La Vuelta'17 S.4 **SPOILERS** Escaldes-Engordany / Tarragona. Anella Mediterránea 2018

imatfaal

After Stage 3
1. GBR FROOME Christopher 21 TEAM SKY 08h 53' 44''
2. ESP DE LA CRUZ MELGAREJO David 11 QUICK - STEP FLOORS 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
3. IRL ROCHE Nicolas 36 BMC RACING TEAM 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
4. USA VAN GARDEREN Tejay 38 BMC RACING TEAM 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
5. ITA NIBALI Vincenzo 151 BAHRAIN - MERIDA 08h 53' 54'' + 00' 10''
6. COL CHAVES RUBIO Johan Esteban 41 ORICA - SCOTT 08h 53' 55'' + 00' 11''
7. ITA ARU Fabio 131 ASTANA PRO TEAM 08h 54' 22'' + 00' 38''
8. GBR YATES Adam 48 ORICA - SCOTT 08h 54' 23'' + 00' 39''
9. ITA POZZOVIVO Domenico 89 AG2R LA MONDIALE 08h 54' 27'' + 00' 43''
10. FRA BARDET Romain 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 08h 54' 32'' + 00' 48''

withdrawals on 3
176 KING Benjamin DDD DNS
162 FOURNIER Marc FDJ withdrawal

Stage 4 Escaldes-Engordany / Tarragona. Anella Mediterránea 2018

198.2km - Coefficient 2 (A stage with some difficulties) [honestly it looks like a big downhill piece of cake compared to some of the other stages in this race]

Profile


Single Climb - Km 132.0 - Alto de Belltall.13 kilometre-long climb at 2.8% - category 3 [my sort of GT climb]

Geodiversity

Escaldes-Engordany – Tarragona

This stage begins in the border between Andorra and Catalonia, and the peloton must cover the provinces of Lérida and Tarragona from North to South. From a geological perspective, the route will cross Catalonia's three main geological domains: the Pyrenees, the Ebro Basin and the Costero-Catalana Mountain Range... zzzzz

Food - great food in Catalonia. Romesco Sauce for Sea Food - Tarragona

1 head of garlic
2 romesco peppers
3 slices of dry bread
2 ripe tomatoes
100 gr. roasted almonds and hazelnuts
Oil, vinegar, salt and sugar

Roast the garlic heads, leaving a raw clove aside. Roast the ripe tomatoes and peel the skins off and remove the pips. Fry the bread (don’t burn it), and place on kitchen paper to absorb the oil. Steep and blanch the romesco peppers in order to remove the pulp. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend adding a pinch of sugar, salt, some oil and vinegar (a little). Add salt or vinegar to your liking and let it cool.

From the traditional,


to the modern, Romesco is perfect


Cava - the superb/superior alternative, originates from a small winery between Tarragona and Barcelona; Caves Cordoniu



Obilgatory horse - the Catalan Horse is now extinct [sorry]; the closest relative is the Losino

jimmythecuckoo

Should be a day for Degenkolb this one.

And Trek/Segafredo should be keen to put all their eggs in the stage win basket after yesterday.

silvergrenade

Last 5 Kms Today:


That finish looks hard : four 90 degree turns in the last km and then a slight uphill drag to the line. It's going to be very unpredictable.
The roundabout at the 3 km mark combined with the 90 degree turn beforehand has the potential to be absolute carnage.
Hopefully, no crashes though

imatfaal

S. Rossetto 185 COF + 10' 00''
J. Osorio Arboledan 215 MZN + 16' 09''
J. Le Bon 164 FDJ + 18' 33''
D. Rubio Hernandez 197 CJR + 18' 58''
N. Schultz 199 CJR+ 23' 01''

Have 7 minutes

imatfaal

silvergrenade wrote:

Last 5 Kms Today:


That finish looks hard : four 90 degree turns in the last km and then a slight uphill drag to the line. It's going to be very unpredictable.
The roundabout at the 3 km mark combined with the 90 degree turn beforehand has the potential to be absolute carnage.
Hopefully, no crashes though

Good spot. Sean Kelly is now also talking about it on Eurosport



The crude black dots show the course of the last 300-400m into the car park!

m.r.m.

Wonder if this can be used similarly to how EBH did it on stage 19 of the Tour.

knedlicky

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Should be a day for Degenkolb this one.

Hardly - Degenkolb is ill; it's one reason why he finished with the last 40-odd yesterday.

imatfaal

Wilko Kelderman down - back on bike and has team mates with him

imatfaal

Mark Christian down and seemingly waiting for a wheel

TheBigBean

Pozzovivo crashes at 3.2km

imatfaal

Danni Moreno and Pozzavivo down - outside 3km

andyp

Pozzovivvo down in a crash outside 3 kms.

Vino'sGhost

Everyone must be on the absolute limit no wonder they're crashing

Vino'sGhost

Go On Cannondale

Vino'sGhost

balls no green on the podium

andyp

Trentin takes it comfortably.

dish_dash

Lobato went too early and Trentin reeled him in...

andyp

Crazy finish though. How can organisers think a final kilometre like that on stage 4 of a GT is acceptable?

lettingthedaysgoby

Well, the last 5 minutes were entertaining

RichN95.

Pozzovivo lost 3.25

imatfaal

Ridiculous finale - especially annoying that today's Eurosport "segment" was fernando escartin talking about how proud he was to have made a course safe for riders

imatfaal

BTW tomorrow's could cause even more problems but for other reasons. Road book says final climb to line is 3.4km at 3.4% but it is also clearly shown) and I have checked) as 3.4 km with 340 metres vertical which is pretty close to 10%. And teams who haven't recce'd! properly will have a horrible shock

rick_chasey

imatfaal

they are doing about as good a job as possible of attracting a new sponsor - or has that been sorted? The "big" announcement on Saturday was just a Vuelta prize giveaway

sagefly

Orica looking decent, can Chavez carry it through?

rick_chasey

Have noticed on the podcast Friebe already talking about the TT.

Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.

Bo Duke

Rick Chasey wrote:

Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.

That bongers ascent on what is it, day 13 (?) will sort the men from the boys... bet they average 27kpm for the entire stage before the 30% ascent..... I can't even walk up that never mind ride the darn thing. Folks will lose 2 minutes just on that section. Pozzovivo must be favourite shirley?

imatfaal

Bo Duke wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.

That bongers ascent on what is it, day 13 (?) will sort the men from the boys... bet they average 27kpm for the entire stage before the 30% ascent..... I can't even walk up that never mind ride the darn thing. Folks will lose 2 minutes just on that section. Pozzovivo must be favourite shirley?

There are four bonkers catergorie ascents - but in my opinion the killers are Stage 17 has a "short" climb at the end with sections of 26 and 27 percent, and stage 20 ends on Angliru which has a kilometre at over 15% and ridiculous surfaces. 14,15,17, and 20 have especiale bonkers catergorie ascents - all of which could put five+ minutes into any rider who goes out too hard.