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La Vuelta ciclista a España 2020

Page 2 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who will win the Vuelta 2020?

  • Primoz Roglic

    Votes: 32 37.2%
  • Alejandro Valverde

    Votes: 4 4.7%
  • Richard Carapaz

    Votes: 20 23.3%
  • Thibaut Pinot

    Votes: 7 8.1%
  • Enric Mas

    Votes: 8 9.3%
  • Guillaume Martin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sepp Kuss

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Aleksandr Vlasov

    Votes: 2 2.3%
  • Tom Dumoulin

    Votes: 11 12.8%
  • any Quickstepper

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Total voters
    86
But is it more or less stupid than where they put the KOM of the Alto de Oncala
Oncala is a double summit. There are a few such oddities in Spanish cycling. A bit like the "MTFs" where the actual finish is a kilometre or two downhill from the genuine summit (Xorret del Catí, Arrate), there's often a 'summit' which is actually below the peak of the road, like the Ixua summit from Matsaria in the Itzulia, where they actually join the road across the summit of Arrate (actually called Usartza), but turn left towards Eibar rather than right to Arrate, before turning right again away from Eibar toward Etxeberria, climbing the last 400m or so of Ixua, and putting the GPM at Ixua rather than Usartza (to separate it from the final climb which goes over Usartza and then descends into Arrate). The La Molina finish in the Volta a Catalunya is similar, La Masella is the actual high point of the road, but they don't put the GPM until the La Molina station which means 2km of descent and then a short 400m or so kick up on the circuits as they don't go all the way to the Font Canaleta high point on that road in the profile (though that's still lower altitude than La Masella!). The Puerto del Cubillo is another one, very infrequentlly seen as it's in a seldom-used part of the country between Teruel and Cuenca, one of Spain's biggest backwaters (there's a movement to improve infrastructure there called "¡Teruel Existe!") - it's about a 6km climb but the 'summit' of the actual pass is about 3km further down the road, at lower altitude.

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There was an absolutely hilarious one in Settimana Coppi e Bartali in about 2010 I think, struggling to find the profile now. There was a climb which was steep and reached its peak, then a descent almost as long and steep as the climb, then a shorter, shallower and lower altitude climb, which was categorised as though both were part of the same climb and the summit was somehow lower.

Edit: here we are. Stage 3 was even more ridiculous, I'd forgotten that!
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Some thoughts:

Three teams have more than one potential winner: Jumbo, Ineos and Movistar. These three will probably dominate the race. EF has a rather strong team as well. Other contenders are Pinot, Vlasov and maybe a reborn Chaves.

The course is weird. It's a tough first week with several mountain stages, with the double Aubisque-Tourmalet as the climax on Sunday. I hope crossing the French border won't be a problem. The second week has three mountain stages, with the Angliru as its climax, again on Sunday. The third week starts with a crucial time trial with a murito finish, but the final five stages are underwhelming. Whoever has the red jersey after the time trial will probably win the Vuelta.

The sprint stages will go to Bennett, Ackermann and Philipsen. Possible stage hunters are LL Sanchez, Costa, Formolo, Stybar, Wellens, Terpstra and Valgren. I'm not exactly hyped for this one, but I hope it can go through to the end.

****Roglic
***Carapaz, Mas
**Pinot, Vlasov, Dumoulin, Froome, Valverde
*Woods, D. Martinez, G. Martin, D. Martin, Formolo, Chaves
 
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Almost went for Pinot mainly because there's no pressure on him but then i believe he's a French reincarnation of Cadel Evans which means his only GT win will be le Tour at the twilight of his career. I finally decided on Dumoulin than Roglic because Roglic's recovery is a bit suspicious while Dumoulin is very stable, good on steep gradients and was the only guy after Pantani to even come close to a Giro/Tour double (twice 2nd). I believe Carapaz will only reach a podium and Marc Soler (!?) will fill it up.

I hop that in the coming years Vuelta will have Covatilla as a MTT because it's LPBL bad and especially terrible as the last GC stage.
 
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