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Chris Horner is the 2013 Vuelta a España Champion

Chris Horner is the first American Vuelta a España winner and oldest ever Grand Tour winner

Stage 21 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

The 2013 Vuelta a España is not quite over yet, but the mountains are. Tomorrow when the peloton cruises into Madrid for the 21^st and final stage of the race, Chris Horner will become the first American to win the Spanish Grand Tour, and the oldest rider ever to win any Grand Tour. 

Horner had the answer for all of Nibali's challenges

Horner locked his victory with consistent domination in the high mountains, and finally by dropping his main rival, Vincenzo Nibali on stage 20’s fearsome, cloud-covered Alto de L’Angliru. Despite a series of deep attacks from the Sicilian Shark on the steep slopes of the race’s final climb, Nibali was unable to take back the three second deficit to Horner that he began the stage with.

In fact Nibali’s many accelerations depleted his reserves, and Horner was able to pull ahead and finish the stage 28 seconds in front of Nibali. Only Kenny Elissonde of FDJ survived from the early break to take the stage win ahead of Horner. For Elissonde, it was his first win of the season, and easily the biggest of the 22-year-old’s young career.

Horner was 2nd up the Angliru, but ahead of all his rivals

Nicolas Edet of the Pro-Conti Cofidis Team will take home the mountain jersey after collecting the most KOM points over several impressive breakaways. Alejandro Valverde amassed enough high stage finishes to almost certainly win the points jersey on Sunday.

Throughout the three-week race The Basque-based Euskaltel-Euskadi team got more of their riders over the line early than any other team. Maybe it is appropriate that they won the team competition in the team’s final home Grand Tour in this incarnation. The bright orange squad will be taken over by F1 star, Fernando Alonso next year.

Stage 21 profile

Tomorrow’s final stage in Madrid is flat, and perfect for a bunch sprint. The sprinters who survived the mountains will get their last chance to shine. For Horner the stage will be largely ceremonial, a chance to soak in an exceptional triumph.

Stage 21 final 5k race route

Some of this race’s most successful sprinters so far have been Richeze, Boasson Hagen, Meersman, Flecha, Farrar, Matthews and Paolini. No one has been consistently dominant, but Richeze has collected four podium finishes in the sprints.

My pick for stage 21: Maximiliano Richeze.

He has been the most consistent, but has not yet grabbed a win.

Stage 20 Angliru Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

I am very sorry that I have not been able to post to this blog much the last few days. I have a family member in the hospital, and have not had the time to blog.

The Vuelta has been a great fight in my opinion, and, as many suggested, it will be decided tomorrow on the “Beast of Asturias”.

Stage 20 profile

Profiles of the final two climbs

The Angliru climb is long and steep. In some places it is brutally steep. With maxes over 23%, and an average gradient of over 10%, the Angliru is over 12k of difficult climbing. it hosts the final climb of the 2013 Vuelta a España, and should see some serious fireworks among the overall contenders.

Can Chris Horner continue to dominate the high mountain finishes and hold off Vincenzo Nibali, to take the crown for the 2013 Vuelta a España?

Can Nicolas Edet get into another break and seal the king of the mountains jersey?

Can Alejandro Valverde hold off a charging Joaquim Rodriguez for the final podium spot?

Tune in on Saturday to find out.

Sunday the race ends with a short, mostly ceremonial sprint stage into Madrid. Which sprinters will survive to contest the last bunch sprint of the race?

My pick for the stage-20 win: Chris Horner

Stage 14 Race Report and Results 2013 Vuelta a España

A young long shot survived to take the win in the first Pyrenean mountain stage today. We saw another stage winner come from the early breakaway on stage 14. Terrible weather had a big impact on the race, causing problems for many riders.

Here is my [rough] stage-14 report if you want to read a brief outline of how the race unfolded. Afterwards you’ll find some comments and my pick for tomorrow:

Stage 14 profile

Stage 14

Baga to Andorra, 155.7k

First day of bad weather

Rain, cold (Temps mid 40’s; beow 40f/5c at Envalira summit)

No TV images for first couple of hours due to cloud cover.

*Early Break went at km3: LL Sanchez, Gilbert, Ratto, Chainel, and Brown.

Lead is up to 11:25

The leaders are on the HC Envalira climb:

The HC climb is 26.7k long

Brown has been there to help Sanchez;

Brown and Chainel are quickly dropped on the climb

Stage 14, 15 and 16 Pyrenees Previews 2013 Vuelta a España

Collective profiles of stages 14, 15 and 16 through the Pyrenees

The Pyrenean stages visit three countries

Stages 14, 15 and 16 take the Vuelta a España into the majestic Pyrenees. The peloton will spend time in Andorra and France, cross eleven categorized climbs—five of which are category 1 or above—and only the strong will survive. Each of the next three stages ends with a category-1 summit finish.  Not one is a walk in the park, but stage 15 stands out as the big killer. I don’t know what other folks think, but in my opinion, stage 15 (which traverses four cat-1 climbs, and ends with the Peyresourde-Peyragudes double) is the queen stage of this Vuelta.

