Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32km

Inquitus

TT tomorrow, the first stage that will likely open up some decent gaps in the race for the GC.

Depends how many riders you consider to be in contention, but Valverde is probably good for 30 secs on Yates who is probably good for 30 secs on Quintana who is probably good for 30 secs on MAL. Personally I think its between those 3 for the GC but Kruisjwijk can do a decent TT as well and may well climb up the leaderboard too. Still wide open and all to play for but as I say gaps will be more substantial by this time tomorrow and the pure climbers will know what they need to do in the 3 decisive stages of the final week when the dust settles!

The current GC standings



Vuelta 2018 stage 16: Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega ITT 32km start 14.06

2 intermediate times at 10.5 km & 20 km from start
Departure place Santillana del Mar is famous for its three lies. The town is neither holy (Santa), not flat (llana) and its not located on the sea (mar) either.

The fact that it is not holy and not on the sea either will not bother most riders, yet the fact that the route is rolling and not flat at all will be a disappointment to most of them. The route is rather demanding – we are in Spain, who would expect otherwise?

The first kilometre sets the tone with its 5% slope and following the descent the route continues on rolling roads to the next uphill section. At kilometre 9.4 the riders climb for 1 kilometre at 4% before the longest climb of the day appears almost 3 kilometres later. The 3.4 kilometres long sector slopes at an average of 4%. Following a 3 kilometres drop the last uphill sector climbs for 2 kilometres at 3.5% before the last 10 kilometres to the line in Torrelavega are either flat or downhill.

The profile of the route reminds of the individual time trial in last year’s Vuelta, although that route was 8 kilometres longer. Chris Froome took the stage win, 29 seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman with Vincenzo Nibali almost 1 minute back.

Former World Champion Oscar Freire and Juan José Cobo were born in arrival place Torrelavega. The time trial finishes at the Complejo Deportivo Oscar Freire – or, the Oscar Freire Sports Centre.
profile -

map of stage


what the heck is going on in the last 2km?!

Inquitus

The Bookies take! Overall

Simon Yates 1
Nairo Quintana 3
Miguel Angel Lopez 7/2
Alejandro Valverde 4
Steven Kruijswijk 20
Thibaut Pinot 28
Rigoberto Uran 66
Enric Mas Nicolau 66

The Bookies take! Stage 16

Rohan Dennis 2/7
Victor Campenaerts 11/2
Jonathan Castroviejo 12
Michal Kwiatkowski 16
Nelson Oliveira 14
Wilco Kelderman 50
Ion Izagirre 100
Richie Porte 80
Alejandro Valverde 100
David de la Cruz 100
Stephen Cummings 200
Matthias Brandle 150
Lars Boom 150
Ilnur Zakarin 300
Tony Gallopin 400
Alessandro De Marchi 400
Fabio Felline 400
Steven Kruijswijk 500
Joey Rosskopf 300
Vincenzo Nibali 500
Kasper Asgreen 500
Alexander Edmondson 600
Simon Yates 600
Andrey Amador 600
Rigoberto Uran 600
Gianluca Brambilla 600
Thomas De Gendt 600
Lukas Postlberger 750
Nairo Quintana 750
Thibaut Pinot 750
Vegard Stake Laengen 750
Gorka Izagirre 750
Nicolas Roche 750
Dries Devenyns 750
Tao Geoghegan Hart 600
Simon Geschke 750
Benjamin Thomas 1000
Damien Howson 750
Daniele Bennati 1000
Dylan Teuns 1000
Emanuel Buchmann 1000
Enric Mas Nicolau 1000
Fabio Aru 1000
Jesus Herrada 1000
Markel Irizar 1000
Peter Sagan 1000
Reto Hollenstein 1000
Tiago Machado 1000

retalivity

I completely forgot porte was in the vuelta til i saw him listed, wonder will he give it a go again at all before the end of the week.

Tomorrow, castroviejo at 12/1 looks tasty

Inquitus

retalivity wrote: »

I completely forgot porte was in the vuelta til i saw him listed, wonder will he give it a go again at all before the end of the week.

Tomorrow, castroviejo at 12/1 looks tasty

It's hard to comprehend why Porte is bothering to race here, he hasn't been in a break yet, he doesn't seem to be trying to find form the the worlds, he just seems to be going through the motions, did BMC force him to ride against his will?

TheBlaaMan

yaay.....the prospect of Valverde in the leaders jersey after tomorrow. I wish I could believe in him

BTW. Porte was actually in a l o n g breakaway on Stage 6.


Some fun with numbers. Based on info from procyclingstats.com, and looking at ITTs only...

Yates v Quintana in a ITT seems to have only occurred once, strangely, and that was at the Stage 6 in the 2015 Pais Vasco. Surprisingly perhaps, Quintana beat Yates by 13 seconds over an 18k route. Yates has significantly improved in ITTs since then, but still....

Yates v Valverde is 4-0 to Valverde with - on average - a slightly greater than 2sec per km difference; meaning Valverde might be expected to put a minute into Yates.

