"This is a circuit on which you'd better be alert all the time. The selection will be made via the back door on Sunday," Stijn Devolder told the Belgian press. "Those who are in the opinion that Madrid is a flat parcours will find they're wrong. This is a lot harder than expected. Last Sunday, in the closing stage of the Vuelta, we only did one of the two hills. The bump in the park is not a super-hard climb but it is good one and a half kilometres ling. In case we get a real race on this parcours, you'll surely get a serious selection. Vicioso tried it on Sunday on that, Ghesa de la Vila, on which I'll be expecting Bettini too. We won't finish with a group of sixty together. Riding towards that last turn of 180 degrees, first you have a light descent and then slightly uphill. From that U-turn onwards it will be every sprinter to himself, with still more than 500 metres to go."
