Vuelta a España 2020: Stage 3 (Lodosa - La Laguna Negra-Vinuesa, 166.1 km)

Sep 20, 2017
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On the day the Giro has the hardest mountain stage of the season, the Vuelta... doesn't.
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Climbs:
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(the profile above shows the second half of the climb only)

...and then the final climb, easily the weakest MTF of the race.
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Feb 20, 2012
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I think this coudl really go to a break if the break is pretty big and nobody wants to help Jumbo. But I initially thought the climb would be harder to control. Instead it's initially way easier than I thought and you can still basically catch an attacker in the final 500m if you give him 10 seconds.
 
Jul 1, 2015
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Wind may blow strong tomorrow from the South in most of the stage.
If there are echelons in the flat between the two climbs, the break may be doomed.
 
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Apr 10, 2013
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Wind may blow strong tomorrow from the South in most of the stage.
If there are echelons in the flat between the two climbs, the break may be doomed.
Agreed. Plus, this isn't hard enough stage for a break to succeed... It'll come down again to the main GC guys, especially since it's a MTF... Roglic, Carapaz, Martin, Mas, Chaves... There you have the top 5 tomorrow, in any order;)
 
Sep 20, 2017
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Agreed. Plus, this isn't hard enough stage for a break to succeed... It'll come down again to the main GC guys, especially since it's a MTF... Roglic, Carapaz, Martin, Mas, Chaves... There you have the top 5 tomorrow, in any order;)
The stage might actually be easy enough for the break to succeed since gaps will be extremely limited on the final climb.
 
Jun 7, 2010
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relatively flat stage with a 6km relatively easy climb in the end. let's hope the wind blows, because the action should be limited to last 500m otherwise
 
Jun 10, 2017
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Agreed. Plus, this isn't hard enough stage for a break to succeed... It'll come down again to the main GC guys, especially since it's a MTF... Roglic, Carapaz, Martin, Mas, Chaves... There you have the top 5 tomorrow, in any order;)
I don't think it's hard enough for a break to not succeed. There's nothing for sprinter teams to chase for (unlike Friday, when Bora and Quickstep will be working for Ackerman and Bennett), but there's no benefit whatsoever to Jumbo to chase down any attacks.

The only problem for JV is that with 2 hard-ish mountain stages done and dusted, there isn't a classics rider or a sprinter within 5 minutes of the lead who they could just allow to go up the road and borrow the jersey until the Tourmalet. Anyone still in the top 25 is still a theoretical, potential threat.
 
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May 3, 2010
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Jumbo would probably like to give the red jersey to some nitwit in a break. On the other hand Roglic seems eager to take bonus seconds and this is another opportunity for boni + a few real seconds.
 
Feb 20, 2012
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Jumbo would probably like to give the red jersey to some nitwit in a break. On the other hand Roglic seems eager to take bonus seconds and this is another opportunity for boni + a few real seconds.
Somehow I feel some team will help Jumbo or something. Maybe Movistar. Or the break will just be weak.
 
May 22, 2014
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I like Dan Martin for this tbh.

Less likely to be immediately jumped on than some of the others and we all know he's good on these finishes even when not at his best (and he's clearly in top gear for this first week).
 
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Apr 27, 2014
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May 5, 2010
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Jumbo would probably like to give the red jersey to some nitwit in a break. On the other hand Roglic seems eager to take bonus seconds and this is another opportunity for boni + a few real seconds.

Vingegaard told Danish media that - so far - the plan is to keep it, since they don't know for sure that the race won't stop in a few days.
 
Jun 10, 2017
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I like Dan Martin for this tbh.

Less likely to be immediately jumped on than some of the others and we all know he's good on these finishes even when not at his best (and he's clearly in top gear for this first week).
Martin's only 9s down. Roglic won't give him that freedom until after he loses some time on the Tourmalet.