Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2024, stage 10: Ponteareas - Baiona, 159.6k

[Devil's Elbow]

The Vuelta trades the heat for normal temperatures, the high mountains for the medium ones, and one of Superman López' favourite parts of Spain for the one he hates most.

It's another uphill start for the riders, sadly they become less common from here on out. Alto de Fonfría is long and mostly gradual, but irregular enough to hide some steeper sections.

After the climb, the riders more or less double back on themselves to follow the Miño valley, which forms the border between Galicia and Portugal, towards the coast. This makes for a long flat intermezzo, before things get a lot harder in the final two-fifths of the stage. All of this should be familiar terrain for the peloton: the triptych of climbs they will tackle were the first three KOMs of the day on the equally baffling and spectacular final mountain stage of the 2021 Vuelta. First up is the easiest of the three, Alto de Vilachán.

Things go up a notch after that on Alto de Mabia, with some pretty testing lower slopes.

The final KOM is Alto de Mougás, where the peloton exploded in 2021.

The road used as a descent ends right in the middle of Baiona, but right on the edge of town the route veers west. Now I can imagine why Unipublic don't want a descent lasting until past the flamme rouge, but a 10k detour is just too much and dampens the hopes of GC action. The one benefit of the additional loop is that the small climb up to Cabo Silleiro is taken in. It's the final 1.2k of the profile below.

The final kilometres are flat and follow the coast, placing racing below the desires of both the local tourist association and Adam Hansen in this instance.

 

[AnotherArmChair]

No sure if this is one of the ones Thomas de Gendt has circled ? Does anyone know. The downhill finish could help him ...Also Ion Izagirre likes this kind of finish.

But Soler looks very strong , he should be up there. Maybe Jack Haig too now there is no Tiberi to look after

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Wow, so this kryptonite area contains a climb whose name reminds us of the two most crazy but also tiresome b-stories around Pogačar at the Tour, the mou insider story and the carbonmonoxide gas story. At least there‘s more than one guy to talk about in this race.

 

[hayneplane]

No sure if this is one of the ones Thomas de Gendt has circled ? Does anyone know. The downhill finish could help him ...Also Ion Izagirre likes this kind of finish.

But Soler looks very strong , he should be up there. Maybe Jack Haig too now there is no Tiberi to look after

de Gendt has got Stage 20 marked out (last ever road stage for him and up and down all day).

 

[Samamba]

de Gendt has got Stage 20 marked out (last ever road stage for him and up and down all day).

You realize that was a typical De Gendt joke right.

Unless you're joking yourself

 

[hayneplane]

Nice stage design that ordinarily would be a nailed on breakaway with little GC action but the current GC situation is well calibrated to provide for a far more chaotic stage with others taking inspiration from Adam Yates and trying to vault themselves back into contention.

Sivakov could be a good candidate to look to move and is a stronger rouleur than most of the top 15 do can handle the middle phase of the stage best.

Bora should try to pressure Decathlon with Lipowitz up the road though Roglic might not fancy that risk with GC Kuss PTSD.

Skjelmose should thrive in these medium mountains and it is surely time for trademark GC clawback moves from Guillaume Martin.

 

[hayneplane]

You realize that was a typical De Gendt joke right.

Unless you're joking yourself

No I hadn’t realised that!

 

[Gigs_98]

Gall vs Lipowitz from the break

 

[Pozzovivo]

The Equipo Kern Pharma boys are flying! I'm extremely impressed and think they will grab a stage this vuelta. Maybe tomorrow. Easy to underestimate them. Big mistake if so.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Marc Soler

 

[cen]

No risk, no glory

 

[JosefK]

Hoping Roglic is interviewed after the stage: "The legs felt good, so why not, ah?"

 

[Sciatic]

Gall vs Lipowitz from the break

With Vlasov not riding well I was thinking they’d want Lipowitz to stay with Roglic in case he has problem or wants to attack the final climb. This doesn’t seem like the kind of stage to have a satellite rider out front. But what do I know (not much)

 

[The Barb]

Very hard stage to predict but I suspect it'll be raced tougher than the market suggests (WVA is second favourite but has very little chance in my opinion).

Alto de Mougás is no joke. In 2021 it was the third to last climb and, as Devil's Elbow pointed out, the race blew apart, leaving only five riders in the GC group: Roglic, Yates, Mas, Mader and Haig.

Haig hardly ever wins, and he might not be quite at that 2021 level right now, but with Tiberi out of the race he still looks a decent chance from the breakaway.

 

[Gigs_98]

Everyone is talking about who will send whom up the road, seeing this as a medium mountain stage for tactical moves, but honestly, the way the gc is looking we might actually see a peoper battle from the peloton. Idk if anyone will plan to do something but there are a lot of riders right now whose weakness would immediately result in attacks by others and perhaps most importantly it doesn't seem too far fetched those guys will actually show a weakness.

 

[Sciatic]

Everyone is talking about who will send whom up the road, seeing this as a medium mountain stage for tactical moves, but honestly, the way the gc is looking we might actually see a peoper battle from the peloton. Idk if anyone will plan to do something but there are a lot of riders right now whose weakness would immediately result in attacks by others and perhaps most importantly it doesn't seem too far fetched those guys will actually show a weakness.

Good point. There are good reasons that Bora, AGR, Movistar, and maybe even EF would want to control the stage to protect or improve their GC position, although one or more will probably play chicken with o’Connor and Roglic to get those teams to do more of the work. But the danger for any of those teams gambling is could see one of the good climbers who are 5-6 minutes down get a slug of time back like Carapaz did yesterday.

 

[scribers]

I’m going with Enric Mas to blast up the mougas, gaining a minute on the group of favorites. And then caught at the line

 

[SHAD0W93]

After a rest day I think it’s going to be absolute carnage, even with the headwind. One of the top 6 is going to lose 1-2 mins.

 

[movingtarget]

Expect another top 10 reshuffle after this stage especially after a rest day. Wouldn't be surprised if someone jumped up the GC again from the break as teams are struggling to control the race.

 

[Heston]

Sepp Kuss from the break. Return of GC Kuss.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I've got so used to only seeing a couple of hours from this race I didn't realise today would apparently be broadcast in full until I happened to glance at a tv schedule. Nice.

 

[elguapo]

Gall vs Lipowitz from the break

Both riders would be instructed to ride with their respective leader, not to join the break.

 

[KZD]

Nice throwback to Vuelta 2021 stage 20.

I think this should go to the break, I am going with Del Toro now that he is out of GC but UAE has several good options for this stage. Still, its not impossible that someone from the GC group attacks but tomorrow is better suited for a Roglič attack.

 

[search]

if he feels better, Roglic should still try to get a couple of seconds over the final bump

 

[Rob5091]

Goossens at Intermarché a DNS too ... I think he crashed on Sunday?