Vuelta - Stage 9, Sun Sep 1, Antequera - Valdepeñas de Jaén, **Unmasked Spoilers**

Darkglasses

Day 1 of Nico Roche's red jersey defense. We're on the road to victory lads.



The profile won't strike fear into Nico fans, however the finish at Valdepeñas de Jaén is absolutely no joke.

The Cat 2 Alto de los Frailes has an avg gradient of about 5.8%, which will probably be enough to draw out some attacks from riders seeking a kind of backdoor to the stage win. There's just over 16km from the top of the Alto to the finish line. Katusha will be going ballistic here, pushing hard for their duo Daniel Moreno and Joaquin Rodriguez.

The climb to the finish is monstrous. The avg gradient is no less than 10%, and at it's steepest it goes up to that number again, 30%. Katusha will be hoping for a repeat of the last Vuelta finish at Valdepeñas de Jaén, in 2011 J-Rod took the stage victory after an excellent team performance. Dan Moreno joined him on the podium that day, finishing third.

To be absolutely fair, it's hard to see past the two Katusha riders. The good news is, Nico should stay in red. J-Rod is the stronger of the two Katusha riders for this finish, but he's a full minute down. The final climb isn't long enough for there to be much danger of Nico losing that much, barring disaster. The danger is that Moreno distances Nico and takes the stage victory - 10 bonus seconds. Fingers crossed for wildcards like Pozzovivo, Nocentini, Poels, and/or Gilbert to mop up the bonifications.

Betting: Rodriguez 9/4, Moreno 11/4, Valverde 7/1, Anton 14/1, Gilbert 18/1, Henao 18/1, Roche 28/1

Kick off on Eurosport at the usual time. Estimated finish is 16.40 but probably sooner.

dastardly00

Thanks Darkglasses

manafana

My usual daily picks

Horner stands out as the value he is 22/1 and bigger with betfair. Otherwise Ulissi tempts me if his crash hasnt hurt him

TheBlaaMan

Last 5km profile




and here's a video of the fearsome finish in 2010 - not sure if the finish line will be in the same spot today, but I'd guess it is. Even from 500m out there is still plenty of potential to loose time today.........Nico will be ready !

Morrisseeee

Cycling is the poor cousin on Eurosport today, a little over an hours coverage !!

This finish is made for JRod but his teammate seems to have better climbing legs, hopefully Nico won't be too far away!

Henlars67

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Cycling is the poor cousin on Eurosport today, a little over an hours coverage !!

This finish is made for JRod but his teammate seems to have better climbing legs, hopefully Nico won't be too far away!

Is Moto GP really that popular amongst viewers? it's not even a sport either.

TheBlaaMan

MotoGP is good.........just take a few minutes to watch and enjoy. Two wheels good (either way )

Darkglasses

Not to worry lads, we're live now!

43km to go, 1.11 is the gap to the breakaway. Peloton will have them caught very shortly.

In the break is Luke Rowe, Lloyd Mondory, Anthony Roux, Francisco Aramendia, and Johnny Hoogerland.

Darkglasses

BMC, Katusha and Lotto setting the pace. Saxo aren't spending any un-necessary time in the wind.

Itziger

Darkglasses wrote: »

BMC, Katusha and Lotto setting the pace. Saxo aren't spending any un-necessary time in the wind.

Saxo seem to be as weak as water. Kreuziger out the back? Great team mate for Nico.

Glass Prison 1214

Itziger wrote: »

Saxo seem to be as weak as water. Kreuziger out the back? Great team mate for Nico.

When did he go out the back?

Itziger

Finally I see 3 saxo jerseys not far off front. Better.

Itziger

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

When did he go out the back?

I'm listening to Spanish radio coverage. They said he was dropped.

Itziger

See the Croat lad there asking for a bit of help with the elbow flick? He didn't realize he was on his own!

Darkglasses

Yup, poor Kiserlovski!

Eddy Boss is making a big move. Movistar up front now, on the descent. 14km to go

ednwireland

that s a great ad for tacx "can you beat marianne vos" errr no


go ebh!

Darkglasses

Katusha are going the front, pushing very hard. 9 to go

Itziger

Nico'll be doing well not to lose some seconds here. Katusha and Movistar looking good.

Darkglasses

Ahh close up that gap!

ednwireland

here we go

Itziger

Super ride by Roche. Almost no team mates, there was one in the last few k. Excellent ride though.

NeedMoreGears

That was close!

Not sure Nico will stay in red - hope I'm wrong

Darkglasses

Oooh **** this is close...

dastardly00

I think Moreno got red

Morrisseeee

Great effort by Nico

retalivity

lost it by a second, i think

Darkglasses

Moreno has it by 1 second.

Darkglasses

GC Moreno, Roche +1, Nibali +20, Valverde +22, Horner +28

Morrisseeee

Someone go back & re-time it !

ednwireland

moreno has it by 1 s**t

great ride from nico though to hold it that close

Glass Prison 1214

Gutted that he lost it but still a brilliant ride by Roche!

Darkglasses

StageMoreno, Valverde +4, Rodriguez +4, Roche +8, Sanchez +9, Nocentini +9, Nibali +9, Gilbert +13

dastardly00

Still an unbelievable fantastic performance by Nico to be only a few seconds behind Moreno, Valverde and Purito. And to be able to beat Gilbert, Basso, Nibali, Henao, Sanchez and a tonne of other world class riders.

