Pascual Momparler, Spanish cycling coach, attended CICLISMOALDIA in a pleasant chat shared with Cycling colleagues in which he gave his keys to the World Championship in Glasgow.
The first thing he did was to analyze the course, which he does not consider too hard because of the profile, although he believes that the 47 curves (many of them tight) that have the layout through the streets of the Scottish city can generate a lot of tension for the position and can end up being key:
"We left Edinburgh and arrived in Glasgow and it's the typical road course that we always have before we join the final circuit. It's a little port and there's pretty much nothing else, with a port a long way from the finish. Once we're on the circuit there's a 300-meter climb, half a minute for the pros, for us maybe a minute and a half, for them 30 seconds. For me the hardest thing about the course is that you are constantly coming out of one corner and going into another and another. It's a very twisty course. It's not hard, the profile is not hard, but the placement is going to be paramount to wear you much less and in the end have the strength, I think that's what will mark the World Championship".
Aspirations of the Spanish National Team and the favourites.
"For me the aspirations are higher than other years, yes the World Championship has a clear name like Mathieu van der Poel if he comes out as we all think from the Tour de France, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel who has shown that he goes like a motorcycle, Mads Pedersen I always put him in the pools, But then we are there with other teams, there is Kristoff, the French may have options, we have very good people and very capable for this type of circuit, it will rain all week and we have called people who work very well in water".
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Possible tactics of the Spanish National Team.
"We'll decide the day before when we know the final list of participants. Strategically, what would suit us best is to create a large group, 25-30, and then that men like Ion Izagirre or Alex Aranburu, who know how to deal with this type of situation (he also mentioned Oier Lazkano, who has not been able to travel to Glasgow due to injury), stay in the fight for the medals";
"I have formed a very 'razor-sharp' selection, with 3 or 4 guys capable of finishing off whoever and wherever and who have already beaten them in some stage or some classic, we are not going with a clear leader because we don't have this Oscar Freire and we have to look for other types of strategies."
The absence of Pello Bilbao after winning the Clásica de San Sebastián.
"The good fan knows that this World Championship is very different from the Clásica de San Sebastián. This World Cup is not going well for him, it's not going well at all. He prepared for the Tour, he's done the Clasica and now he's going to rest. The circuit doesn't suit him, if he had come with us it would have been to help and that's what he's doing".
Momparler stresses that Pello is helping the national team without going as well as Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez.
"Pello is helping us, Carlos Rodriguez is helping us, Juan Ayuso is helping us by not coming to race with us. The more points they get, the more points they get, the more places we will have (3 maximum in Paris) in the Games and in next year's World Championship, which is a tough World Championship where we can say that we will have a strong name. We would have been thrilled if they had come to help Izagirre or Aranburu, but we would have deprived them of other objectives that are going to be our objectives as well".
The health of Spanish cycling.
"We are now very good, we have juniors who are real pearls, some will go directly to the WorldTour, we have people of great quality, are they going to be Alejandro Valverde? Hopefully, but the important thing is that we have people of great quality, we are making a big effort to get riders. We are trying to teach them that there is another type of cycling, we have always been climbers and sprinters, and we are teaching them that there is more, we are taking them to pavé races with juniors. Another type of cycling, which is not only for climbing. We have Carlos, Ayuso, Pello, Landa, cyclists who are on TV and who make 13-year-olds want to be cyclists. We took Valverde because he was the best, now the green shoots are arriving. There are youth and U23 riders who are also very good".
The coach dismissed the talk talking about the two events he organizes, the Classic Jaén Paraíso Interior and the Cyclocross World Cup event in Benidorm. He has set his sights on both to continue growing. In 2023 he has achieved Pogacar in olive groves and van Aert and van der Poel away from Flanders, what will he achieve in 2024?
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