2013 Vuelta a España, Stage 14: Bagá → Andorra. Collada de la Gallina (155.7 Km)

[Orbit501]

I thought Tomasz Marczynski would launch his bid for the KoM jersey on this stage, but having seen him drop back on Rat Penat today I'm not so sure now. I expect Edet will be aggressive again and although probably beyond him, he might think he has a chance for that jersey.

Igor Anton from a break might be good for the stage win tomorrow seeing as how he's far enough down on GC now to be given enough rope.

 

[manafana]

Not sure who to pick for htis could well name any of a number of outsiders to get away unchased. Horner to go ape again?

 

[Descender]

Envalira is a great climb to be placed where it is in the stage. Not overly hard, but long and quite regular. Trivia: it's the highest mountain pass of the Pyrenees.

Stage is not perfect, but above average for Unipublic.

 

[Netserk]

Envalira is a great climb to be placed where it is in the stage. Not overly hard, but long and quite regular. Trivia: it's the highest mountain pass of the Pyrenees.

Stage is not perfect, but above average for Unipublic.

It would've been close to perfect if they had (re)surfaced the last 4.7km of the south side of Gallina and descended down to Sant Julia de Lòria.

 

[ferryman]

Yep, I could see him play some piano tomorrow.

Not familiar with that phrase in Scotland - give it to us in Danish Net

 

[Netserk]

Not familiar with that phrase in Scotland - give it to us in Danish Net

See the last paragraph:

http://inrng.com/2012/05/the-spin-giro-stage-9/

 

[The Hitch]

Yea right

Don't get your hopes up

After the last few years of gts ive learned to never get my hopes up. Occasionally stuff happens (Schleck on Iozard, Contador on Gap, Telegraphe and that cat 2, TDG on Mortirolo) etc but most of the time it they all ride for the final 10k.

 

[BigMac]

Nibali.......................Valverde,Purito,Pinot........Basso,Majka,Horner,Scarponi,Pozzo..............Roche,José Mendes, Kangert......... the rest.

 

[The Hitch]

Nibali.......................Valverde,Purito,Pinot........Basso,Majka,Horner,Scarponi..............Roche,José Mendes, Kangert......... the rest.

Majka to finish in a group ahead of Roche? Only way that happens is if Roche drops when Saxo still have 4 or 5 domestiques left. If theres the 2 of them and Roche drops, Majka stays with him.

Edit: Or if Saxo actually do send Majka 50k out.

 

[BigMac]

Majka to finish in a group ahead of Roche? Only way that happens is if Roche drops when Saxo still have 4 or 5 domestiques left. If theres the 2 of them and Roche drops, Majka stays with him.

Edit: Or if Saxo actually do send Majka 50k out.

Yep Majka to get cought in final accent. Nevertheless Roche will crack, the line between groups should be bigger.

 

[trevim]

Roche would have to crack in the sense of a total collapse on one of these stages to end up outside of the top 10 at this point. I think it's very likely that he'll crack but probably in a less dramatic way than that.

When you look down the rankings its hard not to think that some other guys in the top 12* will also crack or crash or get sick or get dropped on descents. I'm not sure that I'd fancy Pinot's chances on a bunch of wet descents, or Moreno's in the high mountains, to give two of the more obvious examples. So, it would have to be a pretty drastic collapse for Saxo to end up without a top 10. We're talking about Roche losing 5 mins to guys who so far haven't been good enough to be in the top 10, as opposed to him losing 5 minutes to Purito or Valverde.

So really, Majka's decent GC position is worth risking if he has the legs to go for a stage win, and if it comes off he'll move up on GC too.

(*top 12 because that's Saxo two plus the ten riders they'd have to finish behind to avoid ending up with a top 10).

Yeah I guess you're right on this one

 

[hfer07]

Purito to win the stage - 2nd Valverde, 3rd Nibs

Roche out of the podium contention

La gallina is such nasty climb that I can only see the real GC contenders distancing themselves from the pretenders...

 

[maxmartin]

Purito to win the stage - 2nd Valverde, 3rd Nibs

Roche out of the podium contention

La gallina is such nasty climb that I can only see the real GC contenders distancing themselves from the pretenders...

Nibali put the hammer down, gap second GC more than 1 min, so he will win over either CH or AV more than 30 seconds on this stage

 

[murali]

too many people are rooting for a roche failure today.

i bet he must be thinking

I am sure purito and valverde will be thinking of getting the jersey today.
But Horner will be thinking:

source: iheartinspiration.com and prommanow.com. images are not mine.

 

[jonjungel]

Rain during mountain stages might make the racing more interesting, but also means crappy TV.
If a climb is raced, but there is noone there to see it....

 

[theyoungest]

A good climb for the man, the legend, Horner. However, I've only seen him do well in good weather, I think.

 

[greenedge]

Basso

Valverde
JROD
Horner
Nibali

This is the one stage where i will not mind Valverde wheelsucking- he will go full gas on stage 15.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

big problems for pozzo then descendign in general and especially in rain

 

[Netserk]

According to inrng Pinot and König have been ill.

Amongst the main contenders, let’s discount a few riders. First Thibaut Pinot would be ok on these climbs and their descents but he’s been ill and the same is true for NetApp Endura’s stage winner Leopold König

 

[Ruudz0r]

big problems for pozzo then descendign in general and especially in rain

This pretty much

I really hope its going to be dry.

 

[lemoogle]

Every stage of this vuelta is like a test for Pinot to show if he's the real thing. He has to deliver.

 

[Descender]

Heavy rain and even thunderstorms are pretty much guaranteed.

 

[Netserk]

Coverage will start after Envalira

 

[search]

no, only if it's a very fast stage

 

[Piz Buin]

Coverage will start after Envalira

Is there no alternative to eurosport? some spanish channel maybe?

no, only if it's a very fast stage

Since the beginning is pretty flat I reckon they're going to be faster than 34kmh(=14:58 summit), right?