99th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya March 25th-31st *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

Stage 1: Monday 25th Calella – Calella 164kms


Stage 2: Tuesday 26th Mataró – Sant Feliu de Guíxols 179.6kms


Stage 3: Wednesday 27th Sant Feliu de Guíxols – Vallter 2000 179kms


Stage 4: Thursday 28th Llanars (Vall de Camprodon) – La Molina 150.3kms


Stage 5: Friday 29th Puigcerdà – Sant Cugat del Vallès 188.1kms


Stage 6: Saturday 30th Valls – Vila-seca 174.3kms


Stage 7: Sunday 31st Barcelona – Barcelona 143.1kms


Favourites 2019 Volta a Catalunya

***** Simon Yates, Enric Mas, Miguel Ángel López, Egan Bernal #sky
**** Adam Yates, Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Alejandro Valverde
*** Daniel Martin, Chris Froome, Steven Kruijswijk
** Richie Porte, Marc Soler, Wilco Kelderman
* Ilnur Zakarin, David Gaudu, Pello Bilbao, Ben o'Connor

Alejandrosdog

proper tour training miles.

blazing_saddles

For some reason I am having a problem posting and viewing one of the stage maps.

Stage 3: Wednesday 27th Sant Feliu de Guíxols – Vallter 2000 179kms

ridgerider

I follow Laurens ten Dam on Strava and he has spent quite a bit of time training in the area, so with no lead climber in the team, perhaps its a chance for him to get a result??? Seems a bit pointless taking him otherwise...

blazing_saddles

BOTD: Gougeard (ALM), De Gendt (LTS), Madrazo (BBH), Cuadros (CJR), Maté (COF) & Duyn (ROC).

blazing_saddles

Thomas de Gendt KoM and in with a shout for taking the stage. Headwind finish though.

blazing_saddles

De Gendt giving the peloton a right beating with a big stick, leaving them for dead in the Catalunyan dust.

Dorset_Boy

Big lead for TdG after stage 1.
Bernal mixing it with the sprinters?

blazing_saddles

Nice little Costa Brava circuit with a Valverde designer finish, but he was well beaten by Matthews, who is looking great for someone with just 4 days racing under his belt.

Another crash for Froome. Looked a bit sore. Sat up and wandered home 15 minutes down.

rick_chasey

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Nice little Costa Brava circuit with a Valverde designer finish, but he was well beaten by Matthews, who is looking great for someone with just 4 days racing under his belt.

Another crash for Froome. Looked a bit sore. Sat up and wandered home 15 minutes down.

MM wasn’t bad in MSR.

Usually people who are on an upward trajectory going into MSR tend to start to fly thereafter.

blazing_saddles

Rick Chasey wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Nice little Costa Brava circuit with a Valverde designer finish, but he was well beaten by Matthews, who is looking great for someone with just 4 days racing under his belt.

Another crash for Froome. Looked a bit sore. Sat up and wandered home 15 minutes down.

MM wasn’t bad in MSR.

Usually people who are on an upward trajectory going into MSR tend to start to fly thereafter.

He certainly was on an upward trajectory of sorts: he crashed out on day 1 of Paris-Nice.

ocdupalais

Adam Yates vs 3 Colombians with a KM to go...

ocdupalais

Dan Martin joins after being dropped...!

ocdupalais

1. Yates
2. Bernal
3. Martin

MissedTheBreak

Quintana sucks the joy out of cycling almost as much as the air of the wheel in front of him :roll:

Decent finish from the rest though, good stage.

ocdupalais

De Gendt finishing just behind Valverde - to keep the leader's jersey. The latter of whom doing his usual of not having a good time on 2000m climbs...

twotoebenny

Only disappointment for me is Quintana got 4th, I'd hoped they'd all beat him at end. Why does he never take a turn? If he'd kept going with Bernal could have had at least second and more time (most likely).

Agree with post above, sucks the life out of racing

ocdupalais

MissedTheBreak wrote:

Quintana sucks the joy out of cycling almost as much as the air of the wheel in front of him :roll:

Decent finish from the rest though, good stage.

Yeah - he's not winning any more fans today...

gsk82

TwoToeBenny wrote:

Only disappointment for me is Quintana got 4th, I'd hoped they'd all beat him at end. Why does he never take a turn? If he'd kept going with Bernal could have had at least second and more time (most likely).

Agree with post above, sucks the life out of racing

That was embarrassing. He was the senior rider in that group and just acted like a prat.

blazing_saddles

gsk82 wrote:

TwoToeBenny wrote:

Only disappointment for me is Quintana got 4th, I'd hoped they'd all beat him at end. Why does he never take a turn? If he'd kept going with Bernal could have had at least second and more time (most likely).

Agree with post above, sucks the life out of racing

That was embarrassing. He was the senior rider in that group and just acted like a prat.

Nairo Quintana: Prefers to allow other riders to rejoin a winning move, just so long as he doesn't have to put his nose in the wind.
Net result: Gets 5th on GC instead of 1st or 2nd. :?

Oh and Thomas de Gendt finishes one place behind Valverde. Chapeau that man.

Dorset_Boy

Someone needs to put Quintana into the barrier. Laziest f'er ever. Deserves nothing.
Great rides from A Yates, Bernal and Dan Martin, all thoroughly deserving their podium spots.
Brave by TdG too.

hanshotfirst

Dorset Boy wrote:

Someone needs to put Quintana into the barrier. Laziest f'er ever. Deserves nothing.
Great rides from A Yates, Bernal and Dan Martin, all thoroughly deserving their podium spots.
Brave by TdG too.

Bit harsh this. I don't like him as a rider either but nobody deserves to be put into a barrier.

blazing_saddles

Half the peloton have gone up the road today, for the second consecutive mountain finish.
As usual, Movistar have packed the break, Sky have not....

twotoebenny

Quintana done his one turn for the year, for all of 2 seconds.

blazing_saddles

Lopez takes over as new leader and the others cancel each other out.
A great stage. Once again La Molina better than the sum of it's parts.

joelsim

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Lopez takes over as new leader and the others cancel each other out.
A great stage. Once again La Molina better than the sum of it's parts.

Superman was just too powerful. Both Yates couldn’t keep up, and I have a feeling Nairoman has been on the limit in both stages which is why he hasn’t attacked. He’d have popped.

I love the way Lòpez rides, always attacking.

specialgueststar

"it's going faster each year...level is very, very high... I try to do my best, but I must admit that there are four or five riders who are above me on this event... there is a gap between these four or five first and the rest"

Bardet in l'Equipe.

bobmcstuff

Eurosport just put adverts on with 2.3km to go, WTAF?

Way to ruin the highlights.

blazing_saddles

Having watched it yet, but Bernal and Woods crashed inside the final 3kms today.
Kelderman went down while leading the group and they followed.
Wilco failed to finish the stage, so not good.

dabber

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Having watched it yet, but it looks like Bernal and Woods may have crashed inside the final 3kms today.

I never saw it either but, yes, I gather Bernal finished pushing his bike over the line.

blazing_saddles

So, Keldermann slid off into a corner and hit had against some curbing at about 5kms out.
No coverage at all of Bernal's bounce at about 350 metres or so, as it happened when Schachmann was crossing the line.
However, he seemed fine. Ho rips or rashes that I could see.