Leigh Howard (IAM) brought a three-year drought to an end when he took his first victory for his new IAM team in a shortened edition of the Spanish one-day race Clasica de Almeria. After windy conditions had forced the organizers to reduce the race to just a 21km criterium in Almeria, he joined forces with teammate Aleksejs Saramotins to create a three-rider break on the final lap of the seven-lap criterium and then he beat Alexei Tsatevich (Katusha) and his teammate in the sprint to claim the seventh win of his career.

When he won a stage of the Tour of Oman as a neo-professional, Leigh Howard was tipped to become one of the future top sprinters. However, his progress stalled and after he joined Orica-GreenEDGE, he disappeared into an anonymous role as a lead-out man.

Howard made the decision to move to IAM for the 2015 season as the Swiss team aimed to use him as part of their lead-out train for Metto Pelucchi. However, he did nothing to hide that he also harboured personal ambitions and he showed that he was ready to grab his chances when he sprinted to second behind the lone Peter Kennaugh at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Today he was expected to play his usual lead-out role for Pelucchi at the sprint race Clasica de Almeria in Spain but nothing went according to plan. Extremely windy conditions forced the organizers to head back to Almeria and reduce the race to just a six-lap criterium on the 3.5km finishing circuit and after the wind had ripped the race to pieces, it was Howard who stood on the top step of the podium.

The 31st Clasica de Almeria was to be held on a 184km course around the city of Almeria. It was a mainly flat affair along the coast that saw the riders head inlands on a few occasions to tackle a total of four category 3 climbs but the final summit was located 32.1km from the finish from where it was a flat run along the coast before two laps of a 3.5km finishing circuit were scheduled.

It was great sunshine when the riders gathered for the start in Almeria but they were greeted by extremely windy conditions. As a consequence, there was a meeting between the organizers, the commissaires, Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Samuel Sanchez (BMC) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to find out how to proceed.

The decision was taken to do the race as normal and consider neutralization along the way but as riders were objected, the first 15km were neutralized. They headed out for their ride into a strong head- and crosswind and were riding slowly at just 20km/h. Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) abandoned.

The riders continued past the 15km mark but there were no attacks and they only covered 28.9km during the first hour. At the 40km, the riders deemed the windy conditions too dangerous and the decision was made to turn around and head back to Almeria.

After arriving at the finish, the organizers, riders and commissaires made the decision to do 7 laps of the finishing circuit. The first lap would be neutralized while there would be a real race for the final 6 laps and a total distance of just 21 flat kilometres.

At 14.30 local time, the riders finally headed out for their short criterium. There were a number of attacks but a determined Direct Energie team took control at made sure that no one managed to escape.

Meanwhile, one of the outsiders, Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural), left the race and one of the favourites, Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar), was briefly distanced. Alejandro Valverde brought him back though and he was safe in the peloton with four laps to go.

As the riders started the penultimate lap, CCC Sprandi had taken control while there was a big fight for position between the main sprint teams Cofidis, IAM and Direct Energie. That’s when Katusha came to the fore and they managed to rip the race to pieces in the windy conditions.

At the start of the final lap, a big selection had been made and in the end, the trio of Leigh Howard, Aleksejs Saramotins and Alexei Tsatevich escaped. Saramotins sacrificed himself for his teammate and then Howard finished it off by beating Tsatevich in a close sprint, with Saramotins holding on for third. Five seconds later, Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) beat Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Raymond Kreder (Roompot) in the sprint for fourth.

With this weekend’s pair of one-day races now over, the attention in Spain turns to stage racing and the Ruta del Sol/Vuelta a Andalucia which runs from Wednesday to Sunday.