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Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2021 (April 14-18)

The first time this year that a delayed race does actually take place. Also the first Spanish stage race of the year, depending who you ask.

Startlist
Perhaps unsurprisingly, much weaker than we're used to, very little depth with only 15 teams starting the race. Démare and Ewan are there for the sprints, Mas is leading Movistar, and that's about it as far as big names go.

Stage profiles
They don't match up with the stage distances on the official site, which hasn't been updated with the route for Covid reasons, so not entirely sure if this is correct.

Stage 1
1-Vuelta-CV-2021.png


Stage 2
2-Vuelta-CV-2021.png


Stage 3
3-Vuelta-CV-2021.png


Stage 4 (ITT)
4-Vuelta-CV-2021.png


Stage 5
5-Vuelta-CV-2021.png
 
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Climbs

Stage 1
Maigmó
maigmoagost.jpg


Alcalali
OnilS.gif


Cuatretondeta (the profile below minus the final 300 meters)
FagecaSW.gif


Sa Creueta (final 6k only)
BixaucaW.gif


Coll de Rates (final 7k only)
RatesS.gif


Alto de Llosa de Camacho
LlosaW.gif


Stage 2
Hondón de los Frailes
AlbateraS.gif


El Algarrobo (from the junction to Barinas onwards)
cuesta_algarrobo.png


Collado de Abril
AbrilW.gif


Stage 3

Rio Juanes
f4aeefe0f7dc102b531b26007da6272ao.png


Tabarta
vuelta-a-la-comunidad-valenciana-2021-stage-3-climb-n2-716378a6eb.jpg


Alto del Embarcadero
vuelta-a-la-comunidad-valenciana-2021-stage-3-climb-n3-dc6a5607ad.jpg


Otonel
vuelta-a-la-comunidad-valenciana-2021-stage-3-climb-n4-8b41f04391.jpg


Alto de la Reina
vuelta-a-la-comunidad-valenciana-2021-stage-3-climb-n5-2326e4d257.jpg
 
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No reason to even bother with this race.
I know doing little more than standing pat at the trade deadline sucks, but Carter still has some wheels left and there are almost no assets remaining. Don't take it out on the cyclists. Though the race is hardly the best designed out there, the TT is a good length for the difficulty of the climb - it's a pretty easy climb so in order for the riders to counter that before the ITT they're going to have to try to attack, besides with the weaker péloton here, getting some escapes in is more likely to succeed. I'm hoping to see a good showing from one of the young Kern Pharma guys and Abner González.
 
Why? Because Valverde isn't riding? You know there are other riders, right?

Again this race isn't worth bothering with. Heck my friends in Spain have looked at what is going on with this one and have said it's not worth their time or energy to bother watching it either.

I know doing little more than standing pat at the trade deadline sucks, but Carter still has some wheels left and there are almost no assets remaining. Don't take it out on the cyclists. Though the race is hardly the best designed out there, the TT is a good length for the difficulty of the climb - it's a pretty easy climb so in order for the riders to counter that before the ITT they're going to have to try to attack, besides with the weaker péloton here, getting some escapes in is more likely to succeed. I'm hoping to see a good showing from one of the young Kern Pharma guys and Abner González.


This race isn't worth the time or energy to bother with. No one is going to care enough to bother even trying to control it so breaks should win most if not all stages.

Enric Mas has nothing resembling any form at the moment so there is no good reason for Movistar to do anything other than put someone out in breaks if they can even manage to do that correctly.
 
This is hilarious. I could understand if you thought there was no reason to bother with that Vietnamese race that LS keeps writing novels about but this race would have been bad if Valverde went because it would be a given who would win it and his wins wouldn't really have been sorth much. Now that he doesn't go, the reasonable conclusion would be that the race is more exciting but no, suddenly this race sucks, he sucks and Amstel sucks. Fleche and Liege too, probably.
 
No one is going to care enough to bother even trying to control it so breaks should win most if not all stages.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Plenty of hungry young riders who'll be looking for a chance to earn some bigger starts and try to get some attention and maybe a win or two, and less predictable as a result.

There's people like Juan Diego Alba, Abner González, Mathias Norsgaard, Filippo Conca, Thibault Guernalec, Oier Lazkano, Alejandro Osorio, Laurens Huys, Alan Boileau, Roger Adrià, Savva Novikov, and plenty of other young riders (those are just a few of the more obvious ones 23 or under) to keep an eye on at least.
 
You say that like it's a bad thing. Plenty of hungry young riders who'll be looking for a chance to earn some bigger starts and try to get some attention and maybe a win or two, and less predictable as a result.

There's people like Juan Diego Alba, Abner González, Mathias Norsgaard, Filippo Conca, Thibault Guernalec, Oier Lazkano, Alejandro Osorio, Laurens Huys, Alan Boileau, Roger Adrià, Savva Novikov, and plenty of other young riders (those are just a few of the more obvious ones 23 or under) to keep an eye on at least.

Ignore the Movistar riders because they are supposed to race for Mas, who has no form that anyone has seen yet.

People in Spain don't want to watch this race with this useless field, why should anyone else care about the race? This includes a few people who actually know a few of the riders who are racing this race saying they have better things to do with their time than watch.
 
Sorry about the double post...

People in Spain don't want to watch this race with this useless field, why should anyone else care about the race? This includes a few people who actually know a few of the riders who are racing this race saying they have better things to do with their time than watch.

So... people in Spain don't care about up-and-coming riders?
 
Again this race isn't worth bothering with. Heck my friends in Spain have looked at what is going on with this one and have said it's not worth their time or energy to bother watching it either.




This race isn't worth the time or energy to bother with. No one is going to care enough to bother even trying to control it so breaks should win most if not all stages.

Enric Mas has nothing resembling any form at the moment so there is no good reason for Movistar to do anything other than put someone out in breaks if they can even manage to do that correctly.

Do you think the break will be allowed to go ahead in the two sprint stages with Demare and Ewan present - It's fantastic the race is going ahead because it gives an opportunity to young developing riders.
 

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