Vuelta - Stage 10, Mon Sep 2, Torredelcampo - Alto Hazallanas, **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 10: Torredelcampo - Alto Hazallanas 186.8km

With a Cat. 1 climb followed by a Hors Cat. climb, this stage will really separate the men from the boys! :eek:

The first 70km of this tough stage doesn't contain any categorised climbs, but there is plenty of climbing to be done. The peloton then has some rest-bite up until the 150km point, when the serious action begins with the ascent of Alto de Monachil (8.5km at 7.7%). The descent then leads straight into the first H.C. climb of the Vuelta, Alto de Hazallanas. This medium-long climb can be split into three parts. Part one is 5km long, averaging 5%. The road then begins to level out for a couple of kilometres, and there is even a short descent for a kilometre or so. The final part is 7km in length with an average gradient of 8.5%. However, with 2km, there are sections that reach 20%!! And as with a lot of climbs we've seen so far in the race, the run in to the finish line is actually slightly downhill.

It's going to be great to see how the GC contenders battle this one out! Dani Moreno has been let off the leash and has been excellent on the super steep climbs so far, but will he be able to survive the longer climbs? We might see Nibali finally playing some of his cards, as the longer climbs do suit him more than the short ones. But in saying that, there is a super steep section on the Alto de Hazallanas climb at the 2km to go mark, in which he could struggle if Moreno attacks. And of course there is Purito who is also brilliant at attacking at insanely high gradients. Ivan Basso, the big diesel engine, could lose a chunk of time with the constant change of gradient in the final climb. And without doubt, Valverde will be there or there abouts as he really is very consistent. Nico Roche has been phenomenal so far. He must be looking forward to the rest day on Tuesday, so fingers crossed he can hang in there! There are so many big-name riders who are only a couple of minutes behind in GC, we could see a load of attacks on the climbs.









Betting: A Valverde 7/2; D Moreno 7/2; J Rodriguez 5/1; V Nibali 8/1.

Here's a link to the Irish rider's diary thread.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport2 from 3pm.
Highlights on Eurosport2 at 8pm, and on ITV4 at 7pm.

Live text-ticker will be here.

Darkglasses

Last stage before the rest day. My nerves are shot, I think I need it just as much as the riders do :pac:

After his aggression over the last few days, I would really love to see Ivan Basso get a stage win tomorrow. Going by performances in this grand tour, he's a lot more deserving of a place in the top ten than Santaromita, Uran, or even Valverde in my opinion.

This is really yet another day where a GC rider can easily lose their Vuelta hopes. I think Horner's number might be up in that respect.

AnotherView

Me too.......its exciting but nerve racking ......Juts one day for Nico to do before a little respite

He has to break it down into junks and approach it that way ......rather than 2 weeks to go , otherwise it will be overwhelming....I know it is for me !!!

Tomorrow might be a breakaway

dastardly00

A pretty crap start to the stage for a couple of riders...

Bart De Clercq (Lotto Belisol) and Guillaume Boivin (Cannondale) have both retired from the race after crashing in the neutralised zone!

Bukman13

dastardly00 wrote: »

A pretty crap start to the stage for a couple of riders...

Bart De Clercq (Lotto Belisol) and Guillaume Boivin (Cannondale) have both retired from the race after crashing in the neutralised zone!

Zubeldia (8th overall) was heavily involved in a crash too. And reports that Koenig (7th overall) has been dropped from the peloton.

Edit: Brian Smith has said on twitter "Konig feeling sick this morning #LaVuelta Let's hope he gets through the stage....."

D3PO

Chris Anker Sorenson in the break. Good for Nico to have a decent helper up the road for the latter part of the stage

Bukman13

D3PO wrote: »

Chris Anker Sorenson in the break. Good for Nico to have a decent helper up the road for the latter part of the stage

Edet also in the break and only 4pts behind nico in the mountain classification. So CAS could also be there to defend that. He is only 4mins back on GC along with a few others who are close by so its a dangerous break to let go.

D3PO

Bukman13 wrote: »

Edet also in the break and only 4pts behind nico in the mountain classification. So CAS could also be there to defend that. He is only 4mins back on GC along with a few others who are close by so its a dangerous break to let go.

I don't think Edet is even a consideration tbh. Whoever wins the stage up the Hors Categorie climb is likely to get the KOM jersey anyway and that wont be Edet.

Your right though too many dangers in the break for it to be given too much leash.

EDIT : Break has been caught anyway

dastardly00

Does having a team mate in a break in order to help you later in the stage ever really work? Most of the time when the domestique is caught by the lead bunch he is out the back straight away.

