After visiting the 16,2km course in Richmond, Spain selector Javier Minguez says the race will be a tale of two halves.

He has told Cyclingnews that the first 11km of the race are pan flat, but the final 5km are really hard and technical and after 250km will cause gaps. He reviewed various parts of the course as well, giving an insight into what the race will be like.

"The first eleven kilometres are almost completely flat, and to be honest we were looking at each other and saying 'why have we bothered coming here to see this?'"

"It looked like a good course for Mark Cavendish up until that point, although other people insisted that it was more for Peter Sagan."

In fact, the last five kilometres, Minguez says, are another story altogether. "They're really quite complicated to handle, there are little climbs, corners, cobbles. It's very tricky."

"With 200 riders, it's going to be hard for them all to go through that part of the course in one group. There could be crashes, punctures…."

The last kilometre, he says, has "about 600 metres of climbing, and it's not that straightforward, then there's a slight corner to the left and it flattens out for the finish. It's good."

When asked about Alejandro Valverde’s chances of competing for the win, Minguez said it could suit him, but the course would have to be raced in a particular way.

On the back of his course viewing, he released his 14 man long list for the race it is as follows: Alejandro Valverde, Ion and Gorka Izagirre, José Joaquín Rojas, Imanol Erviti, Juan José Lobato, Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar), Joaquim Rodríguez, Daniel Moreno and Ángel Vicioso (Katusha), Ángel Madrazo and Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-RGA), Luis León Sánchez (Astana) and Rubén Plaza (Lampre-Merida). 

He is able to select nine men for the main event on September 27. Meanwhile he has announced that the two men riding for Spain in the time trial will be Sanchez and Castroviejo.