The Grand Tour parade rolls on to Spain for the route that is about as favourable as there has ever been for pure climbers with so few TT kilometres. It is also the most sprinter friendly route of this season.
Most of the division's top sprinters have duly turned up, but surprisingly many top climbers have not!
Justo Tenorio
Some might think having Madrazo as a teammate would be limiting for personal ambitions, but for Tenorio it is clearly an advantage as it removes the biggest competition for a home victory. The defending champion is back again, but will really need to earn it on the climbs this year. As ever, the supporting team is very strong on the climbs, particularly with Valls.
Tiago Machado
Headhunted by Prio-Porto in the off season, the Portugese rider is the best climber in the race this year. Anything less than a podium would be a disappointment for the man who finished 4th overall last season.
Alberto Contador
He has podiummed for the last two years and is surely keen to complete his medal collection. He should be a close match for Tenorio throughout the race, and the battle for best Spaniard will surely be key. For support he has Antón, who just earned his career-best MG GT result, 12th at the Giro.
Jose Alarcon
Speaking of career bests at the Giro, the Venezuelan pure climber really announced himself on the Grand Tour stage with a 4th place finish. He couldn't have asked for a better route here and will aim to impress once again.
Vincenzo Nibali
Last year's runner up did not enjoy the greatest of Giros on his way to 7th place but will still hope to repeat last year's experience. He finished on the same time in Contador in that race, to secure a best GT result.
Stefan Denifl
The Austrian underwhelmed in the Giro before a late injury cost him a Top 10 place. Perhaps the Vuelta suits him better, after all he was 6th last year, if he is recovered from his injuries?
Jose Rujano
The Becherovka rider finished the Giro strongly, and now needs to kick on where he left off.
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
The Colombian will surely benefit from the route and a Top 10 performance should be expected.
Bernhard Kohl
Pendleton's team leader is a man who knows how to finish 9th in a Grand Tour, having done it 3 times. A repeat of that position is not out of the question.
Alejandro Valverde
A former champion can never be overlooked, but while he will welcome the lack of time trialling, there aren't many hills for him to take advantage of. A problem that will be shared by Nicolas Roche
Rasmus Guldhammer
The Young Danish talent has been developing season on season, and after two Top 20s last year, he has a great opportunity to take a big step forward here.
There are a number more pure climbers who will benefit from this route: Costagli Gomez Marchante Solis Moschella Lövkvist
While Ratiy, Faiers and Bibby are three who won't mind the one flat time trial so much.
Sprinters
Prepare for some epic battles on the flat as the ProTour's strongest sprinters take to the start line. All will hope to be the first leader of the race, with a flat opening stage - as well as all the later opportunities.
Ben Swift
The Brit knows how to win opening stages, having done so at the Giro last year. He won 4 stages last race, as did his big rival there:
Daniele Bennati
24 Grand Tour stages to his name, but the aging Italian will not find it easy to continue to add to that tally.
Oscar Guerao
His manager is piling on the pressure after 4 Tour de France stage wins last year helped to raise expectations. The fact that the race is in Spain does not guarantee him success though.
Erik Mohs and John Degenkolb
A powerful German double header for Pokerstars means that a strong leadout is likely. Can either score their first GT stage win though? Mohs has often struggled to convert his Degenkolb leadouts in the past.
Other contenders: Van Heerden Avelino Roelandts Kennaugh Howard Kip Stauff Santos Zabel
Other names that could feature in some form are Klemme, Caruso and Hoogerland in the hills, and Flens as the 2nd best time triallist in the race behind Tenorio.
Top10 goal and it`s not even totally impossible. That said Gomez Marchante will hopefully at least get a top15 with National bonus.
Different to the Giro he at least has some mountain support by Olivier and Bongiorno.
Thurau and Reguigui were my only other Giro finishers, which will hopefully work again.
Then to fill my squad it`s probably the only stage race, where all 3 sprinters are starting. So even though they are not mentioned, I hope to see at least one of them taking part in the sprints to grab a a top10 here and there.
It`s actually 7 unmaxed riders next to Gomez Marchante.
GC wise it should be a nice Contador, Tendorio, Machado battle I think. Alarcon could also jump on the podium.
Edited by roturn on 13-10-2014 22:11
Go Daniele!
His second to last chance for another GT stage win and I hope Croket can set him up well enough.
That said, I obviously hope Guerao justifies the hopes put in him here.
I'll closely follow Rothaus as always, but with Bongiorno giving his GT debut even more so. Maybe a few breaks and KoM points along the way are possible.
As for the top, Tenorio has to deliver for Santander here, but it's a close fight with not a lot to gain from his TT stat and many similar climbers present. I guess the national bonus will come handy, but it's the same for Contador and whoever takes the early leader's jersey will be tough to drop.
You have to hope Machado proves worthy of his training here if Prio wants to stay optimistic, but a possible win could put them into a nice position again.
Last but not least, I like the development team VW fields, especially with my old rider Bouhanni in there. Maybe some early career succes for Rick?
