Vuelta a Andalucia (Ruta del Sol) 20th -24th of February

[auscyclefan94]

http://www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-andalucia-ruta-ciclista-del-sol/

Starlists is on the linked page with the race coverage.

Noted riders in this race

Freire, Mollema, Van den Breakaway, Uran, Lofvkist, Devolder, hoogerland, Leipheimer, Zubledia, brajkovic, S Sanchez, A & F Schleck

Profiles

Prologue (aka stage 1)

Stage 2

 

[auscyclefan94]

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

http://www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-andalucia-ruta-ciclista-del-sol/

Starlists is on the linked page with the race coverage.

Noted riders in this race

Freire, Mollema, Van den Breakaway, Uran, Lofvkist, Devolder, hoogerland, Leipheimer, Zubledia, brajkovic, S Sanchez, A & F Schleck

& Karpets?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No MTF this year

 

[Kwibus]

Ruta del Sol

I was just checking out biketwitter and I read a lot about the Ruta del Sol. Prologue today with a nice 200mtr 12% cobbled section to the finish line.

There is nothing about it on this site and no threads about it all. Is this such a minor race?

Prologue information: http://www.vueltaandalucia.com/apli...4FC65FE750F0CBEB4125782E00477DD8?OpenDocument

 

[jens_attacks]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=12483

 

[theyoungest]

The course doesn't look very exciting. Maybe Freire for the overall?

The prologue could be interesting though, with a cobbled climb at the end.

 

[Kwibus]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=12483

Oh how did I miss that...

Rather boring stage profile. I've been there last year and there are so much options to make it a lot more interesting....

 

[roundabout]

The course doesn't look very exciting. Maybe Freire for the overall?

The prologue could be interesting though, with a cobbled climb at the end.

No time bonuses as far as i can tell for this race.

 

[ingsve]

Seems like the prologue might determine a lot of the top placings on this thing. You probably need to do well in the prologue and then stay with the main group to get a top 10 in this race. It seems like most if not all stages might end with fairly big groups at the end with only the seconds stage being somewhat decisive.

 

[theyoungest]

Standings so far:

1. Markel Irizar (RadioShack) 9:28
2. Alex Dowsett (Sky) a 13
3. Robert Hunter (RadioShack) a 17
4. Grischa Niermann (Rabobank) a 21
5. Cyril Bessy (Suar Sojasun) a 25

 

[taiwan]

About 40 riders have started.

 

[Kazistuta]

According to the starting order from the official page, Romain Sicard should have completed his prologue. He's not even top5 atm!! I thought he would do something in this race, but maybe he's not on form?

 

[theyoungest]

According to the starting order from the official page, Romain Sicard should have completed his prologue. He's not even top5 atm!! I thought he would do something in this race, but maybe he's not on form?

Looks more like a prologue for powerful classics riders.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

According to the starting order from the official page, Romain Sicard should have completed his prologue. He's not even top5 atm!! I thought he would do something in this race, but maybe he's not on form?

he's not an itt rider really.

 

[taiwan]

The course doesn't look very exciting. Maybe Freire for the overall?

The prologue could be interesting though, with a cobbled climb at the end.

I genuinely thought it would suit Freire. Prologue finishing on a climb, all other stages likely to end in a bigger or smaller sprint.

Engoulvert with new fastest time. Paul Poux (Saur) into third.

Might Coppel be a rider to watch here?

 

[ingsve]

I genuinely thought it would suit Freire. Short prologue finishing on a climb, all other stages likely to end in a bigger or smaller sprint.

Engoulvert with new fastest time. Paul Poux (Saur) into third.

Might Coppel be a rider to watch here?

Ya, he's right in the mix:

Clasificación:
1. Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur Sojasun) 9:28
2. Markel Irizar (RadioShack) m.t.
3. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega) a 1
4. Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) a 2
5. Jerome Coppel (Saur Sojasun) a 3

This seems to be the final results.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Engoulvent is rather a threat at these kinds of races. He won the prologue of the Volta a Portugal last year too.

 

[ingsve]

Clasificación:
1. Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur Sojasun) 9:28
2. Markel Irizar (RadioShack) m.t.
3. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega) a 1
4. Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) a 2
5. Jerome Coppel (Saur Sojasun) a 3
6. Paul Poux (Saur Sojasun) a 7
7. Luis Pasamontes (Movistar) a 8
8. Thomas Lovkvist (Sky) m.t.
9. Rigoberto Urán (Sky) a 9
10. Ivan Rovny (RadioShack) a 10

Nice prologue by Rigoberto Uran.

 

[Kazistuta]

he's not an itt rider really.

You do know he won the ITT in Tour L'Avenir in 2009? I should say he's a more than decent time trialer....especially in shorter ones.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

You do know he won the ITT in Tour L'Avenir in 2009? I should say he's a more than decent time trialer....especially in shorter ones.

that was the final itt and it wasn't exatcly flat. You are rigt though he's definetely not bad in itt, but I think better for longer harder itt's especially after hard racing, not a prologue

very strong performance in his debut by uran. uran used to be an itt monster let's hope sky brings back that passion as he neglected his itt skills for 3 years now and has become an average itt rider.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Looks like Vandenbroeck improved as well. 3rd in a prologue? Didn't expect that.

 

[ingsve]

very strong performance in his debut by uran. uran used to be an itt monster let's hope sky brings back that passion as he neglected his itt skills for 3 years now and has become an average itt rider.

Ya, I looked at his old results and he seems to have done some really good ITTs in the past. In the last few years he has a couple of decent prologues but overall he's very uneven. With the type of guys that Sky has and the track background I'm sure they can whip him back into good ITT shape.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

uran in colombia was the biggest tracktalent they ever had. he was national champion on every discipline in novices and juniors except the sprinting ones of course, you may think that's nothing but colombia has many track specialists and track culture in cycling. he was champion in individual pursuit, madison, scratch and points race. he was on his way to becoming world champion itt with juniors until he got a flat tire in 2005, this was

when he become pro in italy at age 18 he started to neglect his itt, which is usual since in italy you don't find itt's in races normally. with unibet he still won an incredible itt in euskal bizkleta against guys like isidro nozal and santoz gonzalez (clinic 101) at age 20!! but with caisse his itt's became really worse.

let's hope with sky's track background that indeed they can restore this talent in itt and also in sprinting, he used to be very fast!

 

[Christian]

Engoulvent is rather a threat at these kinds of races. He won the prologue of the Volta a Portugal last year too.

And at Tour de Luxembourg too