Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2023, stage 21: Hipódromo de la Zarzuela - Madrid, 101.1k

[Devil's Elbow]

The end. There's plenty to look back on, hopefully Tobias Bayer waits until after the finish to do so this time.

There really isn't any point in discussing this route, is there? The start has been used in 2020 already and neither the run-in down Madrid's highways nor the usual, three-pointed final circuit should hold any secrets. Sadly Uijtdebroeks is one second too far behind Vlasov to overtake him with the intermediate sprint bonus seconds, otherwise we could have had a beautiful sprint for seventh on GC between two teammates.

Final kilometres:

 

[Red Rick]

Thanks for all the stage threads @Devil's Elbow

 

[RedheadDane]

It's an evening stage. What could possibly go wrong...?
Though, probably helps that they'll all finish at the same time.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's an evening stage. What could possibly go wrong...?
Though, probably helps that they'll all finish at the same time.

It'll get neutralised with the finishing line taken in the middle of a hairpin two and a half laps from home just to add an extra layer of farce to this GT and bookend it perfectly.

I mean stage 2 and stage 20 saw rain and the GC riders having a day off, so stages 1 and 21 being crash-filled disasters in the rain would be just the cherry on top of the turd-cream frosting on this stale cake of a race.

 

[JosefK]

More of this to come:

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TsoX2BCtqVQ

 

[Rob5091]

Having the Vuelta and Tour of Britain being so dominated by Jumbo at the same time just rubbed in how big the gap is between Jumbo and everyone else (except for Pogi!).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Having the Vuelta and Tour of Britain being so dominated by Jumbo at the same time just rubbed in how big the gap is between Jumbo and everyone else (except for Pogi!).

Premier League-ification. It's what they want.

Lock the top level, remove wildcards entirely. No sponsor will ever sponsor a team that isn't going to the Tour apparently, so why not give them even less reason to do so, and bring in Vaughters' beloved franchise idea by the back door?

 

[Lequack]

Thanks @Devil's Elbow for the final stage post!

Also, GC Kuss, it happened!

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

So after Stage 20, we have 21 riders within one hour and only 42 riders within 2 hours.
(thanks lequack for the new avatar!)

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I would actually be embarrassed to win the biggest race of my career riding a bike that says 'the hype is real'. Good grief, that's cringeworthy.

 

[topcat]

I would actually be embarrassed to win the biggest race of my career riding a bike that says 'the hype is real'. Good grief, that's cringeworthy.

Has a leader ever crashed out on the last stage of a gt?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Has a leader ever crashed out on the last stage of a gt?

Happened to Nairo Quintana on my team on PCM...

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

When was the last time a rider rode all 3 GTs and won at least 1 of them?

 

[houtdffan]

Has a leader ever crashed out on the last stage of a gt?

That would be a Remco or Contador thing to do

 

[Izzyeviel]

Has a leader ever crashed out on the last stage of a gt?

Abdoujaparov very nearly managed it.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

When was the last time a rider rode all 3 GTs and won at least 1 of them?

Never, I think. I‘m not sure, though

 

[Libertine Seguros]

When was the last time a rider rode all 3 GTs and won at least 1 of them?

Just for 'riding' all 3 GTs, Marco Giovannetti in 1990 I think, but he DNFed the Tour de France. It was even harder before the Vuelta moved to September in 1995, because it backed almost directly on to the Giro.

Giovannetti won the Vuelta in similar fashion to Kuss, gaining an advantage in a breakaway in the middle of the first week and holding on, and then finished 3rd in the Giro, but he abandoned the Tour on stage 5 so isn't really a direct comparison.

 

[ice&fire]

When was the last time a rider rode all 3 GTs and won at least 1 of them?

Gastone Nencini, 1957: 9th in the Vuelta, 1st in the Giro, 6th in the Tour.

That new avatar of yours is horrible. You need to find a pic of Sepp downing the bottle of cava after his stage win.

 

[Danskebjerge]

Having the Vuelta and Tour of Britain being so dominated by Jumbo at the same time just rubbed in how big the gap is between Jumbo and everyone else (except for Pogi!).

The stage races tend to enhance the dominance of certain teams. But if you look at the world's top 20, it's not all Jumbo:

#	Prev.	Diff.	Rider	Team	Points
1	1	-	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE Team Emirates	7500.9
2	3	▲1	EVENEPOEL Remco	Soudal - Quick Step	6320.2
3	4	▲1	VINGEGAARD Jonas	Jumbo-Visma	5435.1
4	20	▲16	PEDERSEN Mads	Lidl - Trek	4930.1
5	2	▼3	VAN AERT Wout	Jumbo-Visma	4322
6	24	▲18	ROGLIČ Primož	Jumbo-Visma	4233.9
7	9	▲2	VAN DER POEL Mathieu	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4163
8	22	▲14	PHILIPSEN Jasper	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4020
9	26	▲17	YATES Adam	UAE Team Emirates	3842.9
10	40	▲30	ALMEIDA João	UAE Team Emirates	3268.1
11	51	▲40	SKJELMOSE Mattias	Lidl - Trek	3143.1
12	137	▲125	GANNA Filippo	INEOS Grenadiers	2686
13	38	▲25	YATES Simon	Team Jayco AlUla	2572.8
14	6	▼8	DE LIE Arnaud	Lotto Dstny	2572
15	28	▲13	MOHORIČ Matej	Bahrain - Victorious	2502
16	17	▲1	BILBAO Pello	Bahrain - Victorious	2432.1
17	19	▲2	MAS Enric	Movistar Team	2379.2
18	50	▲32	POWLESS Neilson	EF Education-EasyPost	2262.7
19	162	▲143	PINOT Thibaut	Groupama - FDJ	2253
20	60	▲40	HIRSCHI Marc	UAE Team Emirates	2247

