Vuelta 2022 - Final GT of the year

[MichaelB]

Next Friday will be the start with a TTT (haven’t seen one of those for a while !) of 23.3km.

Telecast on SBS for free again.

Will find some course summaries, but seems to be a bit flatter than past years. Plenty of hills, but not as many as I seem to remember.

Can Yatesy grab another ? Roglic hasn’t been confirmed yet and Remco is being touted as a contender, but for stages or overall ???

[DavidS]

I like the Vuelta, not quite the circus that is the Tour, although I love that too. Bit worried about the weather and fires though, wonder if they will have any impact on the race.

DS

[stevenaaus]

Looking forward to this after seeing a couple of team line-ups. Plapp in his first GT, with a strong Ineos team, and Rohan riding with Primoz...who must surely be underdone, but seems to be Jumbo's sole leader.

[MichaelB]

Dug up some more details ;



Route summary from Cycling weekly - https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/vuel ... n-the-menu

Official Vuelta Route - https://www.lavuelta.es/en/overall-route

Another stage by stage summary, this time from Cyclist UK - https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/2104/vue ... ed-to-know

Will be interesting, once they get to Stage 4 & 6 anyway ....

[MichaelB]

And link to Roadbook.

Sadly in Spanish, but pictures aren't

Edit : oops, just noticed no linky !! Will fix tonight

[fat and old]

And link to Roadbook.

Sadly in Spanish, but pictures aren't

No probs, I'll help you out. From stage 15 Martos - Sierra Nevada/Alto Hoya de la Mora/Monachil. 2,500m of elevation gain

Spanish: Cat 3 Puerto del Castillo 940m English: Oof. That hurts.

Spanish: Cat 1 Alto del Purche 1,490m English: You're kidding?

Spanish: Cat HC Alto Hoya De la Mora 2,512m English: Say What???

[AUbicycles]

Sammy B with the goods while jumbo pass the parcel. As team events, good to have a TTT in there.

[MichaelB]

Tonight's stage will finally be one to watch for most of it.

The 1st three were a bit of a yawn (for me anyway), but now we'll see the next wave of KoM jersey hunters with a Cat 2 & Cat 3 on the menu, and a slight uphill for the last km (about 80 - 90m climb) to maybe drop the pure sprinters ?

Will Roglic finally get the Red or another LJV team mate ...

Back in Spain, so the crowds will be a bit excited ....

[MichaelB]

Cracking finish last night.

Won't spoil it yet, but some interesting results. Mind you, haven't seen any of the real 'wall' climbs yet, so still early days

[MichaelB]

Froome maintaining his stellar form - dropped 13 - 14 min on each of the last two stages to now be almost 30 min behind the leader.

Impey got them some valuable points (as long as he's in the Top 10 of the team) for his 2nd place.

Be interesting to see how long Mollard holds on to Red, but the GC set for another shakeup tonight with plenty of climbing and the 1st 'proper' summit finish. Apparently plenty of 10+ % gradients in the final climb !

Who'll lose GC time tonight

[MichaelB]

Stage 6 was epic. !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! weather and some interesting GC gaps and a great ride by an Aussie for the stage win, although the telecast couldn't show him actually crossing the line, so bad was the cloud !!!!



Hi 1st Pro win too !!!



Interesting Top 10 atm - nothing like I would have expected.

Some of the bigger losers included Carapaz, Landa (big loss) and Hugh Carthy, whilst most of the Top 10 al lost a minute !!

[find_bruce]

Nice to see Alaphilipe working for Evenepoel-dropped some decent climbers too

[MichaelB]

Nice to see Alaphilipe working for Evenepoel-dropped some decent climbers too

It was surprise how many just couldn’t follow, and also how well Jay Vine held them off too !!

On a bugger of a note, Ben O’C just lost two teams mates to Covid !

[Sharkey]

Nice to see Alaphilipe working for Evenepoel-dropped some decent climbers too

It was surprise how many just couldn’t follow, and also how well Jay Vine held them off too !!

On a bugger of a note, Ben O’C just lost two teams mates to Covid !

Jay Vine's win was very impressive. He jumped away from the bunch of GC contenders with 10 km to go. Evenepoel went to the front of the bunch and upped the pace with 8.5 km to go. At that point Jay Vine was only 20 seconds ahead. By 7.5 km to go Evenepoel had dropped everyone except Mas but couldn't catch Vine, who still had 15 seconds on Evenepoel at the finish.

[Warnesy]

Good on the Canberra boy. Just caught up on 4 stages today. Interesting spread of times among the favourites. Should be a good last two weeks.

[find_bruce]

Ooops he did it again

[Mr Purple]

Crazy to see the guy who holds the KOM on 'Cootha Back' winning a couple of stages in a grand tour.

Epic effort. I felt happy that he could actually get a win someone could see this time!

[warthog1]

Wow he can climb!
Very impressive to watch

[MichaelB]

Wow he can climb!
Very impressive to watch

Indeed he can !

Interesting the others on GC that shipped a bit more time too !

[MichaelB]

Remco is proving quite a few people wrong !! So far anyway.

Looking fwd to watching Stage 9 tonight !! Rest day tonight and a 30.9km ITT to come tomorrow night. Will Remco grab a stage victory ?

And our matey, Froomedog is now 130th over 1hr & 46m behind Remco. He's last in his team but still got 51 min up his sleeve before he's holding the lantern !

[MichaelB]

Remco nails the rest of the field !

The high mountains will be interesting and also to see the further impact of covid having claimed a dozen scalps already ! Some key GC guys are missing some key domestiques, so it may be a race of attrition.

Meanwhile, Froomedog only lost 4:54 on the ITT, but he was over 7 km/hr slower. That's a HUGE speed difference. Maybe the covid from TdF really knocked him around ?

[MichaelB]

Yates and Sivakov now out with Covid as well

Bugger !!

[Warnesy]

Yates and Sivakov now out with Covid as well

Bugger !!

That’s a real shame.

[MichaelB]

Yates and Sivakov now out with Covid as well

Bugger !!

That’s a real shame.

Sure is, especially when they need the UCI points to stave off the Relegation fears.

At least Kaden won the stage last night !

[DernyDriver]

At least Kaden won the stage last night !

How good was Kell O'Brien's lead out ! Freak