Vuelta 2018 stage 14:Cistierna - Les Praeres de Nava 171km

Inquitus

Your weekend fun begins with stage 14 -

Vuelta 2018 stage 14: Cistierna - Les Praeres de Nava 171 km start 12.55 CET

The 14th stage in the Vuelta a España ends at a summit that has never been included in the Spanish Grand Tour. Les Praeres is a 4 kilometres toil with an average gradient of 12.5%. The 171 kilometres route takes in four intermediate climbs.

The race sets off in Cistierna to return to Asturias over the Puerto de San Isidro (1,520 metres) and continue to an unprecedented arrival at Les Praeres de Nava. The climb in the Sierra de Peñamayor is a 4 kilometres torture with an average gradient of 12.5%. The final haul up kicks in hard with a 16% slope in the first 2.2 kilometres.
Possibly, the break of the day takes shape on the first uphill, which is unclassified and peaks at 8.6 kilometres. The route continues to the aforementioned San Isidro before the riders drop down a descent of almost 30 kilometres to the foot of the next climb, Alto de la Colladona, which is reached halfway. The Colladona is a 5.3 kilometres ascent with an average gradient of 7.1%

And on it goes to the Alto de la Mozqueta, a 9.4 kilometres climb at 6.2%. A short drop leads to an equally short uphill before the route drops down to San Martín del Rey Aurelio, and 4 kilometres later the penultimate uphill begins. The Alto de la Falla de Los Lobos climbs for 5.2 kilometres at 6.7%. The summit is crested with 21 kilometres remaining and following a drop and a flat section of around 10 kilometres the final haul up appears.

Alto de la Colladona


Alto de la Mozqueta


Alto les Praeres Nava


more details of Alto les Praeres Nava climb


Map of the stage

Inquitus

The Bookies Take

MAL seems the strongest of the GC men, despite a mechanical with 2km to go yesterday he made up ground on everyone afterwards, even if he did not catch all of them.

Nairo Quintana 7
Miguel Angel Lopez 7
Simon Yates 8
Enric Mas Nicolau 16
Rafal Majka 18
Alejandro Valverde 25
Davide Formolo 25
Michael Woods 25
Omar Fraile 28
Richie Porte 20
Mark Padun 40
Wilco Kelderman 40
Thibaut Pinot 40
Vincenzo Nibali 40
Bauke Mollema 40
Dylan Teuns 40
Ben King 40
Rigoberto Uran 50
Ilnur Zakarin 50
Oscar Rodriguez 50
Sergio Luis Henao 50
Sergio Pardilla 66
Tao Gheoghegan Hart 66
Alessandro De Marchi 50
Richard Carapaz 50
Bjorg Lambrecht 50
Mikel Bizkarra 66
Jack Haig 66
Laurens De Plus 50
Sepp Kuss 66
Pierre Rolland 66
Hermann Pernsteiner 80
Nicolas Roche 80
Floris De Tier 80
Gianluca Brambilla 66
Tiesj Benoot 66
Alexandre Geniez 66
Stephen Cummings 80
Igor Anton 66
Steven Kruijswijk 80
Daniel Moreno 80
Franco Pellizotti 100
Adam Yates 100
Gorka Izagirre 100

Inquitus

Van Barle out of the race due to that muppet at the finish the other day.......

neris

Inquitus wrote: »

Van Barle out of the race due to that muppet at the finish the other day.......

That Muppet resigned his position off the race after the incident.

Inquitus

neris wrote: »

That Muppet resigned his position off the race after the incident.

Fair play to him for that at least I guess, was the most nonsensical way to cause a crash, even beating the prior helicopter incident!

The number and position of the photographers there was a big factor too given the width of the road.

