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Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2020: Stage 13 (Muros > Mirador de Ézaro 33.7 km ITT)

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Carapaz pulling a Pogatsar, would be nice icing on the 2020 cake.
BTW, person responsible for such race design is just a clown.

The race design would be good if all the contenders were climbers like Carapaz, Carthy, Martin, Mas etc.. When you have just one guy like Roglic, Pogacar, Dumoulin, Thomas in the race and there's a time trial then they are always the GC favourite – simply because TTs create far bigger gaps than even multiple summit finishes..
 
The race design would be good if all the contenders were climbers like Carapaz, Carthy, Martin, Mas etc.. When you have just one guy like Roglic, Pogacar, Dumoulin, Thomas in the race and there's a time trial then they are always the GC favourite – simply because TTs create far bigger gaps than even multiple summit finishes..
It's not Roglic's TT ability that's killing this race, it's the fact that he has the strongest TT AND the strongest team at the same time.
 
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He's not the best climber, he is a good enough climber that the climbers on the other teams haven't been able to drop him and/or his teammates. He does have the best sprint at the finish of a climb, but that is a different thing.
If not for a rain jacket and a descent, he is the one with the fastest time over the mountain stages. He has dropped the others more than they him.
 
If not for a rain jacket and a descent, he is the one with the fastest time over the mountain stages. He has dropped the others more than they him.
He hasn’t dropped anyone outside of sprints in the final km. Those sprints tend to open up 3-5s gaps just by their nature, but they don’t tend to be examples of “best climber.”

I’m not saying any of Carapaz, Carthy or Martin is a better climber, just that Roglic is not so head and shoulders over the rest on any given mtf to say for certain he’s the best. The only stage where we’ve actually seen gaps on the road before the final kick was Sunday, and he came off worse than his rivals and only reduced his losses thanks to help from a teammate.
 
He hasn’t dropped anyone outside of sprints in the final km. Those sprints tend to open up 3-5s gaps just by their nature, but they don’t tend to be examples of “best climber.”

I’m not saying any of Carapaz, Carthy or Martin is a better climber, just that Roglic is not so head and shoulders over the rest on any given mtf to say for certain he’s the best. The only stage where we’ve actually seen gaps on the road before the final kick was Sunday, and he came off worse than his rivals and only reduced his losses thanks to help from a teammate.
Moncalvillo was hardly an uphill sprint.

And it had bigger gaps in the top 6 than Angliru.
 
ehhh, if you swapped his team to EF, ISN or Ineos he would still be close enough that he would inevitably win the race tomorrow, maybe even still only 10 seconds down now.
Let Roglic and Carapaz swap teams and it could be a completely different race when Jumbo train is used for Carapaz who actually needs to gain time ahead of the TT (and is not afraid to attack, as we've seen).
Roglic could've still won comfortably overall but the stages themselves could've been much more interesting.
 
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Let Roglic and Carapaz swap teams and it could be a completely different race when Jumbo train is used for Carapaz who actually needs to gain time ahead of the TT (and is not afraid to attack, as we've seen).
Roglic could've still won comfortably overall but the stages themselves could've been much more interesting.
Does the Jumbo train understand the concept of attacking though?
 
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According to: http://www.climbing-records.com/search?q=Mirador

2016:1,8 km@13,9%---6:53---average speed 15.69 km/h(Ruben Fernandez)
2013:1,8 km@13,9%---8:00---average speed 13.50 km/h(Roche-Flecha)
2012:1,8 km@13,9%---6:46---average speed 15.96 km/h(Joaquim Rodriguez)

Rogla surely has the upper hand on the flat piece.
Wasn't that convincing yesterday though and, generally, fares better when paced on a slope.
32 k's is a solid length... can be gained considerably, but by what price.
Ézaro requires rhythm and dedicated reserve.

I'd, certainly, take a breather before tackling the climb... 3-5 minutes to knock the pulse down.
 
Seriously who the *** Designs Routers Like that. And why the hell are they allowed to Change bikes. If you want a MTT fine, but mixing flat TTs with super steep muritos and Bike Changes is Just so insanely silly.
I like them mixing different terrains into the TTs. I wish they'd include a technical descent after the murito, and then another 5km of rolling terrain with fast corners and roads of varying width.

I don't like bike changes.

But then, if it was up to me, I'd have them ride the whole race on a road bike and leave all the aero stuff to triathlon.
 
Apparently they can have a team member where the bike change is allowed to happen, so are all the teams just going to station 2 team members with 8 bikes at that location for bike swaps?
Maybe split it into 2 cars with 4 bikes each, just so the team leader has an opportunity as late as possible to make any changes to his climbing bike?


Again, I don't like bike changes and would prefer they didn't.
 

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