I am not going to be around for a few days, so I am writing this before stage 13. This post is a brief, single preview now for all three Pyrenean stages...

Stage 13 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

Stage 13 profile

Stage 13 on the map

Stage 13 is a rolling 169 kilometers, which looks at first glance like a sprinter’s stage. But the profile might be slightly misleading. The most outstanding characteristic on the profile is the climb that comes 115 kilometers into the stage. The category-1 Alto del Rat Penat rises 460 meters over 4.3k for an average gradient of a painful 10.6% and a max of 16%, but it tops out with about 50k to go to the finish. It should produce some splits in the peloton, probably dropping some of the sprinters, but 50k is a lot of road to pull back an escape.

The cat-1 climb profile

Ten KOM points are available at the summit of the category-1 Alto del Rat Penat climb, in addition to the three points up for grabs on the early cat-3 climb. While that is no windfall of mountain points, it could still be significant enough in a tight polka dot jersey race, to tempt a persistent jersey hunter like maybe Cofidis’ Nicolas Edet, or Saxo’s Tomas Marczynski, to get into the break.

The final 5k ends with a short slope up

The finale should prove to be the deciding factor when the riders speed in to Castelldefels on the Balearic Coast near Barcelona. 15 flat final kilometers lead up to a four hundred meter slope up to the line. The hill gets steeper toward the top, so this is not exactly ideal for the sprinters. But the stronger, punchy finishers should like the look of the finale.

Expect Philippe Gilbert and Edvald Boasson Hagen to go for it again tomorrow. I would also expect to see Rinaldo Nocentini, Michael Matthews, Gianni Meersman, maybe Stybar or Flecha, and possibly several of the top GC riders take a shot at that final kick up to the line. I would not be surprised at all to see Fabian Cancellara take another shot at a stage win on Friday.

My pick to win stage 13: I really like Nocentini, Gilbert, and Boasson Hagen for stage 13. Yesterday I picked Gilbert to win stage 13, but then he won stage 12 today. So I am going to go with Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky for the win on Friday.

My dark-horse pick goes to Warren Barguil of Argos Shimano. 

Stage 12 Recap and comments 2013 Vuelta a España

After almost an entire year, Philippe Gilbert of Team BMC has broken the curse of the rainbow jersey. The World Champion beat Edvald Boasson Hagen to the finish line on stage 12 at the Vuelta a España today. Gilbert took his first win since his victory at the 2012 World Championship Road Race last September 23^rd.

World Champ Gilbert breaks the curse

The finale of stage 12 appeared to be more difficult than the profile suggested. More inclines (though not steep) in the final kilometer particularly made a difference. The stage did come down to a bunch sprint finish, as expected, but it proved to be slightly more selective than I anticipated. 

The peloton caught the stage’s three early escapees inside of 19k to go, and a large field of riders was on hand to contest the finish. Edvald Boasson Hagen launched an impressive attack in the final 250 meters and built a quick gap, but Gilbert managed to come from behind and overtake the big Norwegian from Team Sky, in the last 20 meters. Both riders are tuning up for the upcoming World Championships in Tuscany. There, Gilbert will try to defend the rainbow bands in a 280k course that is supposed to be a difficult one.

Stage 12 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

Fabian Cancellara put the big gears to work in the TT

Before the Vuelta began Fabian Cancellara expressed little interest in today’s hilly 38.8k time trial course. His primary goal, he said, was to train for the upcoming World Championships. The Swiss TT master has been a big part of Horner’s success so far, driving the train on all kinds of terrain, setting strong paces in the peloton, and nabbing a couple of stage podium finishes for himself and his Radioshack-soon to be-Trek team in the process.

Because of Cancellara’s value on the road to his Radioshack team, today’s hilly parcours, and Tony Martin’s post-reconnaissance statement that it was a course for the climbers, I was not sure Spartacus would go full gas today—or if he did, that he could pull out a win. But I guess you can’t take the time trial out of the time trialer.   

Cancellara’s time proved to be the best on the road today. He says he is still deciding about which race

Stage 11 Time Trial Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

"The old man" Horner in red again

Stage 10 of the Vuelta a España featured a steep summit finish where Radioshack’s Chris Horner earned his second stage win of the race, and reclaimed the red jersey of overall race leader as a bonus. To the other top GC contenders the American’s relentless attack with about 4.5k to go must have seemed too early to stick. It was not until almost 2k to go that Vincenzo Nibali responded with a move of his own to chase down the plucky American.

