The first true mountain stage of Vuelta with a first category climb and then a very difficult summit finish. We’ve had plenty of exciting racing in the first week but the battle for the red jersey has only seen small scale skirmishes. Now it’s time to make a real selection in the race and eliminate some of the pretenders.
Stage 9 Review
You know it’s a good finish when riders have to be collected by helpers as they cross the line to stop them falling off. Now the riders might not like it but oxygen debt comes with a high rate of interest for TV viewers and yesterday saw the race post staff at the finish line to collect wobbling riders.
Better still for Spanish audience, a home win with with Dani Moreno… and a genuine tilt at the GC? That’s unknown for now and Moreno has made a name for himself in recent years as a support rider who is very able on the short climbs so we’ll see what he can do today.
A mention of Warren Barguil too. A year ago he won the Tour de l’Avenir, now he’s ninth in this stage and proving consistent. Today might be too much for the Argos-Shimano rider but he’s proving his talent already.
Stage 10 Preview
The Route: the race heads towards the city of Granada and then borrows the mountains to its east. This is the first proper mountain stage of the race. Without further ado, here’s the first climb:
The Alto de Monachil is a proper climb rather than a warm-up kind of approach road. It’s 8.5km long at an average of 7.5% but maxxing at 15%. The road is wide and well-surfaced. It’s been used before the race and other early season stage races and you might remember Cadel Evans in trouble in 2009 when he flatted and had to wait a long time for a neutral service vehicle to supply a wheel which took an age to change, meanwhile Alejandro Valverde rode off to the win.
The Finish: the 5% average gradient is meaningless. It starts off easy and descents and the last 8km are savage plus the road is narrow too. This is a highly selective climb that almost risks being too reductive, a pure test of power to weight. Note the slope eases and by the finish line, it’s slightly downhill.
The Scenario: we’ll see the GC contenders come out to play. I can’t imagine a break sticking given the pressure for this stage and given how much faster the main riders can go up the final climb compared to a break.
It’ll be a good test for race leader Dani Moreno. It’s one thing to pick of stage wins and take the lead but another to defend it; although at the risk of stating the obvious, you can only take the lead by being very strong. But this is a big stage and every rider is going to be tested: Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim Rodriguez, Igor Anton, Nicolas Roche, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Horner have no where to hide.
Who else to watch? Ivan Basso continues to impress but this long climb with steep slopes might not suit the fondista. Leopold König has already won but this suggests he could strike again whilst Ag2r’s Domenico Pozzovivo is a good pick although he’d probably prefer the finish to be uphill in case of a sprint amongst a few others. Sky have a lot on the line, the team’s ambitions are in danger of not being met and it’ll be interesting to see Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao because on paper they’d be good picks today but so far they’re not quite in top form. Finally there’s Thibaut Pinot and sidekick Kenny Elissonde who had a mechanical two days ago in case you noticed he’d lost time.
Weather: hot and sunny but with the chance of a rain shower in the afternoon, especially in the mountains
TV: tune in to see the race climb out of Monachil soon after 4.30pm Euro time with the finish planned for 5.45pm.
Daily Díaz
- Last day in Andalusia for the peloton. In a similar way, during 20th century many Andalusians left their land looking for better chances elsewhere. Most of them chose other Spanish regions, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia. It was a movement from the towns to the cities, from agriculture to industry and tourism.
- If Galicia is considered a conservative region, Andalusia is often seen as the main headquarters of PSOE (socialist party), which has won almost every election there since the democracy was established after Franco’s death in 1975. Felipe González, Spanish socialist prime minister for 14 years, was Andalusian, and so was Alfonso Guerra, his right hand.
- Torredelcampo, today’s stage departure city, means “tower in the field”
- In km 141,4 (45,4 to the finish line) the race will pass through the city of Granada. The last big city conquered by the Christians in the Reconquista (1492), its most visited tourist attraction is the Alhambra (red fortress) built by the Moors. There is also a brand of beer with that name.
- Sierra Nevada is the name of a ski station (where Dani Moreno won in 2011) and a National Park where the highest peak of the Iberian Peninsula is (Mulhacén, 3,478 metres above sea level). It is a popular destination for both professional cyclists and amateurs.
