Clasica Jaen 2022 - Alexey Lutsenko produces dominant long-range attack to win inaugural edition

Updated 14/02/2022 at 17:33 GMT

Astana-Qazaqstan's Alexey Lutsenko won the first edition of the Clasica Jaen, a new race on the cycling calendar contested on the gravel roads of southern Spain. Launching his first attack with 45km to go, Lutsenko then decisively accelerated clear of a strong group that also included Tim Wellens, with the Kazakh showing his trademark early-season prowess to win in Ubeda.

Alexey Lutsenko of Kazahkstan and Team Astana – Qazaqstan competes during the 1st Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 2022 a 187,7km one day race from Baeza to Ubeda 727m / #ClásicaJaén22 / on February 14, 2022 in Ubeda, Spain.

Image credit: Getty Images

Alexey Lutsenko produced a dominant long-range attack to take victory in a captivating inaugural edition of the Clasica Jaen in southern Spain.

The Astana-Qazaqstan rider showed the sort of early-season performance that become something of a trademark, breaking free of a group of favourites for the first time with 45km to go.

While a chasing group would reel him in, Lutsenko had preserved his legs sufficiently to again up his cadence and power clear of Tim Wellens inside the final 25 kilometres.

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And that last attack was to prove telling, the Kazakh surviving the gravel roads to take a convincing victory.

The race was the first at professional level to be contested over Spanish sterrato, and also featured several brutal inclines.

A significant early-season test, it is the first new Spanish classic to be added to the male cycling calendar in recent memory.

With plenty of riders looking to attack their way into form so soon after the start of the new season, the race was characterised by a high tempo on a brutal weave around the Spanish countryside.

The start and finish towns are only 10 kilometres apart but the riders made sinuous passage through five distinct off-road segments and more than 3,000m of climbing.

Arkea-Samsic were prominent at the front of the peloton, riding for Connor Swift, who took victory in the not dissimilar Tro Bro Leon in 2021.

But it was Lutsenko who showed the strongest racing legs. Twice the overall winner at the Tour of Oman, the 29-year-old is a noted strong starter to the cycling year.

Supported by an Astana team also including Miguel Angel Lopez, Lutsenko's original attack failed to draw an immediate response.

Wellens, a former podium finisher over the Tuscan dust of Strade Bianche, would eventually get back on terms alongside Swift and Lennard Kamna, but Lutsenko had been biding his time, restoring his advantage with another significant acceleration.

And though Wellens, Swift, Kamna and Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert rider Loic Vliegen chased hard in a small second group, they could not reel in the Kazakh.

Lutsenko's fatiguing legs had just enough to get him up a final savage incline on to the cobbled finishing roads in Ubeda, and establish himself as a possible contender for Strade Bianche, which will be held on March 5.

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