Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, 4-9 April

[taiwan]

Etapa 1

Etapa 2

Etapa 3

 

[taiwan]

Etapa 4

Etapa 5

Etapa 6

 

[taiwan]

Gah! Sorry those pfofiles are terrible. Not sure I can be bummed fixing them yet though.

Fixed. Quite an impressive startlist there. Ah, Geox too? This should be awesome. We might get to see how Rodriguez' chrono is coming along, also.

official site

startlist (cyclingfever)

Last year's top 10
1. Chris Horner
2. Benat Intxausti
3. Joaquim Rodriguez
4. Jean-Christophe Peraud
5. Marco Pinotti
6. Sandy Casar
7. Samuel Sanchez
8. Robert Gesink
9. Dries Devenyns
10. Jurgen Van Den Broeck

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Looks like the climbers are coming out to play. As best as I can tell with my face only inches from the screen, there are no super climbs, but bumps that are easy enough to be contested by many, and close enough to the finish to be combated.

Rodriguez and Di Luca can be exciting on these kinds of finishes, but many others will be better suited to wait for the TT.

It will at least pass the time between RVV and PR

 

[luckyboy]

It will at least pass the time between RVV and PR

It was one of the best stage races of last year.

 

[Ferminal]

Stage 1 FTW.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

It was one of the best stage races of last year.

That is true. I had to hurry home to catch the last few minutes of Horners TT, but it was worth the rush.

There are many studs and summits, but it still fills the time between a very highly anticipated pair of races. You are right though, it could be a very good week of cycling.

EDIT: and now that I can see those percentages, this is shaping into a good week for spectating.

 

[Eric8-A]

My favorite race. Looks like it's gonna get good.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

was excellent last year.

Sanchez, Basso, Uran, Schleck, Gesink, Tondo, Jrod(time he shows something), Menchov, Vino, Sastre, Di Luca, VdB, horner, Kloden, Leipheimer etc
Pretty good line up, might not get a better -competitive- short stage race line up this year .

surely some of these guys can do enough to distance martin.

 

[Eric8-A]

I want to see how Klodi will do.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I personally quite like Gesink and Sanchez for the overall. The tt should be quite good for gesink.

 

[Jamsque]

I am backing Duran Duran all the way.

 

[Christian]

Almost all the profiles look like crazy mountain stages but there only seems to be one climb above 1000 meters.

I wonder if we'll get to see Rafael Valls a bit!

 

[Moondance]

Gesink FTW

 

[TeoSheva]

Martin for the third GC!

 

[theyoungest]

Looks like the climbers are coming out to play. As best as I can tell with my face only inches from the screen, there are no super climbs, but bumps that are easy enough to be contested by many, and close enough to the finish to be combated.

Rodriguez and Di Luca can be exciting on these kinds of finishes, but many others will be better suited to wait for the TT.

It will at least pass the time between RVV and PR

It's mostly bumps, but that Eibar finish is in there every year, and that's a proper 6 k climb, with the last 3 k at about 11% average. Time gaps are never really huge there, but there's certainly no waiting for the TT on that one.

I agree with you that the bumps are situated nice and close to the finish line, so that we'll get to see some actual racing on them.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I love this race, only 3 and 5 are perhaps not hard enough... the rest rules

And as always nearly every ardennes specialist here + a bunch of top GC riders...

 

[thrawn]

F.Schleck for the win.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Gesink should do better here then TA, hopefully he is in a better place (for his sake) then he was at TA

It might just be depression that I fail to see how spartacus will fail at flanders/pr but at the moment I look most forward to this. And I love flanders / PR

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Could be a nice race for Van Garderen, if he doesn't have to work too hard for Martin. It should also fit Velits well. HTC actually has a quite strong team for the GC. Martin, TJVG, Velits, Pinotti and Albasini.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

None of them can climb with the big boys tho, but yeah, the climbs aren't steep enough, so maybe. They will probably get dropped once or twice. Would be surprised if they didn't work for martin tho.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

I don't think the climbs are long enough to drop all of them, especially if they have one designated leader. Agree about Martin though.

 

[taiwan]

The tt should be quite good for gesink.

Ah, how times change...

 

[Frosty]

None of them can climb with the big boys tho, but yeah, the climbs aren't steep enough, so maybe. They will probably get dropped once or twice. Would be surprised if they didn't work for martin tho.

Can Velits reproduce his Vuelta form particularly in regards to the TT? He did well in T-A generally, maybe he's building towards this? Martin didnt lose time on the climbing stage in P-N, if he only loses a few seconds/tens of seconds here and there then he may well be able to get the time back in the TT.

Be interested to see how well Dan Martin goes, although he may end up having to help Vandevelde and/or Hesjedal. With Valverde's suspension, Intxausti was promoted to second last year and will be back for another go this year

Was going to say i fancy Menchov for the win, but does anyone know what he was up to in Catalonia?

 

[cineteq]

Can't wait for this race! It's like a mini-TdF!