Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2019

[Robert5091]

Thread for all things Ruta del Sol - preview at
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/vuelta-a-andalucia-ruta-ciclista-del-sol-2019/preview/

official website at http://www.vueltaandalucia.es/

official Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/VCANDALUCIA

"expected" TV times on ES (Eurosport)
Wed 20th-Sat 23rd, stages 1-4, times same:
Andalucia 14.00-15.45 GMT ES Player & ES1

Sun 24th, stage 5
Andalucia 13.30-15.15 GMT ES Player, 14.00-15.15 GMT ES2


Stage 1 SANLUCAR – ALCALA DE LOS GAZULES. 170,5 Km
starts at 12:15pm CET
(6:15am U.S. Eastern)

Finish at around 4:30pm CET
(10:30am U.S. Eastern)

Live video from 3:00pm CET
(9:00am U.S. Eastern)

https://www.cyclingstage.com/ruta-del-sol-2019/stage-1-route-rds-2019/

The Vuelta a Andalucia, which is the race’s other name, starts in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a place north of Cádiz where Quadalquivir River reaches the Mediterranean. The route runs across flat terrain to Arcos de la Frontera and enters the Sierra de Grazalema. The scenery starts to change and the parcours becomes more hilly.

It is not that the riders face brutal intermediate climbs though. The hardest uphill stretch underway is the Puerto Mojón de la Víbora, which is a 5.5 kilometres ascent at 4.6%. The route rolls on for a bit before cresting its highest point with 34 kilometres remaining.

The last intermediate hill is crested 14 kilometres before the line and the ensuing descent runs to a punchy finale. The climb to the line is the hardest ramp of the day. Partly covered with cobbles, it is a toil of 1 kilometre at 10% with ramps up to 18%. Last year, Tim Wellens laid the foundation for his GC win on this very climb.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Short mountain stage fever hits here, and we have the usual self-fulfilling prophecies (the long stages are the ones which are flat, the short stages are the ones likely to create action) that are plaguing cycling and making people think that long stage = bad, short stage = good.

6 World Tour teams, 12 Pro Contis and 1 isolated third tier team (Euskadi). No Kometa or those Spanish based but overseas-registered anomaly teams that often pad the numbers at Spanish stage races once the main body of the season has begun, like Inteja, nor any visits from Colombian or Japanese overseas teams with Spanish representatives. No Valverde this year, and Movistar have basically gone with most of their flat squad, entering Rojas, Barbero, Roelandts and Prades, leaving Carretero as a helper and Verona and Valls their only climbing hands. They can't seriously think Edu Prades will get over Hazallanas? Astana's hot start to the season looks set to continue, but there's a very strong Mitchelton-Scott team including several of the best climbers in the race, as they've taken the opposite approach to Movistar, testing their entire climbing squad here with both Yates brothers, Chaves, Nieve and Jack Haig, leaving only Affini as a helper and Trentin.

Lotto-Soudal (Wellens, Vanendert)
Movistar (Verona, Valls)
Astana (Luís León Sánchez, Cataldo, Fuglsang, Ion Izagirre)
Jumbo-Visma (Kruijswijk, Kuss)
Mitchelton-Scott (Simon Yates, Adam Yates, Chaves, Nieve)
Bahrain-Merida (Cortina, Mohoric, Teuns)
Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
Wanty-Groupe Gobert
Gazprom-Rusvelo (Shalunov?)
Roompot-Charles
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA (Pardilla, Aranburu)
Vital Concept-B&B Hotels (Rolland)
Rally Cycling
Nippo-Vini Fantini (Lobato not for GC but could spring a surprise for a stage or something)
Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
Bardiani-CSF
Euskadi-Murias (Óscar Rodríguez, Samitier, Intxausti, López-Cozar)
Burgos-BH (Vilela, Rubio)
Euskadi

Keep an eye out for Xavi Cañellas (Caja Rural) and Zhyhunou (Euskadi) in the stage 2 and 5 finales, they'll probably be swamped against a stronger field here but will be interesting to see them in the later Spanish domestic races when there's more of a regional flavour to the startlines.

