Vuelta a España Vuelta a España, stage 6: La Vall d'Uixó - Pico del Buitre, 183.1k

[Lequack]

Evenepoel on next Vuelta a España summit finish: I’ll be looking at Vingegaard

Evenepoel on next Vuelta a España summit finish: I’ll be looking at Vingegaard

Belgian snatched six bonus seconds on stage 5 on impulse to expand GC lead

www.cyclingnews.com

Evenepoel won't be looking at Roglic, time for a sneak attack.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I do recall the Madrazo stage win being significant enough that I know I couldn‘t watch that day and had to rely on live updates.

I don't know which was worse - Madraso winning the Vuelta stage, Bais the giro stage or Jackson winning PR femmes - On reflection it was Jackson because it was a monument.

I was very annoyed by the outcome of the women‘s Roubaix because never catching the breakaway in a one-day race looks stupid, but I‘ve since taken a closer look at the results and found out that there were just too few riders who could chase the breakaway without getting serious backlash for chasing down their teammates.
GT stages where some teams just decide to do nothing for no good reason are just much harder to understand.

 

[Cookster15]

I think the GC group takes this as the next GC test doesn't seem until stage 9 which precedes the first rest day.

I'll pick Roglic to win the summit sprint closely followed by Vingo. Jumbo seem not afraid to making a move earlier in grand tours and this mountain looks perfect.

 

[Red Rick]

A tale of 3 mountain sprinters

 

[Berniece]

If the breakaway will win I don't know but in case of the GC, I expect JV to set an extremely high pace from the start of the climb, with Kuss as the last man setting the pace. Once he's done there will be 5-6 riders left, all of them at their limit, and that's when Vingegaard will go. We'll see if Remco/Ayuso/Mas are able to follow, Roglic will follow who every tries to close the gap.

 

[Escarabajo]

Vingegaard to show everyone who is El Patron!!!

 

[tobydawq]

Remco to win and make a strike (in bowling terms) by taking out all the post finish line photographers this time.

 

[Red Rick]

Honestly I think it'll be weird again with Jumbo not drilling it and probably UAE pacing it while Jumbo wants to make it tactical. Would not be surprised to see a break win.

Could be very similar to Puy de Dome this year.

 

[Gigs_98]

This is actually a pretty big day. Javalambre is a very serious climb, probably the 3rd hardest mtf of this edition, but sitting there in the middle of the 1st week it's easy not to pay much attention. If Arinsal was anything to go by Remco should be the favorite again. But I think Jumbo would be stupid if they once again wait for Remco to outsprint everyone.

When Kuss got a gap Remco was able to wait as he didn't see him as much of a danger. Let's see how he reacts when Roglic and Vingegaard take turns attacking.

 

[Volderke]

It’s a 30 minute 380W effort so pretty huge. SQS won’t control (or even can’t) everything so I expect a breakaway and jumbo “controlling” affairs but how will jumbo exploit SQS weakness (some illness in the team?)…in the end the strongest uphill will be able to make the difference anyway.

 

[Lequack]

It's time for the bandage brothers to strike.
Also, did anyone notice Roglic sporting the new glasses?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

SQS weakness (some illness in the team?)

Ive seen claims that Bagioli and Vervaeke is sick. Anything more behind that than the fact they finished 15 minutes down today?

 

[Escarabajo]

Honestly I think it'll be weird again with Jumbo not drilling it and probably UAE pacing it while Jumbo wants to make it tactical. Would not be surprised to see a break win.

Could be very similar to Puy de Dome this year.

But with a trio...

 

[Volderke]

Ive seen claims that Bagioli and Vervaeke is sick. Anything more behind that than the fact they finished 15 minutes down today?

I can only think of the FDJ guy who claimed this was staying in the same hotel maybe…?

 

[JosefK]

Get ready for deja vu (another pose, not another crash):

The post-race interview will be brief: "Veni, vidi, vici."

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To each their own, but to me random breakaways being gifted stages over and over was always a big indicator that the big names cared far less about the Vuelta than about the Tour or even the Giro, which in turn caused me to care far less about the Vuelta.

