Pre La Vuelta-thread

[DNP-Old]

With tomorrow's ever so boring parade in Paris, it's time to get ready for the real deal, the coup de grâce: La Vuelta. This is where Giro-peakers and burst TDF dreams come together. This is where bunch sprints are a complete no show. Climbing from Málaga to Madrid. In this thread we speculate, from team selections to race favourites and so on.

La Vuelta is known for making scrubs Grand Tour stage winners. Jonas Vangenechten and Sander Armée have won a stage in a Grand Tour: it happened here, in La Vuelta. One fun little twist to this years race however, is Innsbruck. It's very much a possibility some starters will wave the white flag halfway through the race, in order to get to the World Championships in the best shape possible.

Some confirmed to start big guns. Please, feel free to complete:
Sunweb: Kelderman
Lotto Soudal: Benoot, Lambrecht (only first half of the race)
BMC: Porte, Teuns
Lotto Jumbo: Bennett, Kruijswijk, van Poppel
Astana: López
Mitchelton-Scott: S. Yates, Caleb Ewan
Bahrain: I. Izagirre, V. Nibali(*)
Cofidis: N. Bouhanni
Quick-Step: Mas, Viviani(?)
FDJ: Pinot
BORA: P. Sagan, Buchmann
Katusha: Zakarin
Team Sky: Kwiatkowski
Movistar: Valverde, Landa, N. Quintana
EF Education: Uran
UAE: Aru

 

[hazaran]

Porte to win or retire

 

[capuldemetal]

Add to the Moviestarossibly Carapaz.He'll ride Ordizia next tuesday..so a change of schedule for him

 

[Singer01]

Whoever recovers best out of Porte or Nibali. Valverde fans to get over excited even though he hasn't looked like a genuine gc contender for doing years.

 

[Red Rick]

Can't imagine Nibali will go for GC.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Whoever recovers best out of Porte or Nibali. Valverde fans to get over excited even though he hasn't looked like a genuine gc contender for doing years.

This Tour is the first reason I have got to not believe he will win the Vuelta.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

In which stage will Kelderman fall (possible with Porte combo?)

 

[Gigs_98]

This race is wide open. There is ofc the chance of Porte completely dominating, but if he doesn't I have no clue what's gonna happen. I pray for Nibali to be in shape to contend for the gc, but I don't think that's realistic. If he can start he will try to ride himself into shape and might get a stage or two in the last two weeks.

Enric Mas ftw

 

[DanielSong39]

Any chance Quintana has a miracle career resurrection?

 

[Gigs_98]

Just took a look at the route again and I still don't like it. Stage 20 is pretty much the only stage where you can attack before the final climb and while many stages aren't exactly flat they often have a hilly finale which might not be quite hard enough to shake off the sprinters, so there could actually be quite a lot of bunch sprints in this editions. I find that really sad as the hard medium mountain stages have provided a lot of entertainment in 2015 and 2017 but for some reason they still only make those kind of stages every 2nd year. Then again, we have no Contador this year anyway, so it probably wouldn't have been as good anyway.

Still the Vuelta pretty much always delivers as a good grand tour with a close battle and this years edition hopefully won't be an exception. Porte is the only one who I can see running away with it, but then again it's Porte. You really can't be certain about him until he reaches the finish line on stage 21.

 

[Forever The Best]

This is one of the worst routes I've ever seen. This can only be a terrible race.

 

[Akuryo]

Enric Mas will win this bike race!

 

[Escarabajo]

I just went to check the route and again making the same mistakes as in previous year.

Stage 2 is featured as flat for the sprinters. You be the judge:

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Whoever recovers best out of Porte or Nibali. Valverde fans to get over excited even though he hasn't looked like a genuine gc contender for doing years.

This Tour is the first reason I have got to not believe he will win the Vuelta.

Agreed. Along with a comment he made today. Something about the Vuelta is only to get ready for the Worlds or something odd.

 

[Scarponi]

Thomas should go do the double, probably win the Veulta by 4 minutes plus

 

[dastott]

If Porte is ever going to win a GT it is this one. Made for him. After all the talk about Sky leadership in GTs they look pretty weak here, unless G doubles up (no hint of that though). I was hoping Bernal would get a leadership role at the Vuelta but it seems that De La Cruz will get that.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Sagan is doing the Vuelta?

 

[movingtarget]

Redemption Richie ? Movistar will talk it up as usual. Aru who knows ? Uran could do well and Lopez. Nibali might just use it for the Worlds.Yates probably learnt some lessons from the Giro and has to be a chance. Pinot should be thereabouts if his health holds out. Zakarin podium at best more like top five. Kelderman could do okay as well as George Bennett. Looks pretty open. Plenty of riders looking for their first GT win.

 

[Red Rick]

Just took a look at the route again and I still don't like it. Stage 20 is pretty much the only stage where you can attack before the final climb and while many stages aren't exactly flat they often have a hilly finale which might not be quite hard enough to shake off the sprinters, so there could actually be quite a lot of bunch sprints in this editions. I find that really sad as the hard medium mountain stages have provided a lot of entertainment in 2015 and 2017 but for some reason they still only make those kind of stages every 2nd year. Then again, we have no Contador this year anyway, so it probably wouldn't have been as good anyway.

Still the Vuelta pretty much always delivers as a good grand tour with a close battle and this years edition hopefully won't be an exception. Porte is the only one who I can see running away with it, but then again it's Porte. You really can't be certain about him until he reaches the finish line on stage 21.

I would say it's garbage in imagination and general mountain stage design.

But I would also say that at least the garbage is balanced, and they don't put in 6 mountain stages with big climbs in the wrong places to camouflage the disbalance in their races. The Vuelta in the last years has done a great job on at least being exciting for 10 minutes every other stages, and actually having an open race where you don't know the winner after 10 stages.

But yeah this Vuelta is particularly Vuelta-y

 

[Laplaz]

S. Yates vs. Porte vs. Quintana

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

I just went to check the route and again making the same mistakes as in previous year.

Stage 2 is featured as flat for the sprinters. You be the judge:

Yeah, love the fact that the stage starts at km 0 with a cat 2 climb - ahh, the Vuelta.

 

[Laplaz]

Only one stage with more than 200km

 

[glassmoon]

Re:

Any chance Quintana has a miracle career resurrection?

I hope not. I just can't root for this guy. He's just... :Neutral:

 

[Arnout]

Re:

Any chance Quintana has a miracle career resurrection?

He was a close second in the Giro a year and two months ago. Why are you talking about a career resurrection?

Someone with the physique of Quintana is way more dependent on the right circumstances than riders with a big engine on the flat. Compared to previous pure climbers in the history of the sport he is more consistent and actually wins more races and stages.

 

[perico]

Time for Enric Más to shine.