La Vuelta a España - Stage 12 - Escaldes-Engordany. Andorra to Lleida *SPOILERS*

Melodeon

Date: Thursday 3rd September
Type: Rolling/Sprint
Distance: 173Km
Start/Finish: Escaldes-Engordany. Andorra / Lleida


Stage map:



Profile:



Main Climb - Coll de Bóixols - Category 2:



Last 5km:



The General Classification after Stage 11:


Preview (© cyclingnews.com):

An early climb but the sprinters will be fighting this one out by the end

This stage is identical to one from the 2010 edition that was won by Mark Cavendish.

Once again, the sprinters will be favourites for the spoils as the climbing, although quite substantial, comes mostly in the first half of the day on the gently weaving and picturesque ascent of the Bóixols, which is the only categorised climb on the route. Assuming they’ve still got plenty in the tank after Andorra’s mountain mayhem, the sprinters’ teams have got plenty of time beyond that to hase down the day’s break.

Given that this might even be the final opportunity for a bunch gallop until Madrid, they should have plenty of incentive to ensure that pursuit is successful

LIVE TV:
Eurosport 2 - 3.00pm
TG4 - 3.00pm

HIGHLIGHTS:
ITV4 - 7:00pm
TG4 - 8:00pm
Eurosport 2 - 9:00pm

pelevin

Jeez, last chance before Madrid - really, really not a race for the sprinters.
Degenkold might be feeling a bit of pressure tomorrow not to make a mess of this one. He looked easily the fastest finisher the last day & had even had Dumoulin, the race leader, helping close down attacks off the front near the finish. He's even money for the win with PP!

pelevin

My other hot-tip btw is Novak Djokovik apparently at 1/250 to beat Andreas Haider-Maurer in tennis. Fill your boots. Candy from a baby.

Melodeon

Here's a snippet of © Mikkel Condé's excellent preview of this stage:

03/09 - Stage 12 - Escaldes-Engordany. Andorra to Lleida - 173 km

The sprinters haven’t had many chances in this year’s Vuelta a España. Today, however, is one of the rare days where a bunch sprint seems inevitable. From the start, the first 35 km are downhill. Even though this stage should end in a sprint, we can expect lots of attacks. If a break hasn’t been established on the downhill section, it will happen on Coll de Bóixols. This category 2 climb is 15.8 km long and has an average gradient of 5 %. The steepest parts are at the bottom and on the final kilometers towards the top.

After a long descent of nearly 60 km - only interrupted by a few short uphill parts - the riders take on an uncategorized climb, which has it tops about 50 km from the finishing line. There are a few steep parts but it’s nothing that should ruin the sprinter’s chances. The intermediate sprint is located in Gerb with just 29.7 km left to go. From here, the peloton continues southwest towards Lleida.

More here:
http://www.c-cycling.com/sites/Vuelta_Espana_2015/stage12_preview.html

dastardly00

pelevin wrote: »

My other hot-tip btw is Novak Djokovik apparently at 1/250 to beat Andreas Haider-Maurer in tennis. Fill your boots. Candy from a baby.

Unfortunately I don't have thousands readily available to put on that bet in order to get a decent return :P

RobFowl

Nico is not that far off a top 10, also far enough back now might be able to get in breaks. If/when Froome zoomes off hoome he can have freedom to go for a stage ....

BarryAlfaro

RAFAL definately has a chance and I support him

Melodeon

Cyclingnews 'understands' that Froome is out with a fractured foot:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-out-of-the-vuelta-a-espana-after-checks-reveal-a-fracture-in-his-foot/

gordongekko

Melodeon wrote: »

Cyclingnews 'understands' that Froome is out with a fractured foot:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-out-of-the-vuelta-a-espana-after-checks-reveal-a-fracture-in-his-foot/

Serious performance by froome finishing the stage in that condition

dastardly00

Melodeon wrote: »

Cyclingnews 'understands' that Froome is out with a fractured foot:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-out-of-the-vuelta-a-espana-after-checks-reveal-a-fracture-in-his-foot/

A massive fair play to him if he cycled one of the toughest Grand Tour stages in recent memory with a fractured foot.

Eamonnator

So, have Sky got a Plan B?

Melodeon

Froome's Twitter:

Scans this morning confirm fractured navicular. End of the Vuelta for me �� @lavuelta #LV2015

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

ThisRegard

Awkward bone to break by the looks of it, must have been creaking and clicking all the way up. Although tight cycling shoes probably would have helped somewhat until he took them off and walked.

godtabh

https://twitter.com/Laura_Meseguer/status/639366023284682752

Madness alright

dastardly00

Eamonnator wrote: »

So, have Sky got a Plan B?

Well Mikel Nieve is in 8th place overall, and he is only 30 seconds behind Rafal Majka in 4th place.

Darkglasses

Feck. Well done to him for finishing so well

lennymc

Eamonnator wrote: »

So, have Sky got a Plan B?

Froome's other foot.

pelevin

dastardly00 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have thousands readily available to put on that bet in order to get a decent return :P

There's a valuable lesson in there for you about being rich. I put on 100,000 euros on Djokovic to win 400. I think I'll be dining well tonight.

neris

Flechas on there talking bout the driver who took him out of it at sky in the tdf, but was there another spanish sky rider who was taken out of it by a car on training ride in spain a few years ago and it ended his career? or am i imagining things

MPFGLB

Looks like Aru, Purito & Valverde podium for me now

Fian

ThisRegard wrote: »

Awkward bone to break by the looks of it, must have been creaking and clicking all the way up. Although tight cycling shoes probably would have helped somewhat until he took them off and walked.

And from that image it appears that the tendon connects to it, so the pain must have been pretty awful as teh tendon pulls on it during each pedal stroke.

kcera

MPFGLB wrote: »

Looks like Aru, Purito & Valverde podium for me now

No way,With the time trial still to come,Dumoulin can still take back 2 minutes on rodriguez,aru etc

If domulion dosent lose any more time in the mountains I think the vuelta is his..

letape

kcera wrote: »

No way,With the time trial still to come,Dumoulin can still take back 2 minutes on rodriguez,aru etc

If domulion dosent lose any more time in the mountains I think the vuelta is his..

It's difficult to know who will win, but I agree Domulin is still in a great position and I would definitely expect him to finish ahead of Valverde.

Domulin was better than Valverde yesterday and very close to Rodriquez. He reminds me very much of Indurain.

In fact I would also expect Majka to finish ahead of Valverde and maybe even Rodriquez.

Subpopulus

Was anyone watching todays race? No comments on it...

And the winner was:

Danny van Poppel

Inquitus

Good win for Danny van Poppel, not a great stage in general.

mhiggy09

Just seen the last 15km. Thought the peloton left it to late but once the break started attacking each other it went tits up and they got caught on the line. They should have worked together until the end. Still a no show for John deg tho