2015 Vuelta stage 3: Mijas > Málaga 158.4km

[Flamin]

The 3rd stage heads to the capital of the Costa del Sol. Gilbert won in Málaga in 2010, but it's not the same finish. Typical Gilbert finish vs pancake flat now.

Though I doubt the sprinters will be too happy with what they see mid-stage. 16km @ 5,5% to soften the legs a bit.

The wind will be coming from the west from what I saw so if true that stretch after the intermediate sprint along the coast won't cause potential damage.

 

[Arredondo]

Does anyone know how tough that final uncategorised climb is?

Could make the final a little bit more interesting. However, i would say Bouhanni vs. Degenkolb

 

[Tank Engine]

Though I doubt the sprinters will be too happy with what they see mid-stage. 16km @ 5,5% to soften the legs a bit.

That's a lot different from the profile of the cyclingnews site, where they have a 3rd cat. in the middle.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-3/

Sagan will be probably quite happy with the change. Such a climb should almost guarantee him 2nd, behind Degenkolb

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Does anyone know how tough that final uncategorised climb is?

Could make the final a little bit more interesting. However, i would say Bouhanni vs. Degenkolb

+ remaining flat. The first part is mostly on wide and exposed highway though.

 

[classicomano]

I love this, 3rd stage in the Vuelta, lets just put a big fat 1st category climb right in the middle, why? Because *** you im the Vuelta, thats why.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

I love this, 3rd stage in the Vuelta, lets just put a big fat 1st category climb right in the middle, why? Because **** you im the Vuelta, thats why.

2010 stage 3, into the same city, but on the little puncheur climb to the Castillo de Gibralfaro:

The original design was even tougher, with two different ascents of the Puerto del León.

It is a very odd stage design to loop around the city like this yet still have the descent so far from the finish when you look at the same last rolling section being in the 2010 final stage design. It just seems like a strange idea, because it isn't a selective stage like the 2010 versions, but they've thrown the category 1 climb in anyway, seemingly to no actual objective. Very confusing, and yet very Unipublic.

Though what would have been more Unipublic would be to have the exact stage they have tomorrow, with the Puerto del León used as tomorrow with the huge amount of flat - but then have the ramp from the 2010 stage, that was good in 2010 because, you know, the climb was close enough to the finish for it to have an effect, but if they included it in tomorrow it would be completely unnecessary.

 

[manafana]

degenkolb will make this finish and so should msot the sprinters

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

All the main sprinters make it to the finish with the peloton (includes the Van Poppels of this world)... The hills are just there to be ... there. Too bad Super Hero amazing sprinter Pelucchi crashed out. He´d have won that for sure. Without a tiny doubt. I am still not over it yet (that he couldnt survive 25 km of real racing).

 

[Pricey_sky]

I wonder if Orica will race those climbs hard to try and put the fast men into danger, they have guys like Gerrans and Impey who can win from a greatly reduced bunch.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Weirdest profile ever and it's stage 3

 

[BigMac]

There was a Tour stage that went like __/\__

The profile was the avatar of a forum group in the former system. Par for the Parcours or something like that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It was this appalling travesty of a "high mountain stage" from the 2009 Tour:

That was off the back of the Arcalis MTF and a stage with over 40km flat after the last climb - this was the last day in the Pyrenées. This.

If you want to know more about how tough the racing was that day, Grégory Rast led the bunch over the Tourmalet, and Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinted for 3rd from a sizable bunch. On a "high mountain stage".

If anybody had been willing to help Caisse d'Epargne in the last 40k, they'd have been sprinting for the win, in the end Fédrigo and Pellizotti held off the bunch.

 

[DenisMenchov]

I remember that stage in the Tour. But still it wasn't on day 3, so pointless.

 

[BigMac]

Lol that's that.

 

[willbick]

Re:

I wonder if Orica will race those climbs hard to try and put the fast men into danger, they have guys like Gerrans and Impey who can win from a greatly reduced bunch.

There is a climb of 1.5km at 7% about 5k from the finish. I dont think the likes of degenkolb, bouhanni will survive this if someone (orica?) drills it. Could be a funky finish. Maybe Gerro?!

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

I remember that stage in the Tour. But still it wasn't on day 3, so pointless.

Why pointless? Because tomorrow the break doesnt get trou since its early, or what? Serious





No need to mention LS had a great point and post, but I do it anyway...

