The second weekend of February will bring the return to competition for nine riders of Team Movistar.

In the 36th Vuelta a Murcia , José Luis Arrieta will lead a powerful  seven-rider team led by the great local hero Alejandro Valverde who will be joined by local riders Ruben Fernandez and Jose Joaquin Rojas. Ion Izaguirre, Jesus Herrada, Antonio Pedrero and Rory Sutherland are the other selected riders for a distance of 199km between San Javier and Gran Via of the capital, with Alto Aledo (3rd), Collado Bermejo (1st) and Cresta del Gallo (3rd) to be tackled along the way.

Sunday is reserved for the 29th Clasica Almeria which has been dominated by sprinters preserve. The course has been modified in 2016 without changing the spirit of a race with four small climbs and the wind as main dangers. Andalusian Juanjo Lobato - twice second in the rcae -and Javi Moreno replace Herrada and Izaguirre on a date where Valverde, Sutherland, Pedrero, Rojas and Fernández will again be in action.