Vuelta Espana stage 11

Daroxtar

A real biggie today. 170km with 4700m climbing.
La Colladona, La Corbetoria, San Lorenzo and La Farrapona.




The uphill starts straight out of the gate with an ascent of Alto la Campa, a 3rd cat climb which will get the blood flowing. First of the real climbs is la Colladona.

Generously given a cat 1 status, 7km @6% won't really trouble too many but shortly after that the fun starts.
La Corbetoria is a pig.

10km@9% with ramps hitting 15%and 2km with an average of 12%. There's a viciously fast technical descent and straight away after that we hit the San Lorenzo.

It's almost identical in length and difficulty to the Corbetoria, 10km@8.6% with plenty of tough ramps and again another fast tricky descent.

The Farrapona itself is a beautiful climb, far more alpine in terms of length and average gradient. It's also in the middle of one of the most isolated areas of northern Spain, the Somiedo national Park. There's wolves and bears in here. It's proper wild. The climb is 18km@6.5% but there's a flat section and slight downhill in the middle, compensated for by the last 4km which hover consistently at above 10%.


Contador won here last time out putting 15 seconds into Froome and pretty much tying up the title.

Primoz Roglic 3/1

Richard Carapaz 11/2

Guillaume Martin 10/1

Clement Champoussin 12/1

Hugh Carthy 12/1

Dan Martin 20/1

Alejandro Valverde 40/1

bazermc

Riders staging some protest

at1withmyself

I'd love to know what happened, hopefully they explain it soon!

at1withmyself

Protest from Ineos in regards the 3 second time gap awarded after the stage result yesterday.

Lets see how much the 3 seconds mean after today!

Daroxtar

Something to do with the 3 second rule that was in play at the finish line yesterday

See the gestures made when the Cofidis lad rode off :pac:

at1withmyself

Riders coming out the back already, did Sam start today, will be extra tough for him

Richard Hillman

Just Ineos swinging their dicks. They did it knowing Roglic would be there. It was basically trying to tell him he shouldn't be wearing red today.

at1withmyself

at1withmyself wrote: »

Riders coming out the back already, did Sam start today, will be extra tough for him

Yeah they showed Sam at the back there with Stybar I think it was.

The Buster

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Just Ineos swinging their dicks. They did it knowing Roglic would be there. It was basically trying to tell him he shouldn't be wearing red today.

Is Roglic wearing team kit today? Looks like no one in red

at1withmyself

The Buster wrote: »

Is Roglic wearing team kit today? Looks like no one in red

Yep he's wearing the red jersey today, at least was at the roll out.

Raoul Duke

Daroxtar wrote: »

Something to do with the 3 second rule that was in play at the finish line yesterday

I think that Eurosport did a very bad job of realising what the problem is or explaining it to us.


Look here for the rule - https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/rules-and-regulations/part-ii-road/arrivees-sprint-massif-09.05.2019-e.pdf



Basically, in a bunch sprint, the cyclists are allowed a 3 second gap before they are given a different time from the cyclists ahead. In a smaller group finish, the old rule of a one second gap still stands.


That's what I think the fuss was about anyway.

dastardly00

at1withmyself wrote: »

Riders coming out the back already, did Sam start today, will be extra tough for him

Good article from Ian O'Riordan about yesterday's stage and Sam's performance. From the short quote they have included from DQS it doesn't seem Sam is I'll or injured.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/sam-bennett-struggles-as-roglic-wins-stage-10-of-vuelta-1.4395662?mode=amp

Richard Hillman

I am watching on an English feed, rather than Eurosport so far. They said Carapaz was interviewed this morning and said he was OK with the decision. So WTF is Froome big dicking about?

Raoul Duke

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I am watching on an English feed, rather than Eurosport so far. They said Carapaz was interviewed this morning and said he was OK with the decision. So WTF is Froome big dicking about?