Can't imagine these guys are happy to have Kwiatokowski with them but no real chase from Mitchelton Scott or Movistar. Not as if he snuck away there either he was the 1st to go in that move away.

retalivity

Kwia
Roche
Brookwalter
De Gendt
Woods
Garcia Cortina

Not a bad group

neris

Roche in the breakaway

neris

This is a far more entertaining & more interesting GT then the tour.

retalivity

neris wrote: »

This is a far more entertaining & more interesting GT then the tour.

It always is. And this years parcours are relatively benign compared to previous years.

The spaniards do love their mental stages

dastardly00

Trying to think what are Nico's best chances to win this stage... They won't get too much more leeway because of Kwiatkowski. He (Nico) might need to attack before the final climb along with another rider maybe

dastardly00

44 km remaining, the gap is 2:08

dastardly00

De Gendt has had a mechanical and has lost contact with the breakaway group. Nail in the coffin for them as De Gendt is a great workhorse.

dastardly00

Michael Woods has crashed on the descent. Another nail in the coffin for the breakaway!

Inquitus

dastardly00 wrote: »

Michael Woods has crashed on the descent. Another nail in the coffin for the breakaway!

Aye 2 shortish valley sections between the final 2 climbs will likely spell curtains for the breakaway sadly, looks like a GC battle up the final Murito!

Yates, Quintana, MAL or someone else? Yates specialises on these finishes, Quintana looked really good on the super steep stuff yesterday when he dropped Yates at the line, and MAL seems to be in the best climbing form in the race?

joujoujou

Now only 3 riders left in the breakaway. 2 BMC riders and Kwiatkowski. 33 km to go, approx 1 minute gap. They won't finish ahead of peloton, I'm afraid.

Inquitus

Nibs split it on the descent, Red Jersey, MAL and Yates have become detached, there does seem to be some regrouping going on thought, worrying times for Mitchelton Scott!

retalivity

lopez, herrada and yates distanced on the descent

dastardly00

Jesus I thought Juan Antonio was going to keel over during the recon of the final climb! :eek:

joujoujou

Bahrain Merida leads the bunch, less than 30 seconds gap left. Bye bye breakaway soon.

Inquitus

Yates is in the Nibali group apparently.

Inquitus

Everyone from top 15 are in the "Nibali-group" except Jesús, de la Cruz, Bennett and Ben King apparently.

dastardly00

Kwiatkowski out on his own now

joujoujou

Now Michał Kwiatkowski makes pace for himself. Impressing!

Inquitus

joujoujou wrote: »

Now Michał Kwiatkowski makes pace for himself. Impressing!

How much does he need going into the final climb, a minute at least I'd guess? He's having some ride though to be fair, was fairly well leant on by the rest of the break, only DeGendt giving him a fair share.

joujoujou

More than a minute, IMO. Reminds me TdF couple of years ago, when Kwiato and Tony Martin (then both Etixx riders) went on breakaway. While my hopes are entirely with Michał, I am afraid he's not enough left to finish ahead of race leaders.

Inquitus

joujoujou wrote: »

More than a minute, IMO. Reminds me TdF couple of years ago, when Kwiato and Tony Martin (then both Etixx riders) went on breakaway. While my hopes are entirely with Michał, I am afraid he's not enough left to finish ahead of race leaders.

Aye its a short climb but the avg is so steep they reckon its a 12-13 minute effort.

dastardly00

I hope Louis Meintjes is okay after his crash. He looked very shook up

retalivity

Nibbles is some domestique to have working for you!

joujoujou

And there's no breakaway. Hopefully Michał will rest a while in the peloton to maintain their pace on a climb.

Inquitus

All splitting to bits on the lower slopes.

retalivity

All that work from bahrain and izaguirre is nowhere immediately

joujoujou

Most of GC contenders still up front.

joujoujou

Yates takes stage and red jersey.

Inquitus

joujoujou wrote: »

Yates takes stage and red jersey.

He made back around the 5 seconds, maybe a couple of more, that he lost to Quintana yesterday there. Quintana just seems to lack the faith in himself to keep it going when he attacks and gets a gap.

