Esteban Chaves, Moreno Hofland and Rohan Dennis wear the leaders’ jerseys in a race. A glimpse of the future? No, it’s a scene from the past: the 2011 Tour de l’Avenir. The race is on this week. There are several stage races for U-23 riders that matter but none more so than this one. It’s length, international field and mountainous profile make it an essential rendez-vous. If it didn’t exist we’d have to invent it.
Vuelta Stage 7 Preview
The race heads north and heads for new regions. A “transition stage” yes but a subtle finish awaits. As the profile shows today offers an uphill finish, no summit finish but a test between the sprinters and the puncheurs.
Vuelta Stage 6 Preview
It’s time to head inland for the first summit finish. The road to Cumbres Verdes is short but steep enough to be selective and enough to start filtering the contenders from the pretenders.
Thanks to Trek
Every site sponsor gets thank-you note and Trek have been here in July and August with a promotion for the new Emonda frame.
There’s also a reminder about the supporter caps and your chance to win one below too.
Vuelta Stage 5 Preview
So far we have a variety of sprint finishes with wins for Nacer Bouhanni, Michael Matthews and John Degenkolb. Today’s stage offers a classic flat route with few surprises in the finish, a day for the pure sprinters.
A Tale of Two Cars
The USA Pro Challenge had Lexus as official vehicles. The Tour de France has Skodas.
Vuelta Stage 4 Preview
A day for the sprinters but the first second category climb and it’s 14% gradients await. The finish is similar to 2011 when Peter Sagan won but the Slow-vak finished 129th yesterday. Time to make amends or will someone else win in Córdoba?
Vuelta Stage 3 Preview
Two flat stages means the Vuelta has to visit a mountain range and today’s stage includes four categorised climbs on the way to a tricky uphill finish.
Vuelta Stage 2 Preview
A sprinter’s stage as the flat profile above suggests but what the profile doesn’t show is just how this route is exposed as it crosses the bay of Cádiz. No strong winds are forecast but the route does pass several famous windsurfing spots and it could catch a few riders out.
