Deservedly so, Spain gets their own one-day gravel race 1st Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior (dubbed the Spanish Strade Bianche), held between Baeza and Ubeda, two cities of the UNESCO World Heritage. In the final 50 km to go, Alexey Lutsenko soloed for a stylish victory and won the golden olive.
"I am really happy to take this win in my first race of the season. Together with the team I spent two good weeks at the altitude training camp in Teide and today I felt ready and motivated to try something. Last year I already won a gravel race - Serenissima Gravel, so I knew what to expect. The race turned out to be a hard one with a lot of climbs and gravel sectors. But the team helped me to save some energy for the decisive part and then I just did my best in attacks. I knew that Tim Wellens can be a real favorite in this kind of races, so my plan was to attack earlier and to try to go solo and it worked out perfectly."
-Alexey Lutsenko
"It is up there with Strade Bianche. But the advantage at Strade Bianche is that there are downhill on gravel, so it's easier when you are in the front to drop the others. We used 28, with 4.3 bars, much softer than usual, and today it was perfect. The uphills were quite steep, and we needed a little bit of a grip."
-Tim Wellens
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