Stage 2 Report and Stage 3 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

The son of a champ is champ for a day

Stage 2 of the 2013 Vuelta a España featured the first summit finish of the race, the category-1 Monte da Groba. The three-man break was caught on the early slopes of the 11-k climb to the finish, and the GC hopefuls showed their form as they tested their legs on the first serious climb of the race.

Four riders got clear of the bunch in the final kilometers and battled for the stage win. Leopold Konig of Team Netapp-Endura put in a promising attack, but was reeled in by Ag2R’s Domenico Pozzovivo, Team Saxo Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche, and Daniel Moreno of Katusha. In the end it was Roche who took the win, showing his best form of the season, and netting his first win in two years. Before the race Roche stated that he was going for a top-5 spot on the general classification.

The bigger story may be the unexpected suffering of some of the race favorites on the final climb. Sergio Henao, Team Sky’s proclaimed leader, lost contact with the peloton and finished 60^th, 2:41 behind Roche’s winning time. It looks now like Sky will pin their GC hopes on Henao’s fellow Colombian, Rigoberto Uran, who finished 10^th today.

Sammy Sanchez, leader of the moribund Euskaltel Team, was dropped on the climb and lost significant time. As of this writing, his name does not appear in today’s stage results. His teammates Igor Anton, Gorka Verdugo and Egoi Martinez all lost 2:41, so the Basque team only has Mikel Nieve remaining in a competitive position, currently 29^th, 1:14 off the lead. **UPDATE: They finally added Sanchez's name to the stage results: he finished with his teammates who had waited for him, 2:41 back.

Beñat Intxausti of Team Movistar was another casualty of the clock, losing more than two minutes. His team is of course counting on Alejandro Valverde for overall success, but Intxausti’s help will be vital in the big mountains to come.

First red jersey wearer, Janez Brajkovic of Astana, finished 40^th, :51 off the pace, but more importantly, his leader, Vincenzo Nibali, took over the race lead with his solid performance on stage 2.

Stage 3 route

Stage 3 Profile

Stage 3 continues in Galicia, taking the peloton 185 mostly flat kilometers, from Vigo to Mirador de Lobeira. The circuitous route follows much of the local coastline, and should offer some very nice views. The only categorized climb on the route is the cat-3 finishing hill. It is about a 3k steep ramp that will favor the puncheurs.

The stage 3 climb to the finish

 

My pick to win stage 2, Rafal Majka finished 12^th, with the main group of GC favorites, :14 behind the winner—Majka’s teammate, Nicolas Roche.

My pick for stage 3: I would say Pozzovivo, Gilbert and Purito are good bets, but I am going to pick Roman Kreuziger to give Saxo two consecutive wins.

For a long shot I’ll pick Bartosz Huzarski of Team Netapp to notch his first win of the season.

Stage 2 Preview 2013 Vuelta a España

Race leader Janez Brajkovic

The stage 1 team time trial saw Vincenzo Nibali’s Astana Team surprise the favorites and take the first win of the race. Janez Brajkovic crossed the line first for the Kazakh squad and will wear the race leader’s red jersey on stage 2. That is especially good news for the 29-year-old Slovenian who is shopping around for a new team contract.

Stage 2 on the map

Stage 2 continues in Galicia, and takes the riders 177.7k from Pontevedra to the first mountaintop finish in Baiona. The stage is mostly flat, with two distinguishing features: a 10k category-3 climb at about km 52, and—more importantly—the 11k cat-1 climb to the finish. 

Stage 2 Profile

The Alto do Monte da Groba is an undulating 11k climb, with an overall average gradient of 5.6% and a max around 10%. The Vuelta is establishing GC positions right from the get-go. Stage 2 results will illustrate who is in good form, and who is not quite ready to battle.

Astana may do what they can to keep the yellow jersey on Sunday, but the key for most GC contenders will either be limiting losses, or trying to regain some of the time that Nibali and his team took on stage 1. There are time bonuses for the first three at the line, so finishing positions are important.

Here is a short list of the times that some of the GC favorites lost to Nibali and his mates after the TTT:

Chris Horner lost :10 to Nibali, et al

Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran +:22

Alejandro Valverde +:29

Rooman Kreuziger, Rafal Majka and Nicolas Roche +:32

Bauke Mollema +:49

Michele Scarponi +:56

Joaquim “Purito” Rodriguez +:59

Sammy Sanchez +1:14

Thibaut Pinot +1:25

Ivan Basso +1:26

Dan Martin +1:41

Domenico Pozzovivo +1:41

Carlos Betancur +1:59

Igor Anton +2:43

So, a lot of guys have their work cut out for them.