Kav0777

dastardly00 wrote: »

Does having a team mate in a break in order to help you later in the stage ever really work? Most of the time when the domestique is caught by the lead bunch he is out the back straight away.

Andy Schleck's 2011 TdF stage win on the Galibier. Maxime Monfort was in the initial break and sat up to lead Andy Schleck down one of the decents (iirc).

Bukman13

dastardly00 wrote: »

Does having a team mate in a break in order to help you later in the stage ever really work? Most of the time when the domestique is caught by the lead bunch he is out the back straight away.

Contador's epic stage 17 win in last years Vuelta was only possible because he had team mates in a break.

Reginald P. DuM

And RadioShack did it the other day too, a guy up the road in a break took over marshalling Horner after Cancellara rode brilliantly to drag the peloton back into the final... It is rare tho, usually breakaway riders are cooked.

Lot of withdrawals today, must be 4 or 5 by now..

Fenn and De Gendt sent home apparently, holding onto team cars.. Ouch!

Darkglasses

Thomas de Gendt and Andrew Fenn have been disqualified for spending too long drafting cars.

I'm a bit glad to see the rules are being enforced.

CyclingBetting Ian

Hi all, new on here, but good to see an interesting debate/thread on the Vuelta. I have gone for Valverde myself today at 9/2, but have a number of rags at bigger prices running for me too, including Preidler at 200/1 who is in the break of the day.. thanks to a tweet from the Argos team this morning saying both Preidler and Barguil were going to be trying hard to get in the break of the day today! Also have Samu Sanchez at 42/1 and with the news about Alonso coming that might be an interesting bet on the latter part of today's stage - hopefully will want to impress the new boss!



I'm @cyclingbetting if anyone is interested in following me and discussing more!

Ian

Bukman13

CyclingBetting Ian wrote: »

Hi all, new on here, but good to see an interesting debate/thread on the Vuelta. I have gone for Valverde myself today at 9/2, but have a number of rags at bigger prices running for me too, including Preidler at 200/1 who is in the break of the day.. thanks to a tweet from the Argos team this morning saying both Preidler and Barguil were going to be trying hard to get in the break of the day today! Also have Samu Sanchez at 42/1 and with the news about Alonso coming that might be an interesting bet on the latter part of today's stage - hopefully will want to impress the new boss!



I'm @cyclingbetting if anyone is interested in following me and discussing more!

Ian

If the break don't make it, I fancy Basso to win, he looked very
strong on stage 8.

CyclingBetting Ian

he has been surprisingly strong hasn't he, been bossing it and taking up the chasing etc... great to see. Nibali has been playing mind games this morning saying he has won the Giro so he is relaxed and cool.. Moreno and Rodriguez have won nothing big yet!

Reginald P. DuM

Welcome to boards Ian, I already follow ya on twitter.... Hoping for a good last 70km when transmission starts, it's a Basso/Nibali rev cast for me!! Not a bit ambitious!

AnotherView

I feel really sorry for anyone who is not a climber in this Vuelta...it is toooooo mountainous

Should have had a few more sprinter days to break it up a bit

or at least up and down with a downhill finish or a slope finish

I think we will see lots of abandons from now on

D3PO

I must be one of the few who hasn't been overly impressed with Basso. Hes been good but when it comes to the crunch he doesn't seem to have that final gear. These climbs do suit him more but I don't think he will do it.

Hard to look past Valverde tbh.

My other prediction is that I think Horners GC chances will get blown up totally today

CyclingBetting Ian

Horner was sounding quite bullish this morning, was actually hinting that he thinks the last few days exertions will take their toll on some of the other GC guys today.. we'll see, I tend to agree with you, could see him slip back.

Cheers Reginald, thanks for the welcome!

Bukman13

How do you think Roche will do? He has dug really deep the last two stages, possibly too much, he said after stage 8 he had never felt so exhausted coming over the finish line. If he limit his losses to less than a min I'll be happy.

CyclingBetting Ian

yeah, going to be really interesting to see how he goes, no guarantee that Moreno will hang in with the leaders all the way to the finish either, might be made work hard for Purito. Roche has been excellent but how far in to the red did he have to go to take and try to defend that jersey? He may well struggle a little today, but then again none of the other GC big boys are exactly setting it alight yet are they?

D3PO

Bukman13 wrote: »

How do you think Roche will do? He has dug really deep the last two stages, possibly too much, he said after stage 8 he had never felt so exhausted coming over the finish line. If he limit his losses to less than a min I'll be happy.

Having read his diary I fear for him. Seems he's been way on the limit the last few stages.

He shouldn't have an issue until the final 6km anyway after that I guess we will need to see how it pans out. His mental resolve and his legs so far make be home he can do a good job.