 

[tobydawq]

I think Higuita deserves to be in a bracket after his showings in Valencia.

 

[sir fly]

What's the matter with the images?

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

What's the matter with the images?

I think it's the official website causing problems - the stage 1 profile has come back now on my browser.

(edit - update - it's off and on! I've now linked the image to a photo-sharing website so we'll see what happens)

 

[Valv.Piti]

The Hazallanes stage will be great, looking forward to that one.

That Movistar-team tho. A bit weird not to see Soler here after his nice performance in the race last year on Spanish soil, but they obviously hoped Landa would be able to ride.

 

[Krokro]

Yates all over it. Stage 1 and 2 seem very good for both of them.
Maybe Ion could surprise with the TT as an advantage.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Yates all over it. Stage 1 and 2 seem very good for both of them.
Maybe Ion could surprise with the TT as an advantage.

Ion is the favourite to win overall, so thats wouldnt be a surprise really.

 

[Koronin]

I don't get what Movistar is doing. They are sending a team to a home race with a 0% chance of winning anything at all. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Then again I've been questioning their decisions since last year so this fits right into that. I understand that Landa is injured, but even if he wasn't, this isn't exactly a very good squad to help him try to win the overall either if you want to look at it that way. I think what we're seeing is how much talent this team has lost over the past 3 years and how they have not been able to replace that talent.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

A bit weird not to see Soler here

Having just raced in what is almost the other side of the world might have something to do with that.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

A bit weird not to see Soler here

Having just raced in what is almost the other side of the world might have something to do with that.

Yeah, and Nairoman, Anacona and Carapaz also did that race, Valverde will do UAE, Landa is injured and then there are really no more big profiles.

However, Soler is not South American and could just as well have done Andalucía instead of Colombia. I think that would have made more sense.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

A bit weird not to see Soler here

Having just raced in what is almost the other side of the world might have something to do with that.

Yeah, and Nairoman, Anacona and Carapaz also did that race, Valverde will do UAE, Landa is injured and then there are really no more big profiles.

However, Soler is not South American and could just as well have done Andalucía instead of Colombia. I think that would have made more sense.

Exactly. Soler never should have been sent to Colombia, esp after Landa's injury. He should have been kept in Spain for Andalucia.

 

[Salvarani]

Maybe it was just too late to send somebody else with short notice...

They was also supposed to have Landa in this race. Maybe a weak team around him, but he would have been able to handle it himself in these stages and the climbs.

Now other riders have an opportunity to prove themselves. Thats hopefully good too in the long run.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Maybe it was just too late to send somebody else with short notice...

They was also supposed to have Landa in this race. Maybe a weak team around him, but he would have been able to handle it himself in these stages and the climbs.

Now other riders have an opportunity to prove themselves. Thats hopefully good too in the long run.

Except this was known for a couple of weeks at this point.

Here's the bigger issue. Overall they have a relatively weak team.

 

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

Maybe it was just too late to send somebody else with short notice...

They was also supposed to have Landa in this race. Maybe a weak team around him, but he would have been able to handle it himself in these stages and the climbs.

Now other riders have an opportunity to prove themselves. Thats hopefully good too in the long run.

Except this was known for a couple of weeks at this point.

Here's the bigger issue. Overall they have a relatively weak team.

Some riders had been in Australia and was just coming back also. Maybe it would have been tough to send one of them to South America also with short notice. If even possible. Some have been racing Mallorca, Valenciana, Murcia etc.

Yeah, they have a weak team behind their stars but it is not in that many races neither Valverde, Quintana, Landa, Soler or Carapaz gonna be there.

Looking at their team for Andalucia... Barbero, Roelandts, Prades and Valls could maybe do something on a stage or two. A young guy like Carretero could get his own opportunity too. Thats good for development. It might not be a bad thing that none of their best riders are there was all Im saying. Whether the riders at the race make some results or not.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

I don't get what Movistar is doing. They are sending a team to a home race with a 0% chance of winning anything at all. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Then again I've been questioning their decisions since last year so this fits right into that. I understand that Landa is injured, but even if he wasn't, this isn't exactly a very good squad to help him try to win the overall either if you want to look at it that way. I think what we're seeing is how much talent this team has lost over the past 3 years and how they have not been able to replace that talent.

