The Super World Championships are over but the European racing continues this week, with Primož Roglič riding the Vuelta a Burgos, Mads Pedersen and Fabio Jakobsen at the Tour of Denmark and others riders in action at the Arctic Race of Norway, the Tour du Limousin-Périgord in central France and one-day races in Belgium. The Volta a Portugal also runs this week but has a largely Continental team field than in recent years.
The countdown to the Vuelta a Espana is also about to start, with riders set to gather in Barcelona in just nine days' time for the opening stage on August 26.
Roglic is using the Vuelta a Burgos as final preparation for the Vuelta a Espana. He has not raced since triumphing at the Giro d’Italia and spent much of July at an altitude camp with several Jumbo-Visma teammates.
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This year’s five-stage Tour of Burgos starts on Tuesday and includes a flat stage, a 13.1km team time trial, two hilly stages and a mountain finish at Lagunas de Neila.
Roglic’s biggest rivals will likely be Adam Yates who leads UAE Team Emirates. Aleksandr Vlasov and Lennard Kämna lead Borsa-Hansgrohe, Santiago Buitrago leads Bahrain Victorious and the USA’s Joe Dombrowski leads Astana Qazaqstan as he also prepares for the Vuelta a Espana.
“Primoz has not had such a solid preparation for the Vuelta since 2019. He was able to rest and then he had altitude training to build up as planned. He is in good shape now," Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Marc Reef said.
“The opening stages of the Vuelta a Espana aren’t straightforward, and the third stage already has a mountain finish. It’s critical to start strong. Therefore, having the Tour of Burgos in their legs already is beneficial for riders coming off a training block.”
The Tour of Denmark starts on Tuesday in Aalborg and runs until Sunday 20th August.
Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard is not riding as he prepares for the Vuelta a Espana but the start lists include Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Jakobsen and his trusted Soudal-Quickstep lead-out man Michael Mørkøv.
Magnus Cort and Mikkel Honoré lead EF Education-Easypost and Søren Wærenskjold heads the Uno-X team.
The USA’s Chad Haga rides in one of his last European stage races before his move to the gravel scene, while the Human Powered Health team tries to secure its future.
Jakobsen returns to racing after abandoning the Tour de France on stage 12 due to serious crash injuries he suffered on stage 4. He has recently confirmed his move to Team dsm-firmenich for 2024.
The Dutchman will have three sprint opportunities while the general classification will be decided by the hilly stage in Vejle and the 16.1km individual time trial scheduled on the final day around Helsingør.
The four-day Tour du Limousin-Périgord also begins on Tuesday, with Benoît Cosnefroy leading AG2R Citroën and Romain Grégoire flying the flag for Groupama-FDJ.
This year’s Arctic Race of Norway (August 17-20) has been overshadowed by the other races but is a 2.Pro-category stage race like the Vuelta a Burgos and the Tour of Denmark and so offers plenty of UCI ranking points.
The Grote Prijs Yvonne Reynders (August 15) marks the return of women’s racing after the World Championships, with the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens starting the Belgian calendar on Tuesday.
The women can compete in the Konvert Kortrijk Koerse (August 18) before both men and women tackle the Druivenkoers-Overijse race on August 19.
The men’s WorldTour returns on Sunday, with the one-day Bemer Cyclassics in Hamburg, Germany, where many of the best Classics riders from the 18 WorldTour teams will be in action.
Cyclingnews will have reports from each race.
