It looked
like an easy win for Team Sky in the opening team time trial but despite
clocking the fastest time at the check point, Chris Froome and co. couldn’t
keep up the high speed and ended up losing 12 seconds to Movistar at the
finish. I think the Brits are eager to take revenge and the way I see it they
have the fastest guy in the peloton to count on in the expected bunch sprint on
stage 2. More on that in a bit.
First let’s
take a look at the route. Despite it being a flat stage it’s up and down all
day long. Not very difficult climbs, but enough to make it hard in hot weather.
A Cat3 climb (Alto de la Chapela) is located with about 100 km to go and being
the only categorized climb on the menu, we should get a good fight between the
escapees to get first mountain jersey of this year’s Vuelta. The final 20 km is
pancake flat and the last 5 km straight out run-in should make for a high speed
finale. Still, this is the Vuelta and not surprisingly there is a roundabout
with about 500 meters to go that could be tricky for some.
Last km - click for larger view! |
Without any
super sprinters the level is fairly equal and if the young French champion
Nacer Bouhanni has something left en tank I think he could be up there too. I
doubt he can win, but looking at the competition anywhere near top3 means the
stage win is within reach.
Winner pick: Ben
Swift
Joker: Nacer
Bouhanni
To make this Vuelta a little bit more interesting I’ve challenged Eurosport blogger Blazin' Saddles to a winner pick duel during the race. You have my winner and joker picks above, here you have Felix':
Winner pick: John Degenkolb
Joker: Philippe Gilbet
Explanation: Picking Philippe Gilbert as a wildcard stage winner 12 months ago would have been ridiculous but more laughable now is the fact that the Belgian is still in search of that elusive win in BMC colours. PhilGil looked pretty determined as he led his team over the line in Pamplona and so perhaps he has the legs to try something in Viana, which has a slight uphill rise to the line. More likely, it will be a bunch affair and the Argos Shimano team of John Degenkolb took things easy on Saturday, perhaps with Sunday's stage in mind. Degenkolb is as swift as Swift on his day - and it remains to be seen how Team Sky treat the flat stages. Protecting Chris Froome may be the priority...
No comments:
Post a Comment