And you think it's easy to keep riders like Izagirre brothers, Castroviejo, Herrada bros, Intxausti... with the budget of 15 millions? With Valverde, Quintana and Landa aboard! Get real! The fact is that Unzue is producing good riders out of nowhere, he gets them for cheap money and makes excellent riders out of them, and he's doing this for years, decades...! Movistar (Caisse d'Epargne, Banesto) is top 5 world team for the last 20 years with the budget rarely close to that top 5, so I would say that's a merit of certain Mr. Unzue, his skills and talent.

 

[Robert5091]

Start list on official website at http://www.vueltaandalucia.es/equipos/corredores
Due to image posting problems, here's the ones from the website -

Stage 2 Sevilla - Torredonjimeno 216 km


Stage 3 Mancha Real - La Guardia de Jaén 16.2 km ITT


Stage 4 Armilla - Granada 120 km


Stage 5 Otura - Alhaurín de la Torre 164 km

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I don't get what Movistar is doing. They are sending a team to a home race with a 0% chance of winning anything at all. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Then again I've been questioning their decisions since last year so this fits right into that. I understand that Landa is injured, but even if he wasn't, this isn't exactly a very good squad to help him try to win the overall either if you want to look at it that way. I think what we're seeing is how much talent this team has lost over the past 3 years and how they have not been able to replace that talent.

And you think it's easy to keep riders like Izagirre brothers, Castroviejo, Herrada bros, Intxausti... with the budget of 15 millions? With Valverde, Quintana and Landa aboard! Get real! The fact is that Unzue is producing good riders out of nowhere, he gets them for cheap money and makes excellent riders out of them, and he's doing this for years, decades...! Movistar (Caisse d'Epargne, Banesto) is top 5 world team for the last 20 years with the budget rarely close to that top 5, so I would say that's a merit of certain Mr. Unzue, his skills and talent.

The Izaagirre and Herrada brothers left before Landa was brought in. I fully understand the Izagirre brothers leaving. Now that they are at Astana they are finally going to be able to show their full potential. The Herrada brothers left for a Pro Conti team. The current Movistar team is very weak. They were very weak last year and that was evident if you watched them. They haven't exactly improved for this year.

 

[Robert5091]

I would hazard a guess that Astana could well win this and become this years QS.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

A bit weird not to see Soler here

Having just raced in what is almost the other side of the world might have something to do with that.

My argument is not that he should ride Andalucia after Colombia, but Andalucia instead of Colombia.

 

[MADRAZO]

At least Movistar could have put Amador in Andalucia instead of in the UAE tour. The race would have suited Amador really well with a TT and a steep climb, and he was even top 10 last year (and 2. in the TT) and also could do with a race where he could ride for himself as he has very few of those races now

 

[Koronin]

Re:

At least Movistar could have put Amador in Andalucia instead of in the UAE tour. The race would have suited Amador really well with a TT and a steep climb, and he was even top 10 last year (and 2. in the TT) and also could do with a race where he could ride for himself as he has very few of those races now

You have a good point. The only question I have is, I have no clue what level Amador has right now. He was supposed to start his season in Mallorca and was pulled off the start list a couple days before due to having hurt himself doing something at home. No one has expanded on that. That is why we haven't seen him yet and why UAE is actually his first race. I agree that even with this being his first race of the season they should have sent him at least to Andalucia as the race leader.

 

[Robert5091]

Mark Padun is missing from the Bahrain Merida startlist for some reason. - who is number 54?!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Mark Padun is missing from the Bahrain Merida startlist for some reason. - who is number 54?!

If they have no reserve present in Spain they will start with no number 54.

 

[repre]

Re:

Mark Padun is missing from the Bahrain Merida startlist for some reason. - who is number 54?!

He is ill, as team twitter just wrote. They'll start without #54, no replacement