MY PICK to win stage 2:  Rafal Majka (TST)

2013 Vuelta A España Race Preview

2013 VUELTA A ESPAÑA RACE PREVIEW

The final weeks of summer are upon us, and that means it is time for the third and final Grand Tour of the season. The 2013 Vuelta a España arrives to fill up those last weeks of summer with the promise of 21 stages of thrilling racing filled with mountains, mountains, mountains. The route of this 68^th edition of the race is similar to last year’s, with plenty of uphill finishes for the climbers, and just one individual time trial of 38k—and it includes some climbing.

The Pro Tour’s top climbers will come out to try and capitalize on the favorable parcours. This is not a race like the Tour de France, where excellent time trial skills are required for GC contenders. This tour favors pure climbers. Along the 3359-kilometer route the riders will travel counter-clockwise around Spain from Galicia to Madrid. Forays into Andorra and France will showcase some of the challenging mountains the riders must conquer.

THE OVERALL CONTENDERS:

Valverde, Rodriguez and Nibali lead the list of favorites

Top overall contenders for the general classification include: Joaquim Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde, Vincenzo Nibali, Domenico Pozzovivo, Carlos Betancur, Sammy Sanchez, Dan Martin, Michele Scarponi, Sergio Henao, Chris Horner, Roman Kreuziger, Rafal Majka, Bauke Mollema, Laurens Ten Dam, Ivan Basso, and more.

THE SPRINTERS:

The mountainous race route gives short shrift to the sprinters with just six or seven stages looking like viable sprint finishes. Accordingly the sprinters’ field is relatively slim. I am looking at Gianni Meersman, Tyler Farrar, Michael Matthews, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Maximiliano Richeze, Greg Henderson, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg, Theo Bos, Daniele Ratto, Daniel Schorn, Juan Antonio Flecha, Barry Markus, Andrew Fenn, Geoffrey Soupe and Leigh Howard--and a few others.

STAGE HUNTERS:

Of course, Philippe Gilbert will be on hand hunting a stage win or two. He is one of several Classics-type riders who will like the punchy, short uphill finishes that winnow out the flat sprinters. Look for the likes of Grega Bole, Bartosz Huzarski, Thomas De Gendt, Simon Gerrans, Zdenek Stybar, Angel Vicioso, Anthony Roux, Maxim Iglinskiy, Luis Leon Sanchez, Andrey Grivko, Rinaldo Nocentini and Domenico Pozzovivo-among many others--to go hunting for stage wins.

Some riders will be focused on reaching top form for the World Championship races in September. Don’t be surprised if a few of the GC candidates, time trial specialists, sprinters and strong one-day racers seem to underperform, or drop out before Madrid. The Vuelta is not everybody’s primary goal.

THE ROUTE:

In an effort to cover more areas of the country (last year’s edition stayed primarily in northern Spain), the race organizers have had to include some long transfers for the participants. The two rest days will bring some relief after stages 10 and 16--the latter coming after three difficult stages in the Pyrenees.

The race begins with the 27.4k team time trial, which should establish some GC time splits right off the bat. Stage 2 features the first mountaintop finish on the category-1 Monte da Groba, so the overall contenders will need to come to the race already in good form. As usual, the toughest stages are saved for the final week, before the final bunch sprint into Madrid.

On paper, stages 14 and 15 look like the hardest of the race, but the penultimate stage finishes atop the brutal “Beast of Asturias”, the notoriously steep Angliru, and it could prove to be decisive.

13 mountain stages are listed in the official guide. Twelve are uphill finales.

I see nine mountaintop finishes, and three or four smaller uphill finishes.

Six or seven stages are left for the sprinters.

A few stages may be won by breakaways, but among them I would guess that stages 9 and 19 offer the best chances for a successful escape.

The uphill finishes are:

• August 25, 2013

Stage 2 – Pontevedra – Baiona. Alto do Monte da Groba

• August 26, 2013

Stage 3 – Vigo – Mirador de Lobeira / Vilagarcía de Arousa

• August 31, 2013

Stage 8 - Jerez de la Frontera - Estepona. Alto de Peñas

Blancas

• September 1, 2013

Stage 9 – Antequera – Valdepeñas de Jaén

• September 2, 2013

Stage 10 –Torredelcampo – Güéjar Sierra. Alto de Hazallanas

• September 7, 2013

Stage 14 – Bagà - Andorra. Collada de la Gallina

• September 8, 2013

Stage 15 – Andorra - Peyragudes

• September 9, 2013

Stage 16 - Graus – Sallent de Gállego. Aramón Formigal

• September 12, 2013

Stage 18 - Burgos - Peña Cabarga

• September 13, 2013

Stage 19 - San Vicente de la Barquera - Oviedo. Alto del

Naranco

• September 14, 2013

Stage 20 - Avilés - Alto de L’Angliru

Some of the tougher stage profiles:

Stage 10

Stage 14

Stage 15

Stage 20

SPECIFICS:

The Jerseys

Time Bonuses are available at the finish lines on all stages except for the two time trials. The time bonuses are 10, 6, and 4 seconds respectively, for the first three stage finishers. Time bonuses are also given out at the intermediate sprint points: 3, 2, and 1-second bonuses for first through third.