Im hoping so anyway.

CyclingBetting Ian

just seen Moreno was also involved in that big crash that took out de Clercq amongst others, but was able to continue. good news for Roche if he is less than 100%!

D3PO

Zubeldia was involved in it aswell. If they are suffering a bit from it that could be two top ten guys badly hampered later.

Morrisseeee

They could have used this climb: 41km @ 6.3%................pity :pac:

Only kiddin, today's stage looks the dawgs_ballix :eek:

D3PO

Morrisseeee wrote: »

They could have used this climb: 41km @ 6.3%................pity :pac:

Now that would be a great Mountain TT wouldn't it :D

mistermatthew

D3PO wrote: »

Now that would be a great Mountain TT wouldn't it :D

Is that for real!!
Imagine descending that, epic.

Want to ride it

Darkglasses

Is it just me or does Horner always ride way off to the side of Fabian rather than behind him? Suppose because he's always out of the saddle.

D3PO

Roman shelled again. One less rider to help Nico. Dissapointing Nico has broken his ass for him this year and when the shoe is on the other foot Roman has nothing in the tank to help him back.

Not Romans fault the legs clearly arent there but could understand Nico being pissed off about it.

D3PO

valverde right at the back of the peleton hmmm

edit ah hes back up with his teammates now guess he was just taking a breather

dastardly00

D3PO wrote: »

Roman shelled again. One less rider to help Nico. Dissapointing Nico has broken his ass for him this year and when the shoe is on the other foot Roman has nothing in the tank to help him back.

Not Romans fault the legs clearly arent there but could understand Nico being pissed off about it.

I read a quote from Riis saying that Kreuziger has a low heart rate, but that they couldn't understand why he has performed so poorly over the last few days.

check_six

dastardly00 wrote: »

I read a quote from Riis saying that Kreuziger has a low heart rate, but that they couldn't understand why he has performed so poorly over the last few days.

Does that mean he isn't pushing himself? Or that he hasn't the energy to push himself?

dastardly00

check_six wrote: »

Does that mean he isn't pushing himself? Or that he hasn't the energy to push himself?

I'd say it's a bit of both.
Not fair on Nico though.

D3PO

Konig's illness seems to be hitting him now. He will lose monster time now being dropped this early.

check_six

dastardly00 wrote: »

I'd say it's a bit of both.
Not fair on Nico though.

Would Riis making this fact publicly known in his quote be considered a public admonishment of Kreuziger? Or was he just shooting the breeze with the journo?

cormacjones

Just turned it on. How is Roche positioned today?

mistermatthew

dastardly00 wrote: »

I read a quote from Riis saying that Kreuziger has a low heart rate, but that they couldn't understand why he has performed so poorly over the last few days.

Sure sign of being overworked this season

check_six

There are two breakaway riders about a minute in front of the main leaders groups after cresting the big climb. I'm assuming that Roche is in this group. The shootout will happen on the final very steep but shorter climb at the end of the stage.

Bukman13

Looked like Roche who went over the top first from the peloton, could be completely wrong but looked like the Poka-dot jersey, that would be 4th for 4pts.

Edit: there are more breakaway riders in between than I thought, he didn't get any pts.

AnotherView

Kreusiger hasn't worked any harder than Nico to be fair

Hope the 2 in front stay away and mop up bonus seconds

D3PO

no chance the 2 up front will stay away with the time gap they have. It will be the GC guys taking the bonus seconds at this point.

Movistar look so strong really drilling it at the front.

D3PO

Roche has 3 team mates there assume its Majika, Zuagg and CAS that's good news for him thouh.

GetWithIt

Classic Kelly story there from CK.

It's a steaming hot day in La Vuelta and the no one had any drinks left. Kelly kept taking long slugs out of an empty bidon and winking at the others.

Ahhhh, lovely cold water.

Cruel.

Darkglasses

Tomasz Marczynski has started the final climb. Great racing today! Very valiant effort by Marczynski

Morrisseeee

GetWithIt wrote: »

Classic Kelly story there from CK.

It's a steaming hot day in La Vuelta and the no one had any drinks left. Kelly kept taking long slugs out of an empty bidon and winking at the others.

Ahhhh, lovely cold water.

Cruel.

Muhahahahaha :P

letape

It will be interesting to see how Horner finishes today. He has had some good time trial results in the past so must be a threat for a good overall position, assuming he has properly recovered from his injury.

Darkglasses

Jeez this climb is claiming some scalps already. Brutal ramps.

Bukman13

Scarponi, Ten Dam, Koenig all dropped.

letape

Movistar not so strong at the front now - come on Anton!

Darkglasses

Nico in a fantastic position