Vuelta; Stage 7 (Aug 24): Huesca - Alcañiz; *contains unmasked spoilers*

dastardly00

Stage 7 (Aug 24): Huesca - Alcañiz
Distance: 160km
Highest point: 475m
Category: Rolling

There are a few undulations as the riders head towards Alcañiz then the route heads on another few kilometres to the Motorland Aragón motor racing circuit. Finishing straights don’t come much wider than this one but the sprinters will have to judge their final effort very well as the wind could well be a complicating factor on such open terrain.

Stage profile:



Coverage on Eurosport from 3pm.

Stage Betting: Degenkolb 11/10; Swift 7/2; Viviani 13/2.

AG2R

Comical stuff from the breakway :pac:

AG2R

Crash in the peloton

dastardly00

They are on the Moto GP circuit now! It seems like it is really windy.

AG2R

Sky on the front,will this be the day Swifty manages to do it?


Looks so strange on the circuit

dastardly00

Uran has been dropped but Sky are leading the peloton

AG2R

Team Sky have broke away with just 6 riders

AG2R

Froome taking over now

AG2R

Wow Swift died.

DEGENKOLB just powered home

Vivani pipped

Rovi

Was that Roche over on the left side somewhere in the mid-teens or thereabouts?

Edit:
Nope, Monderoy.

Roche 14th.

Edit 2:
Actually, Roche WAS in the mid-teens!

Monderoy 9th.

AG2R

Good finish again from Roche, he does like to be up there

retalivity

I quite like the idea of having sprints on a car racing track

Bottleopener

That was pretty surreal seeing them finish on a racing track, reminded me of the Tour de France finish on the airfield in Mende a few years ago.

dastardly00

I think Uran was dropped from the main peloton and Nico might have moved up to 6th on GC.

Rovi

dastardly00 wrote: »

I think Uran was dropped from the main peloton and Nico might have moved up to 6th on GC.

La Vuelta website is showing him in 6th place at +1'04"

dastardly00

Yup I was right, Uran finished 1'09" behind the winner. Nico up to 6th on GC

dastardly00

Stage results:
1. John Degenkolb (Ger) Argos-Shimano 3:48:30
2. Elia Viviani (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
3. Allan Davis (Aus) Orica - GreenEdge
4. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
5. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Radioshack-Nissan
6. Gianni Meersman (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
7. Dennis Van Winden (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
8. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
9. Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10. Ben Swift (GBr) Sky Procycling


General classification after stage 7:
1 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Katusha Team 25:53:04
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:10
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:36
4 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:54
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:54
6 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:04
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:12
8 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Katusha Team 0:01:17
9 Juan Jose Cobo (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:37
10 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling 0:01:39

donfers

i think he is capable of 4th in this race

dastardly00

Just having a quick look further down in the GC standings, Gadret and Van den Broeck are a whopping 17min 12sec and 17min 54sec behind the leader :eek:

riparooo

Another very positive day for Roche, nice stage tomorrow to Andorra and then the big test for him comes on wednesday with the TT.

AFAIR he did one good and one bad in TdF and this one on wednesday has a significant hill on it so he should be able to keep his losses down perhaps to less than 2 mins from Contador and Froome.

Still 2 mins loss.............Roche really needs to sort his TTing out, its such an achilles heel for a rider like himself riding for GC placing.

retalivity

donfers wrote: »

i think he is capable of 4th in this race

If he holds it together, as he's been doing, i don't think anyone other than rodriguez/contador/froome is better then him in this race.

dastardly00

retalivity wrote: »

If he holds it together, as he's been doing, i don't think anyone other than rodriguez/contador/froome is better then him in this race.

A big if though. Because of all the climbing in the Vuelta this year, everyone is going to have a bad-ish day at some point where they will really need the help of their team mates. But Nico is pretty much riding solo at the moment, so his bad-ish day could turn into a nightmare.
He's performing excellently so far and I hope it continues!

Inquitus

The ITT goes over a decent enough looking hill, so it should suit Nico.

riparooo

Inquitus wrote: »

The ITT goes over a decent enough looking hill, so it should suit Nico.

'Should' limit his losses but at the Tour de Suisse Roche was 2.10 behind the leader in the TT which had a very similiar profile (length and altitude gain) given the strength of Contador and Froome he may well fall back. In the same TT Gesnik, Ten Dam, Molema, Valverde all took chunks of time off him.

The top 25 of the Vuelta are seperated by only 3 mins, the kind of time Roche has lost before on one of his bad TT's. Wednesday is crucial for him to TT his legs off, otherwise he will struggle to get back into the top 10 which would be a shame given his great climbing this year.

Inquitus

riparooo wrote: »

'Should' limit his losses but at the Tour de Suisse Roche was 2.10 behind the leader in the TT which had a very similiar profile (length and altitude gain) given the strength of Contador and Froome he may well fall back. In the same TT Gesnik, Ten Dam, Molema, Valverde all took chunks of time off him.

The top 25 of the Vuelta are seperated by only 3 mins, the kind of time Roche has lost before on one of his bad TT's. Wednesday is crucial for him to TT his legs off, otherwise he will struggle to get back into the top 10 which would be a shame given his great climbing this year.

Agreed but if it was flat he'd lose far more to far more people.