As I feared, this would have been a very winnable race for Andy Schleck. But couldn't put him and Swift in the same race, and opted to give Swift the precedence here. Obviously now need him to deliver!
Medvedev aside, the team is pretty much built around him. Merino Criado hopefully having the Spanish factor to help him as the others all have faster options for Man #2.
And Jaguar are here too since no other PCT team showed an interest. Interesting to give Bibby another GT chance and Morton too. Not forgetting Bakari!
let's go Tiago help our friends from Prio to stay in PT....
I will follow this race with even more attention than the Giro, with Martin Irvine and Rafael Reis present both former riders of my team
We probably have one of the youngest if not the youngest squad and with an average wage of € 68,000 it's all about the experience (XP). Nevertheless I expect stage win(s), breakaways and leader jerseys!
With having Howard here, it probably means my team won't hunt stages in breakaways, it is not probably the best decision, when I see the quality of GC field here, Kratochvila could really do a good result here. Still it is going to be an interesting test to see how good Howard can be in a strong sprint field like this with something like a try for a lead-out team. Still the biggest hope of the race should be Rujano for me, with surprisingly quite a weak startlist of GC riders, he could do even better than in this year's Giro.
Great preview, nice to see you SN doing another GT, as Giro was perfect.
My bet is Machado or Tenorio ,also Contador can have one of his last shots on GT victory/podium. What a heck of a sprinters field, i think some managers hoped for weaker one? Good luck to all, especially fellow PCT managers of Jaguar and Swedbank.
SportingNonsense wrote:
As I feared, this would have been a very winnable race for Andy Schleck. But couldn't put him and Swift in the same race, and opted to give Swift the precedence here. Obviously now need him to deliver!
Medvedev aside, the team is pretty much built around him. Merino Criado hopefully having the Spanish factor to help him as the others all have faster options for Man #2.
And Jaguar are here too since no other PCT team showed an interest. Interesting to give Bibby another GT chance and Morton too. Not forgetting Bakari!
I swapped Ratiy and Spilak right at the end, which in hindsight was probably a bad move in terms of the overall pointshaul. Spilak should have won the race, along with several stagewins. Hell even the TT's would be somwhat chaseable for him.
That said, I'm really looking forward to see what Ratiy can do. He is only my 5th most expensive rider so I don't think I can expect too much. A top 15 would be amazing, but a top 20 is also acceptable.
I'm very happy to see the amount of sprinters here, especially those from strong teams such as Vesuvio and Pokerstars. That means that we can probably/hopefully see a load of bunch sprint here. And having seen the other races where Guerao participated, that has been half the problem. Too much sidewind, and too little overall effort to keep things together.
In a H2H sprint against Bewley I can't expect to win anything, so instead I will be looking to hopefully see a sprint train that works quite decent, and a lot of top 3s from Guerao. It really should be possible when looking at the train I picked here for him. I do, however, see the low Flat rating of my leadouts as somewhat of a problem. We will see...
Nice preview, and I can't wait to see what happens
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Great preview, nice to see you SN doing another GT, as Giro was perfect.
My bet is Machado or Tenorio ,also Contador can have one of his last shots on GT victory/podium. What a heck of a sprinters field, i think some managers hoped for weaker one? Good luck to all, especially fellow PCT managers of Jaguar and Swedbank.
Some managers were probably hoping for an easier sprint lineup, but looking at the 3 GT's it was really not that difficult to figure out. There is a lot more to come after here than in the Giro and Tour this season, so if you want to be somewhat sure that your sprinter even get to participate in a sprint, the Vuelta was the obvious choice.
Make or break for us. This could be the point of no return, or the race that changes our fate. It's all on Tiago's shoulders, since there's little support from our ranks.
Let's see what's in store. Couldn't be more psyched. Thanks for the preview SN
Really looking forward to this one! It's by far the most important race for us this season, and stage 5 can't really come quick enough...
I only hope Contador can stay out of trouble on the first four stages and not lose any time, though, that goes for every stage. Not sure if it was smart to bring Van Heerden considering our GC ambitions, but I rather risk Contador/Antón doing work on the flat if it means they stay out of trouble and always are on the right side of splits on "boring" stages.
If Contador stays out of trouble, stage 5 will be the key. I agree with alexkr00, as this must be the weakest line up thinking of the general classification in the three Grand Tours. Contador should be capable of keeping up with the best climbers, eventhough Machado and Alarcon might prove difficult to follow on the toughest mountain stages. But this could very well come down to who gets to wear the leader's jersey after stage 5 of the favourites.
It was a tough choice to send Contador here and forget about our goal in the Giro, but hopefully he can prove it was the right decision and be in contention for the overall podium, that would be great.
Thanks for a nice preview, SN, and a big thank you for doing another Grand Tour!
No GC hope, Zabel not close to the bext sprinters... Let's hope for some breakaway fun. I sent Klemme here as he had free days and I hoped he would win from a break.
ember wrote:
Really looking forward to this one! It's by far the most important race for us this season, and stage 5 can't really come quick enough...