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The stage races tend to enhance the dominance of certain teams. But if you look at the world's top 20, it's not all Jumbo:

#	Prev.	Diff.	Rider	Team	Points
1	1	-	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE Team Emirates	7500.9
2	3	▲1	EVENEPOEL Remco	Soudal - Quick Step	6320.2
3	4	▲1	VINGEGAARD Jonas	Jumbo-Visma	5435.1
4	20	▲16	PEDERSEN Mads	Lidl - Trek	4930.1
5	2	▼3	VAN AERT Wout	Jumbo-Visma	4322
6	24	▲18	ROGLIČ Primož	Jumbo-Visma	4233.9
7	9	▲2	VAN DER POEL Mathieu	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4163
8	22	▲14	PHILIPSEN Jasper	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4020
9	26	▲17	YATES Adam	UAE Team Emirates	3842.9
10	40	▲30	ALMEIDA João	UAE Team Emirates	3268.1
11	51	▲40	SKJELMOSE Mattias	Lidl - Trek	3143.1
12	137	▲125	GANNA Filippo	INEOS Grenadiers	2686
13	38	▲25	YATES Simon	Team Jayco AlUla	2572.8
14	6	▼8	DE LIE Arnaud	Lotto Dstny	2572
15	28	▲13	MOHORIČ Matej	Bahrain - Victorious	2502
16	17	▲1	BILBAO Pello	Bahrain - Victorious	2432.1
17	19	▲2	MAS Enric	Movistar Team	2379.2
18	50	▲32	POWLESS Neilson	EF Education-EasyPost	2262.7
19	162	▲143	PINOT Thibaut	Groupama - FDJ	2253
20	60	▲40	HIRSCHI Marc	UAE Team Emirates	2247

That doesn't include the Vuelta GC points yet though. When those go in, that'll have a significant effect I would anticipate.

 

[dennisdy]

I would actually be embarrassed to win the biggest race of my career riding a bike that says 'the hype is real'. Good grief, that's cringeworthy.

It's not meant to be taken seriously. It's a joke!

 

[Rob5091]

The stage races tend to enhance the dominance of certain teams. But if you look at the world's top 20, it's not all Jumbo:

#	Prev.	Diff.	Rider	Team	Points
1	1	-	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE Team Emirates	7500.9
2	3	▲1	EVENEPOEL Remco	Soudal - Quick Step	6320.2
3	4	▲1	VINGEGAARD Jonas	Jumbo-Visma	5435.1
4	20	▲16	PEDERSEN Mads	Lidl - Trek	4930.1
5	2	▼3	VAN AERT Wout	Jumbo-Visma	4322
6	24	▲18	ROGLIČ Primož	Jumbo-Visma	4233.9
7	9	▲2	VAN DER POEL Mathieu	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4163
8	22	▲14	PHILIPSEN Jasper	Alpecin-Deceuninck	4020
9	26	▲17	YATES Adam	UAE Team Emirates	3842.9
10	40	▲30	ALMEIDA João	UAE Team Emirates	3268.1
11	51	▲40	SKJELMOSE Mattias	Lidl - Trek	3143.1
12	137	▲125	GANNA Filippo	INEOS Grenadiers	2686
13	38	▲25	YATES Simon	Team Jayco AlUla	2572.8
14	6	▼8	DE LIE Arnaud	Lotto Dstny	2572
15	28	▲13	MOHORIČ Matej	Bahrain - Victorious	2502
16	17	▲1	BILBAO Pello	Bahrain - Victorious	2432.1
17	19	▲2	MAS Enric	Movistar Team	2379.2
18	50	▲32	POWLESS Neilson	EF Education-EasyPost	2262.7
19	162	▲143	PINOT Thibaut	Groupama - FDJ	2253
20	60	▲40	HIRSCHI Marc	UAE Team Emirates	2247

But how many of those guys are going to win a GT?

 

[movingtarget]

If you win all three grand tours it can only be a domination year and it is a team sport .................and even individually, two podiums for Vingegaard and Roglic. Some effort by Kuss riding all three GTs and winning the final one.

Who will be the next rider to win their first grand tour ? Thomas, ,Yates, Carapaz, TGH, Hindley, Remco and Kuss have managed to win one but it's much harder to win a second one. Even Sastre, Schleck and Evans could only win one each.

 

[tobydawq]

Having the Vuelta and Tour of Britain being so dominated by Jumbo at the same time just rubbed in how big the gap is between Jumbo and everyone else (except for Pogi!).

Van der Poel would also like to be mentioned in that bracket...

 

[Red Rick]

Evenepoel to attack. Roglic will follow, thinking it's a joke. But Remco Evenepoel will not be joking.