Nibali finished 48 seconds behind Horner, and :14 ahead of Valverde, Basso, Rodriguez and Pinot, with Nicolas Roche another eight seconds back. Daniel Moreno struggled on the climb, lost the race lead, and dropped down to 6^th place.

Leopold Konig and Ivan Basso swapped places, Konig moved down from 7^th to 11^th place, and Basso up to 7^th from 11^th. The Italian Cannondale leader moving up as a result of the very good form he has been showing in the mountains.

You can see there was a lot more movement in the standings than after stage 9. Many riders made either significant advances or losses based on their performance on the final climb up the Alto de Hazallanas on Monday. Notably, beyond Horner moving into the lead, and the other “rearranging” of the top five, Thibaut Pinot of FDJ found the big climb to his liking, and he moved up ten spots to 8^th place overall. His higher aspirations may find trouble next weekend however, with stages 14 and 15, as more descending will be on the menu—Pinot’s big weakness.

Stage 10 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

Mountainous stage 10 is the last in the south

Here is a reminder of the demanding stage-10 profile for Monday. The big summit finish will surely see more changes to the overall classifications. The GC favorites will likely fight hard for advantages, as the stage is followed by a welcome rest day on Tuesday (there is however a long transfer north before stage 11). After the rest day the riders will tackle the only individual time trial of the race on Wednesday which will further establish the pecking order ahead of the big Pyrenean stages to come.

Stage 10 Profile

 

Stage 10 categorized climb profiles

My pick to win stage 10: Joaquim Rodriguez.

I think Purito will want to go for whatever time he can grab in the mountains, before the TT on stage 11.

 

Sunday Standings Update - Stage 9 2013 Vuelta a España

Continuing from the previous post, here is a table of the top 40 riders in the General Classification for the Vuelta a España after stage 9. Again, the last column shows the number of places each rider has moved up or down in the standings since the previous stage.

As expected, stage 9 did not produce the same kind of time splits as stage 8—or as stage 10 will on Monday. Daniel Moreno took over the race lead with his impressive attack on the final steep kick up to the finish on Sunday. Most riders in the top 40 only rose or slid one to three spots. Pinot is the only one to have dropped back as many as five spots, and Purito’s four-spot jump up to 6^th place puts him among the best improvers on stage 9.

2013 Vuelta a España Standings after stage 8

Here is a look at the overall standings, and how they have changed over the last three stages. I first included the GC standings after stage 7, then stage 8, and finally stage 9. The final column on the stages-8 and 9 tables shows the number of places in the standings that each rider has gained or lost from the previous stage.

You can see who the big winners and losers were. For instance, on the stage-8 summit finish, most noticeable among the losers are Roman Kreuziger (who coughed up more than five minutes on Saturday’s climb to the finish, and dropped 26 places in the standings), and then Robert Kiserlovski and Bauke Mollema who dropped 15 and 12 places respectively.

Many riders were among the winners Saturday, including Nicolas Roche (who took over the race lead), Leopold Konig (up to 5^th place), Team Katusha (who moved Purito into the top 10, and Moreno into a podium position), and then Basso, Pinot and Pozzovivo (who all moved into the top 20).

More discussion after the tables…

GC STANDINGS AFTER  STAGE 7 (top 50)
Pos.	Name	Team	Time
1.	NIBALI, Vincenzo	ASTANA PRO TEAM	27h 29' 35''
2.	HORNER, Christopher	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 3''
3.	ROCHE, Nicolas	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 8''
4.	ZUBELDIA, Haimar	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 16''
5.	VALVERDE, Alejandro	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 21''
6.	KISERLOVSKI, Robert	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 26''
7.	URAN, Rigoberto	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 28''
8.	MORENO, Daniel	KATUSHA TEAM	+ 31''
9.	MAJKA, Rafal	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 38''
10.	KREUZIGER, Roman	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 42''
11.	HUZARSKI, Bartosz	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 45''
12.	SANTAROMITA, Ivan	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 46''
13.	MOLLEMA, Bauke	BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 48''
14.	KONIG, Leopold	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 48''
15.	CAPECCHI, Eros	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 52''
16.	RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin	KATUSHA TEAM	+ 53''
17.	SÖRENSEN, Chris Anker	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 55''
18.	EIJSSEN, Yannick	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 59''
19.	ULISSI, Diego	LAMPRE-MERIDA	+ 1' 10''
20.	TEN DAM, Laurens	BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 1' 12''
21.	SCARPONI, Michele	LAMPRE-MERIDA	+ 1' 15''
22.	SÁNCHEZ, Luis León	BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 1' 16''
23.	SERRY, Pieter	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	+ 1' 21''
24.	ZAUGG, Oliver	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 1' 30''
25.	NIEVE, Mikel	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 1' 30''
26.	KANGERT, Tanel	ASTANA PRO TEAM	+ 1' 30''
27.	BASSO, Ivan	CANNONDALE PRO CYCLING	+ 1' 32''
28.	MORENO, Javier	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1' 36''
29.	PINOT, Thibaut	FDJ.FR	+ 1' 41''
30.	POZZOVIVO, Domenico	AG2R LA MONDIALE	+ 1' 45''
31.	DE LA CRUZ, David	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 1' 50''
32.	HERRADA, José	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1' 52''
33.	MENDES, José Joao	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 1' 58''
34.	ELISSONDE, Kenny	FDJ.FR	+ 2' 02''
35.	BARGUIL, Warren	TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO	+ 2' 03''
36.	DE CLERCQ, Bart	LOTTO BELISOL	+ 2' 23''
37.	BRAJKOVIC, Janez	ASTANA PRO TEAM	+ 2' 37''
38.	MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz	VACANSOLEIL-DCM	+ 2' 49''
39.	ARROYO, David	CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA	+ 2' 52''
40.	NERZ, Dominik	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 2' 57''
41.	HENAO, Sergio Luis	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 2' 59''
42.	NOCENTINI, Rinaldo	AG2R LA MONDIALE	+ 3' 37''
43.	MARTIN, Daniel	GARMIN SHARP	+ 3' 39''
44.	SZMYD, Sylvester	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 3' 56''
45.	SÁNCHEZ, Samuel	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 3' 57''
46.	CARDOSO, Andre	CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA	+ 4' 32''
47.	COPPEL, Jerome	COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CRÉDITS	+ 5' 06''
48.	HERMANS, Ben	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 5' 13''
49.	ANTON, Igor	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 5' 42''
50.	BAGOT, Yohann	COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CRÉDITS	+ 6' 02''