TheBlaaMan

..Is Quintana the worst GC contender of his generation?

Awful tactician.

Inquitus

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

..Is Quintana the worst GC contender of his generation?

Awful tactician.

Agreed, very hard to fathom what on earth he was trying to do there!

dastardly00

I can't believe that neither Quintana or Superman Lopez didn't win that stage... they had the legs. Chapeau to Yates, he grabbed the opportunity when the others were too busy looking at each other

retalivity

I reckon the narrative is already set, Quintana was blamed before about not attacking and sitting on wheels. This time, he attacked and brought lopez with him, but he wouldnt help. That's fair enough.

The fact Kirby wouldnt shut up about it either for the last 15 mins...

Inquitus

dastardly00 wrote: »

I can't believe that neither Quintana or Superman Lopez didn't win that stage... they had the legs. Chapeau to Yates, he grabbed the opportunity when the others were too busy looking at each other

Agreed, MAL seems to have the best climbing legs in the race, Quintana seems to have no tactical nouse whatsoever, and Yates was able to capitalise when he didn't seem to be the strongest man on that mountain, just used his Purito like last km skills having been allowed back on each time riders went up the road and started looking at each other!

joujoujou

dastardly00 wrote: »

[...] Chapeau to Yates, he grabbed the opportunity when the others were too busy looking at each other

Like yesterday's stage winner, I'd say.

Inquitus

Rough TT Estimates on the 32km flattish TT

Valverde 0.00
Yates +30secs
Quintana +1 minutes
Miguel Angel Lopez + 1.30 secs

There's some other decent TTers who could still be in contention I guess, but these 4 seem to be the emerging favourites.

Tomorrow's final climb is a brute as well, perhaps more suited to Quintana

Inquitus

Stage Results



GC Standings

dahat

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

..Is Quintana the worst GC contender of his generation?

Awful tactician.

I can only imagine what his DS is like in the car hearing what is going on.

He could have had the stage & red jersey today with a decent gap.

TheBlaaMan

dahat wrote: »

I can only imagine what his DS is like in the car hearing what is going on.

He could have had the stage & red jersey today with a decent gap.

Who knows whats going on with Quintana. He clearly has enormous natural ability which allows him to climb in conditions that are optimum for his talent (as we saw in the Tour), but beyond that, it seems, most of the time, that he is either overcome with doubt/fear or just plans badly. I dont think it is the 'you have to be prepared to lose in order to try to win' strategy that you see with some of the other contenders. He sure is frustrating to watch,

dahat

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Who knows whats going on with Quintana. He clearly has enormous natural ability which allows him to climb in conditions that are optimum for his talent (as we saw in the Tour), but beyond that, it seems, most of the time, that he is either overcome with doubt/fear or just plans badly. I dont think it is the 'you have to be prepared to lose in order to try to win' strategy that you see with some of the other contenders. He sure is frustrating to watch,

Absolute lack of confidence in his own ability to drive on.

Even Kirby got it right on commentary re: Quintana having to invest sometimes. Even if he'd taken lopez with him and finished second he'd have likely taken the jersey. Infuriating to watch as he's looked very good so far here.

dastardly00

Update on Louis Meintjes

https://twitter.com/TeamDiData/status/1038516084591259648

Dr Jarrad van Zuydam – Team Doctor

Louis had a nasty crash on a descent today while trying to chase back to the front group. He crashed on a corner and rolled down an embankment. He has suffered some injuries, he has a big laceration to the left elbow which required stitches. He has various other lacerations and abrasions which are relatively minor and wont need much more then cleaning and dressing.

There was obviously some concern when we saw the footage of the crash, because of the way Louis stumbled and there were concerns of a potential head injury and concussion in particular. Louis has been assessed thoroughly and he currently does not show any symptoms of a concussion.

He will be reassessed in the morning and if he passes that test he will undergo an exercise stress test to see if that induces any symptoms before we give any go-ahead for him to race.