Kruiswijk v Valverde is 1 apiece, so perhaps nothing too much to draw from that, and Kruiswijk v Yates or Quintana is similarly too vague or hasn't happened in ITTs

Valverde has beaten Pinot in all 4 ITTs they have faced together.

Uran V Quintana is 3:2 with Quintana, predictably, winning uphill ITTs but Uran put 2min 40 into Quintana in a 42km ITT in the 2014 Giro (on which Quintana won the GC and Uran was 2nd). -it was a while ago at this stage. He also beat Quintana by 1m 10 in the flat 22km ITT in the 2017 Tour. Uran could possibly expect to be right up there near Quintana on the GC after tomorrow.

All to play for.....we'll certainly have a better idea of the final GC after tomorrow, but it is looking like it will go down to the last days in Andorra before the winner emerges.

Inquitus

Inquitus wrote: »

It's hard to comprehend why Porte is bothering to race here, he hasn't been in a break yet, he doesn't seem to be trying to find form the the worlds, he just seems to be going through the motions, did BMC force him to ride against his will?

Haven't heard Rohan Dennis mentioned since the fist week either. Likely saving himself for tomorrow, something Kwiatkowski might have been better off doing.

dastardly00

Start times (Irish time):

13:06 BRANDLE Matthias
...
13:59 CAMPENAERTS Victor
...
14:07 CASTROVIEJO Jonathan
...
14:10 DENNIS Rohan
...
14:32 PORTE Richie
...
14:37 OLIVEIRA Nelson
...
14:39 NIBALI Vincenzo
...
15:16 ROCHE Nicolas
...
15:22 ZAKARIN Ilnur
...
15:26 KWIATKOWSKI Michal
...
15:35 DE LA CRUZ David
...
15:40 KELDERMAN Wilco
...
15:44 BUCHMANN Emanuel
15:46 IZAGUIRRE Jon
15:48 URAN Rigoberto
15:50 PINOT Thibaut
15:52 MAS Enric
15:54 KRUIJSWIJK Steven
15:56 QUINTANA Nairo
15:58 LOPEZ Miguel Angel
16:00 VALVERDE Alejandro
16:02 YATES Simon Philip

dastardly00

Like most of the stages so far, the profile is far tougher than what the road book suggests!

Serious effort from Rohan Dennis there can't see anyone coming close.

Has someone been on to Kelly about calling him Ronan? He's getting it right or correcting himself today

neris

Some time from Dennis

dastardly00

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Has someone been on to Kelly about calling him Ronan? He's getting it right or correcting himself today

Awww, I prefer that he calls him Ronan :pac:

That should be the winning time.

dastardly00

Currently a one-two for BMC:

1 Rohan Dennis (BMC) 00:37:57
2 Joey Roskopf (BMC) 00:38:47
3 Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) 00:38:47
4 Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Floors) 00:39:07
5 Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) 00:39:14

neris

thats a bad time for Campernats as Euro champion

retalivity

Kruijswijk is flying

TheBlaaMan

Yates putting time into Valverde was a fantastic result for him, so too Kruijswijks leap up to 3rd on GC. Not such a good day for Uran.....

Are we heading for a situation where all 3 GC titles could be held by UK riders.....

Kirby was soiling himself at the prospect last week of 3 brits holding the 3 GT titles.

neris

Dennis confirmed he would not continue in the Vuelta a Espana so he can rest up and prepare for the team time trial and individual time trial at the world championships.

Must be a real pisser for the vuelta organisers when they have this every year

Inquitus

Yates done good, Valverde a bit worse than I thought, Quintana about par, MAL better than thought, and Kuijswijk put in a super ride, the rest of Lotto-NL Jumbo took the day off as well, so he certainly fancies a crack at the 3 decisive stages to come!

dastardly00

Inquitus wrote: »

the rest of Lotto-NL Jumbo took the day off as well, so he certainly fancies a crack at the 3 decisive stages to come!

It was like a rest day for the remainder of the team. I've never seen a team do so 'badly'. Obviously it had to be all planned... but I wonder if they were close to the time limit... That could have been a (hilarious) disaster! :pac:

retalivity

Bennett and Kuss will be huge for kruijswijk over the next few days

Inquitus

retalivity wrote: »

Bennett and Kuss will be huge for kruijswijk over the next few days

Hopefully Adam has ridden himself into form and as he could be an awesome domestique for the 3 big days to come! Movistar surely have to go all in on Valverde now, and perhaps would have been better advised to do so from the start.

fat bloke

It's almost quaint that the best climber isn't also the best time - trialler (trialer? -ist??)!

manafana

This route was more climber friendly however, so i think it suited climbers, gaps could being bigger on flat course i think, Dennis is a killer now, hes proving himself in the longer tt's now.
Uran podiumed in tdf, but it feels he will struggle to repeat now, the year he finished 2nd in Giro (should have won, had him backed too), he killed the tt but hes not consistent in them, same with Pinot he had a good yr of tt but doesnt quiet do it now.