Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2025, Stage 11: Bilbao/Bilbo – Bilbao/Bilbo (157.4k)

[Cycling111]

Team Soler vs Team Ayuso vs Team Vine in the break while Team Almeida sticks with Visma.

I think Vine team will rest today. It's not a hilly finish. Too many descents for an accident.

 

[Statze2]

I am looking forward to todays Stage. Hopefully some riders will attack and use the parcour.
Riders Like Pidcock and Ciccone could use there explosivity to bring riders who Are Not that explosive under pressure.
Almeida will refuse to follow the Attacks and there will be no Team that Controls it.
So for me Pidcock and Ciccone on the attack, Jonas will follow and then they could get rid of some other GC riders and get a big advantage on the Podium Spots.

 

[Red Rick]

Final climb is hard enough for Vingegaard and Almeida to be the top 2 guys there. If the stage win is up for grabs I expect Vingegaard will just ride away.

 

[KZD]

I am going with Beloki to win today from the breakaway.

I think Vingegaard won't go for the stage but he might attack to put more time into Almeida as this is the sort of profile that should suit him more in comparison to the Portuguese.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Final climb is hard enough for Vingegaard and Almeida to be the top 2 guys there. If the stage win is up for grabs I expect Vingegaard will just ride away.

Pidcock should be better than Almeida considering he hasn‘t even dropped on the longer climbs

 

[Red Rick]

Pidcock should be better than Almeida considering he hasn‘t even dropped on the longer climbs

He was hanging on because it wasn't steep enough.

 

[Heston]

I wouldn't even be surprised if Q36 and a half spend all day controlling the break because they think Pidcock can win.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Final climb is hard enough for Vingegaard and Almeida to be the top 2 guys there. If the stage win is up for grabs I expect Vingegaard will just ride away.

Please point me to a sub-3k murito where Almeida has been the best non-alien. The most similar thing he's done this year was that stage in Paris-Nice where Vingegaard crashed hard, and he finished 6th behind Martinez, Champoussin, Jorgenson, Tejada and Lipowitz there. Not exactly stellar stuff.

 

[Netserk]

Please point me to a sub-3k murito where Almeida has been the best non-alien. The most similar thing he's done this year was that stage in Paris-Nice where Vingegaard crashed hard, and he finished 6th behind Martinez, Champoussin, Jorgenson, Tejada and Lipowitz there. Not exactly stellar stuff.

Stage 4 in the Tour.

 

[Netserk]

I think many of the better stage hunters have an eye on tomorrow and less so today.

 

[Danskebjerge]

Not often you see a complete circuit with several mountains in a stage race.

 

[Charlyghoul]

Pidcock’s Vuelta winning move today.
Destruction and Destroy

 

[Netserk]

Not often you see a complete circuit with several mountains in a stage race.

Not often, but we had three such stages last year.

 

[Red Rick]

Please point me to a sub-3k murito where Almeida has been the best non-alien. The most similar thing he's done this year was that stage in Paris-Nice where Vingegaard crashed hard, and he finished 6th behind Martinez, Champoussin, Jorgenson, Tejada and Lipowitz there. Not exactly stellar stuff.

Simple answer is he was crap in most of Paris-Nice.

Almeida has always been perfectly serviceable on short steep climbs if the form was there. And now we're 11 stages into a Grand Tour, which always favors the consistent rider more than the one day specialists.

He won multiple stages and GC in Poland on climbs like this. He was 2nd in Emilia only behind Roglic in 2021. He was one of the strongest ones in the Tirreno murito stage in 2023, and in the Giro he was the one being the aggressor on a 1km 7% climb towards the end. He also dominated Itzulia this year, albeit on climbs of 10 minutes rather than 5.

To be honest I don't really understand where the "Almeida can't do short, steep climbs" thing even comes from.

If Almeida is near the level most people project him to be at, he should be the 2nd best on this climb here.

 

[ice&fire]

It's liek a new meme that Pedersen can win any stage that doesn't finish on a Cat 1 or HC MTF now.

The meme was broken when Vingegaard made Valdezcaray great again

 

[QueenStagiaire]

@Armchair Cyclist @Cookster15 could this thread be stickied, please?

 

[Danskebjerge]

Not often, but we had three such stages last year.

We did? I don't recall. I can't see any Bilbao-Bilbao-like stage names in the overview of the 2024 Vuelta, but who knows. (Of course the TT in Madrid doesn't count.)

 

[Breh]

Didn't Almeida destroy the competition on Izua aswell? Stage 4 Itzulia

 

[Red Rick]

We did? I don't recall. I can't see any Bilbao-Bilbao-like stage names in the overview of the 2024 Vuelta, but who knows. (Of course the TT in Madrid doesn't count.)

Cordoba, Hazallanas, and stage 11.

 

[carolina]

The problem with Almeida will be his positioning at the beginning of these short climbs.

 

[Netserk]

Cordoba, Hazallanas, and stage 11.

Stage 20 had a much more mountainous circuit.

 

[Red Rick]

Stage 20 had a much more mountainous circuit.

Giro stage 20 had a decently hilly one as well.

 

[Danskebjerge]

Cordoba, Hazallanas, and stage 11.

Stage 11 - true! The others had finish lines at very different places.

 

[Netserk]

Stage 11 - true! The others had finish lines at very different places.

Your post didn't mention finish-line. Stage 20 last year had a complete circuit with several climbs.

 

[Danskebjerge]

Stage 20 had a much more mountainous circuit.

Yes, but I wasn't talking about "in-built" circuits here - they are common. In stage races the vast majority of routes finish in a different place than where they start, especially if they are mountainous.