The points jersey contenders will receive points for top-15 stage finish positions and intermediate sprints as follows:

Stage finish position:

1^st            25 points

2^nd            20

3^rd            16

4^th            14

5^th            12

6^th            10

7^th            9

8^th            8

9^th            7

10^th            6

11^th            5

12^th            4

13^th            3

14^th            2

15^th            1

Intermediate sprints:

1^st            4 points

2^nd            2

3^rd            1

The climbers’ jersey competition awards KOM points for the 39 categorized climbs, according to finishing position, as follows:

CIMA ALBERTO FERNÁNDEZ

[Highest climb of the race—comes on stage 14]

SPECIAL CATEGORY CLIMB [Above Category]

1^st   20 points

2^nd   15 points

3^rd   10 points

4^th   6 points

5^th   4 points

6^th   2 points

SPECIAL CATEGORY CLIMBS (2)

  [Above Category]

1^st  15 points

2^nd  10 points

3^rd   6 points

4^th   4 points

5^th   2 points

1^st CATEGORY CLIMBS (12)

1^st   10 points

2^nd   6 points

3^rd   4 points

4^th   2 points

5^th   1 point

2^nd CATEGORY CLIMBS (7)

1^st   5 points

2^nd   3 points

3^rd   1 point

3^rd CATEGORY CLIMBS (17)

1^st   3 points

2^nd   2 points

3^rd   1 point

I will post regular updates throughout the race, so keep coming back!

I will also post my picks around the time the race begins.

Enjoy the race, and please feel free to hit me with any comments or questions.

2013 Tour de France Race Wrap-up

I posted my picks for the jerseys and the top ten in the General Classification in my stage 1 preview.

Here is a brief look at how I did on my top 10 picks for 2013 Tour de France:

MY PICKS:                                                   ACTUAL RESULTS:

1. Froome 2. Contador 3. Valverde 4. Evans 5. Rodriguez 6. Van Den Broeck 7. Mollema 8. Quintana 9. Porte 10. Fuglsang

1. Froome 2. Quintana 3. Rodriguez 4. Contador 5. Kreuziger 6. Mollema 7. Fuglsang 8. Valverde 9. Navarro 10. Talansky

  

Seven of my ten picks made the top ten in the final classification; Valverde notably finishing lower than I expected, and Quintana, higher. My three picks that did not finish in the top 10 were:

Evans couldn't podium in two Grand Tours

1) Cadel Evans, who finished 39^th, ninety minutes off the winner’s time. I believe I commented before the Tour that Evans had more miles in his legs this year than any of the top contenders. Racing to third place at the Giro d’Italia in May turned out to be more draining than training for the veteran Aussie and 2011 TDF Champ. (Perhaps interestingly, this Tour’s winner and runner up, Froome and Quintana, had come into the race having ridden the fewest miles this season, out of any of the top GC contenders).

Stage 21 Report 2013 Tour De France Final Stage Results

134k from Versailles to Paris

Weather: sunny, 33c (92f)

Versailles

The riders left Versailles for the final stage of the 100^th Tour De France under sunny skies. It is shaping up to be the hottest day of the Tour.  By the time they finish, the skies will have darkened, as the race concludes with its first ever twilight finish.

Hundreds of ex-Tour riders will be on hand for the celebrations at the end. 170 riders will celebrate finishing the 2013 Tour De France after three weeks of intense competition on the roads of France.

Chris Froome will officially solidify his win when he crosses the finish line on the Champs-Élysées, and he will earn Team Sky its second consecutive Tour victory. The Kenyan-born talent who rides for Dave Brailsford’s British team asserted his will all over the race, and finishes with an indisputable five-minute win over second place Nairo Quintana of Team Movistar.

Stage 21 profile

All the jerseys have been decided. Peter Sagan coasts into Paris with the green sprinter’s jersey. The young Slovakian speedster was diligent in both the finish sprints and the intermediate sprints, which have become more significant with the changes in the points system. He also rides into Paris with a green dyed goatee.  Read on...