Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2019

[ursus arctos]

FIGS must be enjoying INEOS' absolute debacle at his "home" tour

Geoghan Hart more then ten minutes off the top after two stages. Kiryenka Farolillo rojo almost 28 minutes down

[Kevin S]

Absolute shocker from INEOS, this. Especially when you consider that Froome was awarded the 2011 win earlier this year; you'd have thought they'd want to compete for it.

One of the best days for Irish cycling for some time yesterday - Sam Bennett showing he is the class of the sprinters' field this year to win in the shamrock jersey while Nico Roche spends the day in the maillot rojo.

Today looks like another day for the sprinters - the easiest one on paper apart from the final stage - but there is a chance that heavy weather could play havoc with it.

[ursus arctos]

Kruijswijk has abandoned

[Kevin S]

Knee problems, apparently. His GC attempt was all but over by Sunday evening, though I presume the injury was sustained in the TTT crash on Saturday.
https://road.cc/content/news/265850-...sh-says-sports

A big loss to Roglic in terms of support and possible 1-2 punch tactics later on.

[Kevin S]

Coo, that was a close one!

[Kevin S]

The guy who writes the Inner Ring blog (couldn't really believe it was just one guy!) is moving house at the moment so there are no stage previews for the Vuelta there. However the also-quite-brilliant Podium Café is doing them, and today's one, plus a recap of the sprint yesterday, is here:
https://www.podiumcafe.com/2019/8/27...-peak-too-late

As it says, a classic Vuelta summit finish - nothing hugely taxing followed by this monster:

[Kevin S]

Little diversion for now, shall we talk about Tadej Pogačar? Last year he was racing for CT level Slovenian team (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum) but, as a teenager, he was picking up some good results and then in his home Tour he finished ahead of Majka with a comparable time to Mohoric, before winning the Tour de l'Avenir.

So UAE Team Emirates took him on and incredibly he won the Volta ao Algarve, was sixth in the WY Basque Country race and then won the WT Tour of California. UAE decided to extend his contract to take him up to the end of 2023 and have pitched him straight into his first Grand Tour here. On that selective stage on Sunday he came 8th, but being in the UAE team he already has over a minute to make up because of the TTT disaster. It'll be very interesting to see how he copes with today's climb.

He's no slouch on a TT bike either. In fact this year he beat Tratnik to the Slovenian title after Roglic sat it out...

[Kevin S]

So yeah, you don't want to go weighing a 20 year old down with unreasonable expectations, but at the same time ... what a prospect!

[Kevin S]

The break of three should start the climb in about 10 mins, and the peloton about 10 mins after that.

Note to commentators, because too many of them mess this up: there are three riders in the break: Madrazo, Bol and Herrada. If one of them goes to the top solo, there are still two riders on the road who are are ahead of the peloton. Unless any of the breakaway riders are caught, the GC contenders are racing for fourth place, not second.

[Kevin S]

Valverde ups the pace with 3km+3mins to go. It's split the GC group.

[Kevin S]

Nico distanced, he's back with G Bennett. Roglic is with Valverde

[Kevin S]

Pogacar was also with those two, he's just been dropped. Just AV and PR battling it out there.

[Kevin S]

Hang on, where is Lopez?

[Kevin S]

I missed his attack - he's ahead of Roglic and Valverde

[Kevin S]

Brilliant win for Madrazo

[ursus arctos]

He looked to be cooked at least three times on the climb but was either playing possum or able to find something in the last 500 metres that no one else had.

[ursus arctos]

[Kevin S]

And Pogacar in 9th.

Colombia v Slovenia v Rest of the World

[Kevin S]

https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/1166790563393355776?s=19

[Kevin S]

The second edition of the re-launched Deutschland Tour starts today. Just the four stages but according to PCS it has the highest quality startlist of any HC level stage race in the last 12 months. The ranking goes:

Deutschland
Algarve
Ruta del Sol
Britain
Oman
Norway
Wallonie
Dunkerque
Belgium
Alps
Slovenia
Arctic Race
Burgos
Yorkshire
Luxembourg
Denmark
Hainan
Utah
Qinghai Lake
Langkawi

[Kevin S]

Wout Poels has gone long, very long, today by the way. They're over the first cat 2 climb, 170km to go, and he's out on his own.

[Kevin S]

After much battling. a break finally forms which is worthy of the name. Eleven riders with a good deal of strength in there; this one should stick and create interesting battles for the win.

Ineos - De La Cruz
Bahrain-Merida: Teuns
Jumbo-Visma: Gesink
Education First: Van Garderen
Cofidis: Herrada
Trek: Brambilla
Mitchelton-Scott: Grmay
Groupama-FDJ: Armirail
Movistar: Oliveira
AG2R: Godon
Bora-Hansgrohe: Poljanski

So half of the teams have got someone away today.

Those are in GC order; De La Cruz is at +4:35.

[Kevin S]

I wonder if it's important that Astana, the team of the race leader, have missed the break? It feels like allowing Gesink to work his way back up towards the top will be a bonus for Roglic.

And any one of Fuglsang, Izagirre or LuLe Sanchez would have been ideal for this stage.

[Kevin S]

In British cycling news, Team WIGGINS has announced that it, like Madison Genesis, will be ceasing to race after this season.

Statement: TEAM WIGGINS LE COL ANNOUNCES CLOSURE

Team WIGGINS Le Col has today announced it will not be operating in 2020. After five great years, the team’s ownership have taken the decision that the operation has come to its natural conclusion.

Originally set up to help assist Brad and his team mates on their two year journey to team pursuit gold on the track in Rio 2016, the team then broadened its aims, post Brad’s retirement from professional cycling, to becoming a development team, nurturing and assisting the next generation of professional cyclists.

WIGGINS Le Col played an instrumental role in the progression of the likes of:

Owain Doull - Team Ineos

Scott Davies - Team Dimension Data

Chris Lawless - Team Ineos

James Knox - Deceuninck-Quick Step

Gabriel Cullaigh - Movistar Team

Mark Donovan - Team Sunweb

Corentin Ermenault - Vital Concept



Team WIGGINS Le Col has also achieved major wins:

James Fouche - National Road Race Champion New Zealand - 2019

Tom Pidcock - U23 Paris Roubaix - 2019

Tom Pidcock - Tour Alsace GC - 2019

Mark Donovan - Valle d’Aosta stage 2 - 2018

Gabriel Cullaigh - Volta ao Alentejo - Stage 1 & 6 - 2018

Scott Davies - Ronde de l'Isard - Stage 4 - 2016

Owain Doull - Flèche du Sud - Stage 3 & 4 - 2015

Owain Doull - Tour of Britain - 3 GC and Points Jersey winner

The team look forward to finishing its season strongly at the upcoming Tour of Britain, where it will showcase its talent one last time.

Team WIGGINS Le Col would like to thank everyone who has been a part of the journey, including fans, sponsors, staff and of course the riders.

[Kevin S]

Apparently a crash has forced several abandonments including Roche and Uran. Shite.