 

[yespatterns]

Re:

I love this, 3rd stage in the Vuelta, lets just put a big fat 1st category climb right in the middle, why? Because **** you im the Vuelta, thats why.

Exactly! To bad there aren't predicted cross winds, but we take what we can get.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re: Re:

I wonder if Orica will race those climbs hard to try and put the fast men into danger, they have guys like Gerrans and Impey who can win from a greatly reduced bunch.

There is a climb of 1.5km at 7% about 5k from the finish. I dont think the likes of degenkolb, bouhanni will survive this if someone (orica?) drills it. Could be a funky finish. Maybe Gerro?!

More like 4%...

Either way, if full trained top pro sprinters cant jump over that little pump with enough road to recover til the finish... well... they are no pros. That being said: Full sprint stage unless some (of them sprinters) got dropped in the early part of this stage. So, Pelucchi FTW... err... its Pelucchi, the guy who cant stay upright in a GT. So Bouhanni FTW.

 

[LanLions]

Re:

It was this appalling travesty of a "high mountain stage" from the 2009 Tour:

That was off the back of the Arcalis MTF and a stage with over 40km flat after the last climb - this was the last day in the Pyrenées. This.

If you want to know more about how tough the racing was that day, Grégory Rast led the bunch over the Tourmalet, and Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinted for 3rd from a sizable bunch. On a "high mountain stage".

If anybody had been willing to help Caisse d'Epargne in the last 40k, they'd have been sprinting for the win, in the end Fédrigo and Pellizotti held off the bunch.

Didn't Andy attack on this stage, I know it was futile but the racing itself wasn't too bad

 

[sir fly]

I like the profile.
Would love to ride it.

 

[Jspear]

1. Bouhanni
2. Degenkolb
3. Ewan

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

1. Bouhanni
2. Degenkolb
3. Ewan

You can scratch Ewan on two counts.

One; he's just not strong enough to be able to sustain top pace for long enough ..... and quite possibly will never be.

Two; he's likely to have been dropped off the back long before the finish. He's not yet up to coping with the pace of a GT peleton when "the hammer's dropped".

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

It was this appalling travesty of a "high mountain stage" from the 2009 Tour:

That was off the back of the Arcalis MTF and a stage with over 40km flat after the last climb - this was the last day in the Pyrenées. This.

If you want to know more about how tough the racing was that day, Grégory Rast led the bunch over the Tourmalet, and Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinted for 3rd from a sizable bunch. On a "high mountain stage".

If anybody had been willing to help Caisse d'Epargne in the last 40k, they'd have been sprinting for the win, in the end Fédrigo and Pellizotti held off the bunch.

Didn't Andy attack on this stage, I know it was futile but the racing itself wasn't too bad

That was on the stage before, the stage after Arcalis. He set the climb alight for a few kms and not many could follow, but upon seeing that he wasn't troubling Astana much, he sat up. I think they got about a minute on the yellow jersey at the time who later paced himself back on after the attacks ended. If that stage had finished 20kms earlier than Andy may have persisted with his aggression.

Having said that, the much better designed stage 16 saw similar racing, but Frank Schleck was struggling a little and so the excitement of an elite group (including Kloden!) getting away was unfortunately short lived with Andy deciding to save himself more for stage 17.

 

[willbick]

Re: Re:

I wonder if Orica will race those climbs hard to try and put the fast men into danger, they have guys like Gerrans and Impey who can win from a greatly reduced bunch.

There is a climb of 1.5km at 7% about 5k from the finish. I dont think the likes of degenkolb, bouhanni will survive this if someone (orica?) drills it. Could be a funky finish. Maybe Gerro?!

More like 4%...

Either way, if full trained top pro sprinters cant jump over that little pump with enough road to recover til the finish... well... they are no pros. That being said: Full sprint stage unless some (of them sprinters) got dropped in the early part of this stage. So, Pelucchi FTW... err... its Pelucchi, the guy who cant stay upright in a GT. So Bouhanni FTW.

Looks like 7% to me, and only 4k from the finish. I think the sprinters are gonna struglle to survive

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I like this stage. It should in theory be a fairly strong breakaway because there is a decent climb early and the Cat 1 halfway is a nice prize up for grabs (first to the top should wear the KOM jersey for a few days and get a headstart in that comp.). So could be a good well-matched chase between the break and sprint teams by the time they get organized