Leigh Howard wins Clasica de Almeria

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Leigh Howard (IAM Cycling) won a drastically shortened Clasica Almeria on Sunday, topping Katusha's Alexey Tsatevich in the sprint, with teammate Aleksejs Saramotins in third.

"It was a very strange day, with a crazy amount of wind," Howard said. "The race was neutralised and restarted numerous times. Finally we came back to where the hotel is, and we did a circuit race of seven laps. It was again super windy, and the race actually split with one or two kilometers to go in the crosswinds. I was lucky enough that I had good teammates around me, they delivered me and all I had to do was sprint for the last 200m."

What was intended to be a 184km race along the Almeria coast, with a couple forays inland to take in the four category 3 climbs, turned into chaos as extremely high winds blasted the racers with sand as they travelled along the coast. The organisers neutralised the first 15km, but it became clear that the race would be impossible to complete on the originally intended route.

The organisation eventually decided to return the racers to Roquetas de Mar and complete the event with a shortened circuit.

Results