Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2021: Stage 3 (Santo Domingo de Silos - Picón Blanco, 202.8 km)

[Escarabajo]

Moncalvillo came at the end of a hard first week though, this is coming at stage 3 so unless someone has come in undercooked, I'm not expecting much. Teams and contenders are still too fresh here. I expect Ineos or Bahrain to take it up on the climb and ride at a strong enough lace to not drop loads but hard enough that Roglic will wait to do his 1k smash. Hopefully I'm wrong though

You could say fresh others could say rusty. The reality is that we have no idea how the main players will perform.

 

[titan31]

You could say fresh others could say rusty. The reality is that we have no idea how the main players will perform.

Some will be rusty but I'd be expecting at least one of Ineos, Bahrain or Movistar are fresh and strong enough that they'll control the climb and limit any attacks, and Jumbo really shouldn't be too interested to control up to Picon Blanco as it just means they have to work on the upcoming flat stages then.

 

[Andre]

I think a break will form of between 8 or 12 riders. Then on Picon Blanco Ineos will take the lead and the peloton will diminish considerably. Carapaz or Bernal will try to take advantage towards the summit but Roglic will stick to them thanks to Kuss...and I guess Roglic takes it for a few seconds gain on the overall. BTW: my predictions are always wrong, but there's got to be a first time.

 

[Bonimenier]

Expecting Roglic to take a few seconds and win in a sprint in the last couple of 100m's.

Hoping for more excitement.

 

[MartinGT]

Would like to see Bardet take the win.

 

[hayneplane]

Bahrain are the best bet for setting a harder pace to try and shred the pretenders as I think Ineos will be more interested in trying to keep as many cards in play as possible than taking the race on.

 

[Koronin]

who will be allowed in the break honestly that is no gc threat but is a good enough climber? I don't even see the peloton letting guys like Grossschartner Martin, Bouchard Mader or Poels go to be honest. This will probably be a GC final, where ROglic is the big favourite.

I'd say someone from one of the Spanish Pro Conti teams maybe a rider like Verona could be given time.

 

[stonerider]

Would JV let Pidcock in the break? He set up today to lose time and go for stage wins later.

 

[sir fly]

Recently in Vuelta a Burgos the climb looked tough to control.
Different strengths of the fields and goals, but a daring move while the bunch is still paced might bring a reward.

If this was the Tour I'd expect a textbook train work and takeoff.
Not that certain here.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Ineos will want to win and we will get our first show of Roglistomp vs Berqueror.

 

[hfer07]

There are only 2 options for the stage win: a breakaway or Roglic.

The 1st one could be possible if a good climber with no GC credentials get to the base of the last climb with a 5 minutes buffer.
on the 2nd option: if the breakaway is captured and all the GC rides start the climb together, we may see some sparks from the INEOS crew, perhaps a trio attack, starting with Carapaz, then Bernal & last Yates, then repeat, but ultimately I just don't see anybody outsprinting Roglic

 

[tobydawq]

I'd say someone from one of the Spanish Pro Conti teams maybe a rider like Verona could be given time.

Verona is not part of the Spanish Pro Conti scene...

 

[Cookster15]

I hope Bernal can stay close. But if I had to pick a winner on this stage I'd guess Roglic. We know he has a strong sprint finish in MTFs, a strong team and maybe he is still in big form after his Olympics TT domination. I also hope Carapaz can do more than the pop gun "attacks" we saw in the TdF.

 

[johnymax]

I have mixed expectations for Roglič for this stage. I can see him both winning or losing a couple of minutes to the best GC rider.

 

[search]

who will be allowed in the break honestly that is no gc threat but is a good enough climber?

it's the Vuelta, everyone can win. Madrazo took the stage from a piss-poor three-men break two years ago, and also the winners of the first MTF the years before (King, Lutsenko and Geniez) weren't exactly first-class climbers

 

[RedheadDane]

it's the Vuelta, everyone can win. Madrazo took the stage from a piss-poor three-men break two years ago, and also the winners of the first MTF the years before (King, Lutsenko and Geniez) weren't exactly first-class climbers

And he got dropped like a million times along the way.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

This might actually be the 3rd hardest climb in the race.

San Lorenzo in stage 18 is a bit harder, too, but yes... 3rd hardest of the climbs that matter.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Not sure how long Carapaz would last this Vuelta coming off the Tour and Olympics so not sure how serious JV would take him at this point in the race. Bernal doesn't look like he's firing on all cyclinders at the moment so I wouldn't be surprised if he shipped more time today. Yates really needs to stay up the pointy end of the race if he is gonna have any influence on this race. Messing about in the middle or at the back of the pack like his brother just puts him at risk of getting caught behind crashes like yesterday. Hard to see past a Roglic uphill sprint as usual unless he is happy for some lower team to take the jersey in the break and not lose time to his rivals. He knows he has a decent amount of time in the bank with the ITT at the end so can afford to play games with his rivals and just hope nothing happens to him re crashes/mech/bonking etc.

Landa for the win

 

[MrTea1976]

Carapaz and Pidcock won't be able to stop themselves attacking.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Carapaz and Pidcock won't be able to stop themselves attacking.

It will be interesting to see what lightweight Pidcock can do in the mountains. He's actually planning to target GT in a few years time (although i realize he's not in form right now, following vacation)

 

[SHAD0W93]

Not sure how long Carapaz would last this Vuelta coming off the Tour and Olympics so not sure how serious JV would take him at this point in the race. Bernal doesn't look like he's firing on all cyclinders at the moment so I wouldn't be surprised if he shipped more time today. Yates really needs to stay up the pointy end of the race if he is gonna have any influence on this race. Messing about in the middle or at the back of the pack like his brother just puts him at risk of getting caught behind crashes like yesterday. Hard to see past a Roglic uphill sprint as usual unless he is happy for some lower team to take the jersey in the break and not lose time to his rivals. He knows he has a decent amount of time in the bank with the ITT at the end so can afford to play games with his rivals and just hope nothing happens to him re crashes/mech/bonking etc.

Landa for the win

Just what Roglic needs, letting Carapaz ride off again.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I hope that Roglic will try to dominate this Vuelta as hard as possible. Winning as many stages as he can, as many jerseys as he can. And keep the leaders jersey from start till finish. That would be awesome!

 

[Earns1985]

Today we will also get the answer if MAL got back into form after his disastrous tour. At stage 1 he wasn´t that bad..

 

[reaper79]

Can Aranburu hang on? Or too hard for him?

 

[ice&fire]

Just what Roglic needs, letting Carapaz ride off again.

He knows he can delegate the chase to Movistar