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Itzulia Basque Country
Yeah....time to go climbing and rolling. Fields are getting stronger and stronger, no idea where to even start to try and unpick this one after the TT...
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127 comments
The results are correct. I was wrong.
Martinez did win it.
I expected the first rider to pass the summit to win but it was the fastest up the hill that won. The race organizers were also confused and initially gave the KoM to Schachmann but later corrected it to Martinez.
Very happy with my starting selection. Leading the standard comp with 5 of the top 7 scorers.
Yeah....well played teckert...
Yeah....Won the stage in the purist game....all down hill from here.
Been there, It's strange and horrible because theres such a sense of helplessness.
Debated long and hard Martinez/Denis choose the wrong one, for the wrong reasons. Not got a clue what will happen today. At least I put some real money on Schachmann yesterday sofens the blow somewhat.
I am increasingly concerned about TT specialists underperforming in TT's and surprisingly good performances from others. I know this was a different TT but there seems to be a general lack of definition. What the hell has happened to Tony Martin?
Considered him (put him in my purist team) but also, as above, considered Pogacar as well...either one would have been instead of Dennis. I think I was probably much closer to punting on Pogacar than Martinez though.
Tomorrow should be even more fun working out who to pick.
The last 40km include 6 stretches of very narrow gravel roads, 4 stretches of even narrower footpath and 4 or 5 Basque 'walls' thrown in the mix.
Then a relatively simple sprint with the last 600m averaging 6%.
To make things even simpler for the riders it is forecast to be wet and windy tomorrow afternoon.
PS. Don't forget the KoM points for the ITT. Schachmann 3+5, Martinez 2+4, Yates 1+3
I won't! Saw a comment on Reddit that the climb counts towards the comp so went to look it up and added it to the stage scoring this morning. Cheers for the heads up
Just looked at that stage for tomorrow....it has the potential to undo a lot of good that the GC boys did for themselves today. What’s your thinking?....breakaway with the GC boys staying close at hand would be my thoughts. A win for one of many of dozens of potential winners....Lutsenko, Sanchez, Ulissi etc...
Difficult to call.
I expect some GC teams to try and make it hard at the end as they could quite easily put UAE & EFE in difficulty and put their GC contenders out of contention.
Chances of crashes on the narrow roads are high, as are the chances of punctures. Riders risk getting dropped waiting for team cars.
The break could win it as a lot of teams don't want rivals taking bonus seconds. Although I think Bora will want to keep the jersey so probably won't allow a huge gap to develop.
We had a similar looking stage at some point last year...do you recall it?....maybe it was one at the Giro. If you can bring it to mind let me know so I can see how it planned out. It was just a very long ending on roads only about two widths wide and rolling all the way. That’s all I can remember.
Stage 12 of the Vuelta ?
Yep...that was it. Just checked the results and it was a reall man up of all sorts of riders. Do you think a similar.ar stage and result?
Different scenario. There were huge gaps in GC already in the Vuelta and the break was allowed a huge lead.
Tomorrow the break will not be allowed a big gap, unless it is only Padun and Wang.
Bora will want to keep the jersey and QS might want to set it up for Alaphilippe.
I think the narrow roads will cause the biggest problem, I'm sure there will be splits. If GC contenders are caught the other teams will probably drive it home.
Given the gap to the break shouldn't be that great, they will probably get caught and we will see a reduced group uphill sprint.
Dan Martin will get caught out, Simon Clarke will be working to help Martinez limit losses.
Aye. More or less my initial thoughts. Quite a good stage for somebody to try and run away but I doubt they’ll be let go.
Well got that wrong. Should have stuck with my gut feeling about Dennis....Thinking my purist team has beaten mys standard team by a distance.
Dennis wasn't far down at the top of the climb but lost a sackful on the descent.
What gearing were JumboVisma using ? Two of their riders fell off after coming to a standstill near the summit of the climb.
I thought I saw that Minardi, but then thought I must have misread it. Did he not puncture or something on the way down...seems like a lot to lose.
Today: Dennis, Kwiato, Bevin, Craddock, Martinez, Fuglsang, I Izagirre, De Marchii.
Purist: Yates, Ala, Fuglsang, De Marchii, Sanchez, Martinez, McCarthy and Madouas.
Kwiato, Castro, Ion Izagirre, Schachmann, Alafloop, Adam Yates, Marczynski, Grmay.
I mapped out the hilly part of the stage on RideWithGPS and it’s 1.6km long, over 10% for about 800m of that and maxing out at 18.7%., followed by a long and hairpinny descent into the town and some more tight corners. Should be an interesting one all right, and we'll see who fancies being brave on the downhill. Not Yates, I expect, after his unfortunate Tour stage last year.
My team for today -
ALAPHILIPPE
KWIATOWSKI
SCHACHMANN
FUGLSANG
BEVIN
MARTINEZ
MADRAZO
ITURRIA
The final 3 riders changed about 10 times in the 30 minutes before the start.
Castroviejo in, Castroveijo out, Craddock in, Craddock out, Clarke in, Clarke out, Cummings in, Cummings out, Konrad in, Konrad out, etc.
Played a similar game. I didn't end up picking eiher Konrad or Martinez which is now looking like a mistake.
Its raining!
Sooner than forecast yesterday so the early starters might not get an advantage now.
The technical descent should be even more fun - Could this tip the balance back in favour of roulers who can make up time on the flat?
Will anyone change bikes or are they all starting with a road bike - Froome would probably have climbed this on his TT bike but will anyone else?
Anyone could take this....
Seen a couple of sites suggesting bike swaps may be in order. Tough to call this TT...not even confident on Dennis being a decent pick...
Might need to tinker the deadlines a wee bit, they seem a bit off. Our stage 1 deadline is in 2 1/2 hours but the Itzulia website says the stage starts in half an hour, just trying to clarify now.
Also, I've now seen 3 different profiles for today's TT. PCS has the climb at 2.2km 9.5% with steeper ramps. This is a TT for the climbers.
Their Twitter has the first rider heading down at 14:15 local time, so I think we're accurate.
I think every stage looks like a GC stage, maybe some crazy breakaways too, but the GC guys will always be top 20. Who fancies it more. Hope I do better here than in Catalunya!
It does look good for them....but also good for one or two who've been having a thinner time of late. Somebody like Gorka for instance, amongst others. Actually...did he do well in this last year and then have a bit of bad luck or something like that...seem to remeber him being in the running.
Just had a look at stage 2. It is completely crazy towards the end, lots of really narrow gravel roads with short steep climbs.
This stage could have a huge impact for some GC riders.
Do you have a decent link for a preview Minardi?....I've only really looked at cyclingstages so far...and that's a bit thin...
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