Maybe it's partly because he knows that he isn't much help to the team on the road, so he feels that he should try and help them as much as possible off the road.

dastardly00

Nice dig at Movistar from Geraint Thomas :pac:

https://twitter.com/GeraintThomas86/status/1322502597505388549

Daroxtar

at1withmyself wrote: »

Riders coming out the back already, did Sam start today, will be extra tough for him

It'll be incredibly tough. I descended the eastern side of the Corbetoria last year. The middle section was dangerously fast on the way down, I'd say it is torture on the way up, and then a repeat of the same on San Lorenzo. If someone gets away over the top of either of those it could blow the race apart with huge gaps back to the stragglers in the groupetto.

dastardly00

A couple of Tweets from Dan

https://twitter.com/DanMartin86/status/1322459712634454017

https://twitter.com/DanMartin86/status/1322460148896616448

Mefistofelino

dastardly00 wrote: »

Good article from Ian O'Riordan about yesterday's stage and Sam's performance. From the short quote they have included from DQS it doesn't seem Sam is I'll or injured.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/sam-bennett-struggles-as-roglic-wins-stage-10-of-vuelta-1.4395662?mode=amp

I have a feeling poor Sam got the full hairdryer treatment from Lefevere after the DQ

at1withmyself

This is turning into an excellent stage, cofidis making it really hard on the peleton right night. Wonder how this high pace will effect the final climb today

Raoul Duke

Raoul Duke wrote: »

I think that Eurosport did a very bad job of realising what the problem is or explaining it to us.

Look here for the rule - https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/rules-and-regulations/part-ii-road/arrivees-sprint-massif-09.05.2019-e.pdf

Basically, in a bunch sprint, the cyclists are allowed a 3 second gap before they are given a different time from the cyclists ahead. In a smaller group finish, the old rule of a one second gap still stands.

That's what I think the fuss was about anyway.

Just to add to this, this is a quote from cyclingnews today; "
An easy way to explain today's polemica is that a UCI rule normally applies to 'stages expected to finish in bunch sprints', where only time gaps of three seconds or more are counted.
That applied yesterday, too, despite the stage finishing with a 1.5km, 5.9 per cent climb. The protest is that the rule was changed mid-race, meaning gaps of one second or more would count."

Itziger

Hoping for a good old fashioned Movistar kamikaze effort. Just hope Dan keeps his head and follows the right wheel.

dastardly00

Dan Lloyd is very good on TV; be it on GCN videos, as host as The Breakaway or as is the case at the moment, commentator on live coverage. He's well able to do co-comms/analyst with Kirby, and then be the main commentator with Kelly alongside him.

Daroxtar

Pola de Lena is a bit of a nondescript town but there's an unbelievable amount of climbing starting either right there or beside it. El Cordal, Corbetoria, Gamoniteiro, Pajares, La Cubilla, Angliru, Ermita de Alba.... everywhere you go is up.

at1withmyself

Soler on the attack and Ineos now on the front of the Peleton

dastardly00

Itziger wrote: »

Hoping for a good old fashioned Movistar kamikaze effort. Just hope Dan keeps his head and follows the right wheel.

Marc Soler on the attack!

dastardly00

Daroxtar wrote: »

Pola de Lena is a bit of a nondescript town but there's an unbelievable amount of climbing starting either right there or beside it. El Cordal, Corbetoria, Gamoniteiro, Pajares, La Cubilla, Angliru, Ermita de Alba.... everywhere you go is up.

Good to know. Would you stay there for a few days as part of holiday? Or somewhere else nearby?

dahat

On comms I'd have Rob Hatch before Carlton every time. I just can't take to Carlton these days

at1withmyself

dastardly00 wrote: »

Marc Soler on the attack!

Feckin hell, Soler made some pace bridging the gap!

Daroxtar

dastardly00 wrote: »

Good to know. Would you stay there for a few days as part of holiday? Or somewhere else nearby?

Ya, you could definitely use it as a base for a few days but don't expect much from the town itself. It has a good few bars and restaurants but it's a boring enough kind of a spot. If you had a week, I'd spend a few days in Cangas Di Onis or Ribadasella which are closer to Covadonga and the Picos Europa. They're much nicer and more tourist oriented (in a good way, not tacky) Then it's about an hours drive over to Pola for access to the mountains there.

at1withmyself

Does Carapaz normally sit that far back in the peleton, not looking comfortable at the moment?