You mean like Christophe Riblon, Sandy Casar, Linus Gerdemann, Simon Gerrans, Cyril Dessel, Brice Feillu, Piérrick Fedrigo, Juan Manuel Garate, Thomas Voeckler, Thor Hushovd and Simon Geschke, who all won high mountain stages in the Tour, some of them multiple? Or like Vasil Kiryienka, Chris Anker Sørensen, Johann Tschopp, Bart de Clercq, Paolo Tiralongo, Matteo Rabottini, Enrico Battaglin, Julián Arredondo, Rein Taaramäe and Aleksandr Foliforov, who all won high mountain stages in the Giro?

I think the main problem for mountain stages being gifted to breakaways in the Vuelta recently has been more that there are so many mountain stages that there isn't the urgency to make use of each stage as it comes, so a few of the stages will inevitably be allowed to go to the break because teams don't want to expend their mountain domestiques day in day out so they pick and choose stages they want to contest. Likewise the main period of the Tour mountain stages going to breakaways was when there were no time bonuses available at all, so there was less onus on the GC men to chase back breaks.

The real outlier there is Foliforov's stage win since it was an MTT.

 

[Berniece]

Doesn't Vervaeke sleep in the same room as Remco?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

You mean like Christophe Riblon, Sandy Casar, Linus Gerdemann, Simon Gerrans, Cyril Dessel, Brice Feillu, Piérrick Fedrigo, Juan Manuel Garate, Thomas Voeckler, Thor Hushovd and Simon Geschke, who all won high mountain stages in the Tour, some of them multiple? Or like Vasil Kiryienka, Chris Anker Sørensen, Johann Tschopp, Bart de Clercq, Paolo Tiralongo, Matteo Rabottini, Enrico Battaglin, Julián Arredondo, Rein Taaramäe and Aleksandr Foliforov, who all won high mountain stages in the Giro?

That's a false equivalence. Every single one of those is a superior rider compared to Madrazo, and won from a superior breakaway compared to the Javalambre one.

 

[Sciatic]

This is actually a pretty big day. Javalambre is a very serious climb, probably the 3rd hardest mtf of this edition, but sitting there in the middle of the 1st week it's easy not to pay much attention. If Arinsal was anything to go by Remco should be the favorite again. But I think Jumbo would be stupid if they once again wait for Remco to outsprint everyone.

When Kuss got a gap Remco was able to wait as he didn't see him as much of a danger. Let's see how he reacts when Roglic and Vingegaard take turns attacking.

I agree: Remo is never going to feel the need to follow or close on Kuss, unless perhaps he’s set on snagging a mtn-top stage win. But soon he will have to decide whether to chase down both Vingegaard and Roglic if the latter two do alternating attacks like they did to Pogacar in the 2022 Tour. I think he’ll follow Ving no matter what, but might wait to see if one of the other guys high in GC will chase Roglic, but we’ll have to wait to know for sure. BTW, I’m talking about the point in mtn stages when the GC group is whittled down to only the top guys and one or two lieutenants.

 

[Red Rick]

That's a false equivalence. Every single one of those is a superior rider compared to Madrazo, and won from a superior breakaway compared to the Javalambre one.

It's not a false equivalence if you cite that stage as part of an overall trend.

 

[CyclistAbi]

So Remco says he will stick to Jonas wheel and UAE says all in for a stage win. So it should be an interesting stage.

 

[Lexman]

Doesn't Vervaeke sleep in the same room as Remco?

normally yes

 

[Tim Cahill]

Via:
@ammattipyoraily

My wife won't buy it (Play Station) for me, let's see if now with my children we can put more pressure on her. I like sport & she doesn't. She likes to read & I don''t. I'm more into video games."

Manufacturer Sony contacted Vuelta organizers and a couple of days later Play Station console was handed to Javalambre stage winner Madrazo at start of Stage 8 (2019 Vuelta).

 

[nightowl]

Typically I’d say break wins to give away the leader’s jersey, with some GC action behind. But with rumours flying around about Remco’s team being sick (and not looking very impressive in Andorra), I could see other GC teams potentially keeping the break close so as to keep Remco in the lead. Forcing his weakened team to try and control Stage 8 for example could play into their hands quite well.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

The final MTF is a difficult climb but Remco is strong on 30-minutes climbs, especially with no major climb before. Remco knows whose wheel to follow but what if Rogla attacks? I think JV should maybe try something - the gap to Remco isn't shrinking after all. Or they are just preparing a couple of watt bombs for most difficult stages according to their motto The gaps won't be in seconds but in minutes.