GetWithIt

Tennis?! Are you fupping kidding me.

Darkglasses

Selected Stage

13 Henao +18
...
17 Horner +18
...
24 Ten Dam + 30
25 Mollema + 43
...
27 Brajkovic +47
...
38 Pinot +58

Darkglasses

It's all still provisional, but Roche's down by all of one second. Still a fupping brilliant place to be. Moreno leapfrogged him but he's put time into a lot of his other rivals, in some cases a lot of time. Great ride by Nico.

AnotherView

Our boy done really well ...chapeau Nico

patoh

Where the blazes were Saxo Bank ???, the rest off Nicko's team can take the blame for losing his Red Jersey ,they did'nt even ride on the front so had no excuse and should have been fresh to take it up with 10k to go, ah well great to see Nicko do so well , Mighty stuff

kumate_champ07

inspiring stuff, havent seen any footage yet but the guy is a hard worker and deserves great success. didnt he change to narrower handlebars this year? think they might be 38cm, his shoulders looks slimmer too, probably a significant decrease in frontal area this season

AnotherView

His team did let him down.......J-Rod let Moreno's wheel go on the climb so he could go away ......

If Saxo were to the fore then that may not have happened and it could have meant the difference of a second or two.....Nico needed to be nearer Moreno at the beginning or the climb

A shame but not the end of the world

godtabh

There is always tomorrow

dastardly00

I think Oliver Zaugg was the last team mate to be with Nico. He delivered him to the bottom of the last climb. Some strange results from other Saxo riders...

39. Rafal Majka @58" ...he must have struggled badly on that last climb, he has now fallen out of the Top 10 overall.

193. Roman Kreuziger @17'13" ..... wtf I know he lost time yesterday and that ruled his GC contentions out. And he is concentrating on the World Championships. But he was LAST in the stage.

AnotherView

I hope Kreuziger does not pack up and go home ....he owes Nico some help for Tour of Swiss, Tour de France and San Sebastian

L'Enfer du Nord

I know this may sound like clutching at straws, but in many ways you're better off to be a second down than a second ahead at this stage, less pressure on you and the team to defend against attacks. Not sure what Roche is aiming for now, a podium finish? Is Roche a better TTer than Moreno and Rodriguez? Of course the bonus seconds at finishes really suit those two guys.

Itziger

This is definitely his best chance of a podium by a long way although the team don't look good. The GC boys aren't exactly fliers in the TT so he shouldn't lose much at all. Lot of climbing to come but it looks like a relatively small group who are up for it.

AnotherView

He can be as good if not better on TT than Moreno or J-Rod or Horner or Valverde

Nibali is very good TT

I imagine Nico himself doesn't exactly know where he can go with this

I think the last week is very hard and hope he keeps something back ...fatigue and a weak tem are what will hamper him

Saxo need to get around him and support him fully and go for it..... he has as good a chance as any and better than most....need a better performance from the team than today

detones

Just finished watching highlights, cracking finish and nail biting stuff, shame for Roche but its only 1 second and he finished very strongly. Found the camera angle at the finish totally flattened out the incline. Looked nothing near 30% would have been nice to see a low angled shot.

Darkglasses

detones wrote: »

Just finished watching highlights, cracking finish and nail biting stuff, shame for Roche but its only 1 second and he finished very strongly. Found the camera angle at the finish totally flattened out the incline. Looked nothing near 30% would have been nice to see a low angled shot.

I know exactly what you mean! If there was nobody on it and somebody told me it was 5% incline, I would've believed them. From my limited experience photographing racing, it's seriously hard to give an honest impression of the incline while at the same time showing enough of the road to show all the racers. I think it's always a choice between either showing how steep it is, and seeing more than 10m of the road.

riparooo

Great ride from Roche. Re his team, I saw on the TV one of his riders sprint up behind him just going into the last 2k, tap him on the shoulder indicating for Roche to follow and then led him up to just before the really steep bit. The problem was that Moreno went very very early and Roche might have reckoned he was going to blow.

And he wasn't far wrong, Roche seemed to come out of the final corner and the run up to the line much faster than Moreno.

As for the TT - I'd expect after it that Nibali will be there or thereabouts for the Red jersey - as for Nico - who knows he, is quite inconsistent on these - but the one thing we have seen on this Vuelta is a Roche with a winning attitiude and reserves that most of us I would wager never knew he had.

I say at the moment that the podium is between six riders - Roche, Nibali, Rodriquez, Basso, Valverde and Moreno.

REBELSAFC

Ok its not quiet Thierry Henry but is there a chance we might have come out the wrong side of a home town decision here?

He is over the line and 7 seconds is showing on the onscreen timing and also on the timer above the finishing line.

P.S. I think in the general scheme of things he is probably better off in second place one second down. No worries about Saxo wasting energy to protect the jersey

Darkglasses

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Ok its not quiet Thierry Henry but is there a chance we might have come out the wrong side of a home town decision here?

He is over the line and 7 seconds is showing on the onscreen timing and also on the timer above the finishing line.

Ack, let's just not start that. The rules are the rules, and the rules goes by the transponder times, which always said 8 seconds was the gap. There's 12 more stages to sweat over, whatever happened today it was never likely to make or break Nico's chances of winning the Vuelta 2013 which are still very much alive and kicking to put it lightly.