I only hope Contador can stay out of trouble on the first four stages and not lose any time, though, that goes for every stage. Not sure if it was smart to bring Van Heerden considering our GC ambitions, but I rather risk Contador/Antón doing work on the flat if it means they stay out of trouble and always are on the right side of splits on "boring" stages.
If Contador stays out of trouble, stage 5 will be the key. I agree with alexkr00, as this must be the weakest line up thinking of the general classification in the three Grand Tours. Contador should be capable of keeping up with the best climbers, eventhough Machado and Alarcon might prove difficult to follow on the toughest mountain stages. But this could very well come down to who gets to wear the leader's jersey after stage 5 of the favourites.
It was a tough choice to send Contador here and forget about our goal in the Giro, but hopefully he can prove it was the right decision and be in contention for the overall podium, that would be great.
Thanks for a nice preview, SN, and a big thank you for doing another Grand Tour!
I will be rooting for you - I hope Contador can finally win the race, eventhough I no longer have him.
After miserable Giro, I´m hoping for much better performances and results from my boys in green. Roche could, potentially, fight somewhere about top 10. I agree, with low amount of hilly stages, his highest asset can´t be fully used here, on the other hand it´s balanced out by weaker competition.
According to spints, everyone involved had to expect the toughest competition right here on Vuelta. Yes, Mohs + Degenkolb can be considered as a real threat for other teams with ambitions in flat stages. I´m a bit worried of 2 things, though. So far, Mohs was always very vulnerable and still waiting (iirc) for his first GT win. Tbh I hope, but don´t believe much, he´ll achieve some remarkable results in this Vuelta edition. Second thing is simple, except of M+D, only Maaskant and maybe Atkins (WTF? ) might be helpful in possible building of sprint trains.
Thanks SN for preview and your effort with reporting 2nd GT in row!
SportingNonsense wrote:
As I feared, this would have been a very winnable race for Andy Schleck. But couldn't put him and Swift in the same race, and opted to give Swift the precedence here. Obviously now need him to deliver!
Medvedev aside, the team is pretty much built around him. Merino Criado hopefully having the Spanish factor to help him as the others all have faster options for Man #2.
And Jaguar are here too since no other PCT team showed an interest. Interesting to give Bibby another GT chance and Morton too. Not forgetting Bakari!
I swapped Ratiy and Spilak right at the end, which in hindsight was probably a bad move in terms of the overall pointshaul. Spilak should have won the race, along with several stagewins. Hell even the TT's would be somwhat chaseable for him.
That said, I'm really looking forward to see what Ratiy can do. He is only my 5th most expensive rider so I don't think I can expect too much. A top 15 would be amazing, but a top 20 is also acceptable.
I'm very happy to see the amount of sprinters here, especially those from strong teams such as Vesuvio and Pokerstars. That means that we can probably/hopefully see a load of bunch sprint here. And having seen the other races where Guerao participated, that has been half the problem. Too much sidewind, and too little overall effort to keep things together.
In a H2H sprint against Bewley I can't expect to win anything, so instead I will be looking to hopefully see a sprint train that works quite decent, and a lot of top 3s from Guerao. It really should be possible when looking at the train I picked here for him. I do, however, see the low Flat rating of my leadouts as somewhat of a problem. We will see...
Nice preview, and I can't wait to see what happens
Bewley?
Also, a shame you swapped, I'd love to see you win a GT outright in general and especially after that Giro.
SportingNonsense wrote:
As I feared, this would have been a very winnable race for Andy Schleck. But couldn't put him and Swift in the same race, and opted to give Swift the precedence here. Obviously now need him to deliver!
Medvedev aside, the team is pretty much built around him. Merino Criado hopefully having the Spanish factor to help him as the others all have faster options for Man #2.
And Jaguar are here too since no other PCT team showed an interest. Interesting to give Bibby another GT chance and Morton too. Not forgetting Bakari!
I swapped Ratiy and Spilak right at the end, which in hindsight was probably a bad move in terms of the overall pointshaul. Spilak should have won the race, along with several stagewins. Hell even the TT's would be somwhat chaseable for him.
That said, I'm really looking forward to see what Ratiy can do. He is only my 5th most expensive rider so I don't think I can expect too much. A top 15 would be amazing, but a top 20 is also acceptable.
I'm very happy to see the amount of sprinters here, especially those from strong teams such as Vesuvio and Pokerstars. That means that we can probably/hopefully see a load of bunch sprint here. And having seen the other races where Guerao participated, that has been half the problem. Too much sidewind, and too little overall effort to keep things together.
In a H2H sprint against Bewley I can't expect to win anything, so instead I will be looking to hopefully see a sprint train that works quite decent, and a lot of top 3s from Guerao. It really should be possible when looking at the train I picked here for him. I do, however, see the low Flat rating of my leadouts as somewhat of a problem. We will see...
Nice preview, and I can't wait to see what happens
Bewley?
Also, a shame you swapped, I'd love to see you win a GT outright in general and especially after that Giro.
Not Bewley no, my mistake. Ben Swift I meant...
Yeah me too. I can only hope that I will end up winning the Tour instead then
Tenorio
Nibali
A. Schleck
Rujano
Gesink
Vinokourov
