Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia (1.1), 14.02.2015

[Dazed and Confused]

Turning this into a one day classic might be the right way to go. Reduce the team size further (to six), invest in coverage and I think it would have real purpose. Of course all my opinion.

Last few kms:

Thanks to http://06.live-radsport.ch/ for the jpegs.

Startlist looks better than last year and includes:

Ion Iza
Fernandez
Herrada
Degenkolb
Cav
Mollema
Navarro
Alaphilppe
Stybar
Lulu
Scarponi
Elissonde
Trofimov
Machado
Bole
Edit: Spilak isn't on the startlist
Barta
Gautier
etc.
Full startlist: http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?detp=view&_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=MjYzMzc=

Official site: http://www.vueltamurcia.es/

 

[markene2]

Rebellin to win this! If i keep predicting him to win every hilly race, then he will sooner or later...

 

[theyoungest]

Finally, Mollema appears to be the strongest rider on the startlist of a one day race... to find a course that is not ideally suited to him.

 

[greenedge]

Degenkolb or Mollema FTW.

 

[trevim]

Alaphilippe for the win!

 

[BeagRigh]

Turning this into a one day classic might be the right way to go. Reduce the team size further (to six), invest in coverage and I think it would have real purpose. Of course all my opinion.

Agree. This looks good.

Lulu to win.

Why is Cav here??

 

[Dr. Juice]

Spilak FTW

 

[Dr. Juice]

Those 2 climbs (or 1 climb with a bit of flat in the middle) seems long and quite hard right? 7-8% ?

 

[infeXio]

Spilak FTW

Spilak is not on the list of starters in the cyclingfever link in the OP :O

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Spilak is not on the list of starters in the cyclingfever link in the OP :O

Yea, you are right. Fixed.

 

[DFA123]

Those 2 climbs (or 1 climb with a bit of flat in the middle) seems long and quite hard right? 7-8% ?

It's a bit more gentle than that. The first half is nothing - about 4.5% average. The second part is a bit steeper, but still ony averages about 6%.

They actually could have gone higher and climbed another 300m or so altitude at about 8.5%, but perhaps given the field they've attracted, it was better not to make it so hard.

 

[Netserk]

That profile is hilarious. What the heck is the point with the x-axis?

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Agree. This looks good.

Lulu to win.

Why is Cav here??

To start his european season before the Volta ao Algave

 

[Jspear]

Does anyone here really think that Degenkolb has a chance to win here. Seems to be a little tough for him, but I read one article that had him as one of the favorites...

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Degenkolb has a chance, but it obviously depends on how hard the mid stage climb is raced imo.

 

[jens_attacks]

it's espuna,collado bermejo now cima pantani. in 1999, marco flew on it and won the stage in pirata style
from the foot, it's 15,5 km@5,5%, a 40 minutes climb with the last 6,4 km@6,4%.
hard for degenkolb but lately he improved even more in this domain

i go with frankie schleck or ll sanchez

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Agree. This looks good.

Lulu to win.

Why is Cav here??

[/B]


To start his european season before the Volta ao Algave

Cav probably wanted to do the Spanish trifecta:

Murcia (Classic?)
Almeria (Classic)
Andalucia stage race

but Etixx didn't get an invite to the stage race and Cav ended up headed for Portugal.

 

[Roude Leiw]

Fernandez to show that he is a future star !

 

[Jspear]

Fernandez to show that he is a future star !

I definitely think it will be someone from Moviestar who wins. They have a pretty strong team....IMO Fernandez or Intxausti for the win.

 

[Flyjin]

Will there be streams?

 

[Dr. Juice]

Valverde DNS.

 

[Kwibus]

An aggresor on the long vlimb will win.

If im not fooled by the OP it sre 6 man teams which makes it hard to control so aggresive racing on the long climb WILL be rewarded.

Inxausti and sanchez are indeed candidates for this. I don't think Mollema has the balls for it, allthough he said he would race more agressive this year.

Edit: startlist shows 7 man teams. More control power

 

[LosBrolin]

Canola FTW

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Valverde DNS.

Froome DNS as well.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Mayo also DNS.

So coverage seems to be restricted to bits and pieces of twitter update once every hour or thereabouts: https://twitter.com/laVueltaMurcia

I see no future (involving bigger teams) for this race unless they significantly step up the coverage.