  

 

GC STANDINGS AFTER  STAGE 8 (top 40)
Pos.	Name	Team	Time	Pos. Change
1.	ROCHE, Nicolas	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	31h 39' 30''	+2
2.	HORNER, Christopher	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 17''	--
3.	MORENO, Daniel	KATUSHA TEAM	+ 17''	+5
4.	NIBALI, Vincenzo	ASTANA PRO TEAM	+ 18''	-3
5.	KONIG, Leopold	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 29''	+9
6.	ZUBELDIA, Haimar	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 30''	-2
7.	VALVERDE, Alejandro	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 31''	-2
8.	URAN, Rigoberto	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 42''	-1
9.	MAJKA, Rafal	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 52''	--
10.	RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin	KATUSHA TEAM	+ 1' 03''	+6
11.	SANTAROMITA, Ivan	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1' 17''	+1
12.	BASSO, Ivan	CANNONDALE PRO CYCLING	+ 1' 28''	+15
13.	PINOT, Thibaut	FDJ.FR	+ 1' 37''	+16
14.	CAPECCHI, Eros	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1' 42''	+1
15.	POZZOVIVO, Domenico	AG2R LA MONDIALE	+ 1' 59''	+15
16.	KANGERT, Tanel	ASTANA PRO TEAM	+ 2' 01''	+10
17.	TEN DAM, Laurens	BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 2' 02''	+3
18.	SCARPONI, Michele	LAMPRE-MERIDA	+ 2' 03''	+3
19.	DE CLERCQ, Bart	LOTTO BELISOL	+ 2' 22''	+17
20.	BARGUIL, Warren	TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO	+ 2' 25''	+15
21.	KISERLOVSKI, Robert	RADIOSHACK LEOPARD	+ 2' 31''	-15
22.	DE LA CRUZ, David	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 2' 40''	+9
23.	HERRADA, José	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 2' 42''	+9
24.	SÖRENSEN, Chris Anker	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 3' 00''	-7
25.	MOLLEMA, Bauke	BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 3' 12''	-12
26.	HENAO, Sergio Luis	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 3' 17''	+15
27.	ARROYO, David	CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA	+ 3' 23''	+12
28.	NERZ, Dominik	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 3' 43''	+12
29.	MENDES, José Joao	TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA	+ 3' 54''	+4
30.	BRAJKOVIC, Janez	ASTANA PRO TEAM	+ 4' 07''	+7
31.	NIEVE, Mikel	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 4' 24''	-6
32.	ELISSONDE, Kenny	FDJ.FR	+ 4' 26''	+2
33.	SÁNCHEZ, Samuel	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 4' 28''	+12
34.	SERRY, Pieter	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	+ 5' 07''	-11
35.	ANTON, Igor	EUSKALTEL EUSKADI	+ 5' 46''	+14
36.	KREUZIGER, Roman	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	+ 6' 00''	-26
37.	MORENO, Javier	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 6' 04''	-9
38.	CARDOSO, Andre	CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA	+ 6' 17''	+16
39.	BAGOT, Yohann	COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CRÉDITS	+ 6' 33''	+11
40.	MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz	VACANSOLEIL-DCM	+ 6' 35''	-2

 

Stage 9 standings are on the way…