Gracias to cycling podcaster and history teacher Manuel Pérez Díaz for the local information. You can follow him on Twitter as perezdiazmanuel
Just a little note, missing an n in the sentence on Moreno ‘That’s unknow for now’
Thanks.
As a reminder, all corrections are welcome. Time is limited and there’s no editor so any edits are useful. Think of it as fixing something for the next reader.
Under “The Scenario” …
– It’s one thing to pick “off a” stage win
Nice preview. The Sierra Nevada area is popular with cyclists indeed, as it has a variety of roads going to the sky. Don’t really know why today they will stop at 1.650m altitude. As you know, they could have gone much further up, you can see here http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPerfilusu.asp?id=870 ; not all the way to the peak or the astronomical observatory, but certainly add six or eight hundred metres of vertical gain. It would have been very interesting: the nasty gradients of the first kilometres surely break any field up, and if followed by 10km or so at 7%, it would make an excellent, dramatic chase. But I guess Unipublic wanted to stick to its crescendo concept and wants nothing decided till the Angliru. Yet the interesting thing is that the levels of fitness will hardly be the same between now and in 2 weeks time. You can suppose the Katushas and Roche can get pretty much “cooked” by then, whereas the Italians and Colombians might only reach the top of their game in the first week.
As you say they don’t want to set the overall classification in stone. There’s also the Pico Veleta, Europe’s highest road, nearby which has been used sparingly by the Vuelta.
But long climbs can see riders pace themselves up and they won’t risk an attack or an acceleration. Hopefully today provides some fireworks.
Alhambra reserva is maybe the nicest beer made in Spain – definitely worth a try!
Fantastic scenery on yesterdays stage, I was drooling over those sweeping descents and smooth tarmac, expect more of the same today. Great stuff.
Was thinking the climb might suite Basso. After all he won the 2010 Giro on the Montirolo by spinning away with an infernal tempo.
Yipee! Old guys rule!
He might just do it!
A rest day, If we can just get a few In and Out Burgers to him, I would not count him out.
Hats must come off!
Incredible form from Horner to attack when he did … to see Nibali flat out and unable make in-roads at all said it all. This Vuelta is shaping up very nicely.
Totally normal
Hello. First post from a lurker of many years and a great appreciator of Inrng.
I wanted to comment that this Vuelta just doesn’t feel right. Are they not trying because of the Worlds? A 41 year old man has won 2 stages almost unchallanged. J-Rod, Nibali, Pinot, Valverde can’t beat Chris Horner up a hill? Really? It feels like watching theatre. This would never happen in Le Tour. Nibali rode away from the bunch casually, almost on cue.
Something is rotting in the state of Espana.
Just to clarify, my comment is in no way doping related. I am only talking about attitude and tactics.
What is rotten then?
It’s different but let’s see what happens as each time someone is up on one day they then lose out soon after.
I think Nibali is in control, he was not at all worried about Horner just wanted to put time into the others.. He will be up on all at least a minute on the TT…
I think Horner also has the advantage of being ‘fresh’ whereas a lot of the others are wondering if they run out of gas during week 3 after a long season – Roche has made a couple of comments about this. So there maybe a fair amount of ‘doing the minimum to stay in the game, and try to save some juice for the Angliru’ going on.
can’t really blame anyone for being sceptical though (as Froome found out…)
Gee Nick,
Perhaps even you could stand on the podium with the GC jersey today, and perhaps win the third grand tour of the season?
Stay tuned, it’s just started to get interesting
All those doping questions that chris froome got in the tdf when he gave up power data, is a very talented rider, in the prime of his career, who trained hard over an extensive period of time by the finest coaches in the world, with history of performance.
Then this. Horner is apparently a redacted name in the USADA report, who was an Armstrong team mate, an armstrong apologist as recently as dec 2012 (he never tested positive) indeed he chased down the omerta on the champs elysees, he is a rider from the sports dark ages, who had very little training due to injury, he is 41 years old and rides away from the finest climber in the sport. No doping questions?
Still he’s a nice guy so who cares.