felix Parra Cuerda (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
125 Laurenz Rex (Bel) Bingoal WB 0:05:32
126 Ludovic Robeet (Bel) Bingoal WB
127 Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally Cycling
128 Nathan Brown (USA) Rally Cycling
129 Davide Bais (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
130 Samuele Rivi (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
131 Antonio Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
132 Alex Molenaar (Ned) Burgos-BH
133 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
134 Ivo Oliveira (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:07:06
135 Boris Vallee (Bel) Bingoal WB 0:08:57
136 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Cofidis 0:11:36
137 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:12:36
138 Mikel Alonso Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:13:26
139 Luca Pacioni (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team 0:13:56
140 Ibon Ruiz Sedano (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
141 Jordi Meeus (Bel) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:14:16
142 Jonas Koch (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:14:31
143 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux