One part of the CCC Sprandi Polkowice roster will inaugurate the 2016 season at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (February 3-7, 2.1). For two riders it will be a debut in the orange colors.  

"The Spanish race is held in the demanding terrain, and this is why we are lining up some of our best climbers: Sylwester Szmyd, Victor de la Parte and Felix Großschartner. For the latter two it will be the first race on our team.

"Maciej Paterski will also start the season in Spain and he will be looking for success in breakaway attempts. In case of a bunch sprint finish, Bartłomiej Matysiak will be our guy for the sprint," Piotr Wadecki, sporting director of CCC Sprandi Polkowice, said.

"For our entire squad it will be the first time to pin the racing number this season and other riders from other teams already have some racing kilometers in their legs. Because of that we might not be as strong as we would like, but with every day the form should be improving."

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana has returned to the UCI calendar after the 8-year hiatus. The 5-day event will kick off with a 16-kilometer individual time trial, in which TT specialists such as De la Parte and Nikolay Mihaylov will try to fight for top result to get in a good attacking position before entering the mountains.

The race against the clock will be followed by arguably the hardest stage, with an uphill finale to Fredes (cat. 1). Also the penultimate stage may cause some stir in the GC since the summit of the last climb is only a few kilometers away from the line. The last day of racing in Valencia shouldn’t bring any significant changes in the overall standings.

After this event, a modified roster will be competing in three other Spanish races - Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia (February 13th, 1.1), Clasica de Almeria (February 14th, 1.1) and Ruta del Sol (February 17th-22nd, 2.1).

Line-up of CCC Sprandi Polkowice for Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (February 3-7, 2.1): 

Maciej Paterski, Sylwester Szmyd, Felix Großschartner, Victor de la Parte, Nikolay Mihaylov, Bartłomiej Matysiak, Leszek Pluciński.