As the only solo time trial of the 2013 Vuelta this is a vital moment of the race. But this being the Vuelta it’s got a climb that rises over a thousand metres above sea level.
There are two races today, first to win the stage but second for the GC riders as several climbers can expect to lose time today.
The Puy de Dôme is an extinct volcano in central France with a road that winds around the cone to the top. It’s been the scene of one of the greatest duels in the Tour de France.
It has become a road that belongs to the past because the construction of a railway line to ferry tourists to the top has meant the road is now closed. Or is it?
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.
Sunday’s stage finishes with the classic through Valdepeñas de Jaén. Just one kilometre long but a wall where the slope hits 27% and any rider who loses momentum will lose time on GC.
A reader once asked via twitter what was the Spanish equivalent of sunflowers at the Tour de France. Just as the Tour de France has pretty clichés of riders rolling past fields of sunflowers, for me the Vuelta a Espana has hilltop hoardings of the bovine kind.
There’s a story behind this. It starts with vino de Jerez, the fortified wine from the city of Jerez that’s known as sherry in English.
When the race route was unveiled the consensus was this was a Vuelta of summit finishes. But so far this week things have been calm with several chances for the sprinters. All change now with the first true summit finish of the race.
The stage finishes with a hard climb but it’s likely to be selective it’s not going to be definitive as plenty more will happen over the next two weeks.
This is the third of a trinity of flat stages for the sprinters before the climbers come out to play tomorrow. So far even the flat stages have been entertaining in the Vuelta, no more so than yesterday’s stage.
Tom Boonen’s in the Belgian press today with his new Ferrari but Thibaut Pinot will be driving one of these soon. It’s an Exagon race car that’s unusual because it’s got an electric engine powered by a lithium ion battery. A change of career for the climber?
No, instead it’s one solution to help him become more at ease with speed. Much has been made of his discomfort going downhill but the problem is not cornering ability but the pure fear of speed, something he experiences when a passenger in a car too.
Another sprint finish awaits but the pecking order for the sprinters has yet to be established meaning uncertainty right until the finish line.
“Mountain Kings, Agony and Euphoria on the Peaks of the Tour de France” by Giles Belbin
How hard are the mountains? The mere mention of names like Galibier or Tourmalet can be enough to evoke fear, mystery and for the fortunate, memories. In this book Giles Belbin sets out to try many of the Tour de France’s most famous climbs and relate the experience, both his effort to climb them but also what has made them so famous over the years.