La Vuelta 2019, Stage 8: Valls > Igualada 31/08/2019 - 166,9 km *Spoilers*
blazing_saddles
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La Vuelta 2019, Stage 8: Valls > Igualada 31/08/2019 - 166,9 km
The 8th stage on La Vuelta is a rolling ride. The sprint teams should be able to control the race, but whether they will want to is another matter, with the tough Puerto de Montserrat not too far from the finish.
Valls hosts the Volta a Catalunya almost yearly, but it’s been six years since La Vuelta last visited the Catalonian town. In 2013, a stage left to Castelldefels and Warren Barguil – only 21 years of age at the time – took the win. The route of the 8th stage of the 2019 Vuelta goes to Igualada, which served as a finish in the 2017 Volta a Catalunya with Nacer Bouhanni sprinting to victory.
The race is played out on rolling roads. The toughest ascent is the Puerto de Montserrat: 7.4 kilometres at 6.6%. The riders reach the summit with 27 kilometres remaining, although the downhill begins a few kilometres later.
Following the descent the last 5 kilometres is a flat run-in to the line.
Favourites 8th stage 2019 Vuelta a España
Are the fast men going to survive the 8.2 kilometres climb? Is the pay-off worth the investment? Obviously, this question will loom large in the buses of the sprint teams. Pure sprinters are sure to crack on the Puerto de Montserrat, but those who can climb may survive, unless a GC team has other ideas. In other words, this could go either way.
*** Thomas De Gendt, Valerio Conti, Zdenek Stybar
** Edvald Boasson Hagen, Luka Mezgec, John Degenkolb, Sam Bennett
* Luis León Sánchez, Patrick Bevin, Ben King
Valls
1 stage of La Vuelta have departed from Valls
24,112 inhabitants.
Valls is the capital of the comarca of Alt Camp, in Catalonia, Spain.It tends to be said there are few disciplines that are as good as cycling at combining the duality between individual and team sport. No cyclist can win without the support of his fellow team members. This is a lesson the riders of La Vuelta 19 will learn for themselves in Valls, the home of the ‘castells’. Nearly ten years ago, UNESCO declared these human towers Intangible Cultural Heritage, as an unrivalled example of effort, spectacle and mutual support.
Calçotada is an annual event in Valls, Catalonia celebrating the harvest of calçots. They are grilled over a hot fire, wrapped up in newspaper, served on terra cotta tiles and eaten, after peeling with bare hands, by dipping them one by one in romesco sauce and are accompanied by red wine and bread.
A course of roasted lamb and sausage and white beans follows. For dessert, oranges and white cava are served.
Igualada
3 stages of La Vuelta have had finales in Igualada
39,316 inhabitants.
Considered the European leather capital, Igualada has managed to safeguard its heritage involving this industry though its unique leather museum, the Museo de la Piel, which displays this material’s diversity of uses and applications, as well as the evolution of its manufacturing technique.
A tradition of quality and excellence that could also be applied to the city’s relationship with La Vuelta. Three stages in the race’s history have finished in Igualada, with such famous winners as Agustín Tamames, Giuseppe Perletto, and Bernard Hinault.
Igualada is a municipality in the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the Anoia River and at the western end of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona railway. Igualada is the capital and central market of the Anoia comarca, a rich agricultural and wine-producing district. So here's a picture of some local beer!
The 8th stage on La Vuelta is a rolling ride. The sprint teams should be able to control the race, but whether they will want to is another matter, with the tough Puerto de Montserrat not too far from the finish.
Valls hosts the Volta a Catalunya almost yearly, but it’s been six years since La Vuelta last visited the Catalonian town. In 2013, a stage left to Castelldefels and Warren Barguil – only 21 years of age at the time – took the win. The route of the 8th stage of the 2019 Vuelta goes to Igualada, which served as a finish in the 2017 Volta a Catalunya with Nacer Bouhanni sprinting to victory.
The race is played out on rolling roads. The toughest ascent is the Puerto de Montserrat: 7.4 kilometres at 6.6%. The riders reach the summit with 27 kilometres remaining, although the downhill begins a few kilometres later.
Following the descent the last 5 kilometres is a flat run-in to the line.
Favourites 8th stage 2019 Vuelta a España
Are the fast men going to survive the 8.2 kilometres climb? Is the pay-off worth the investment? Obviously, this question will loom large in the buses of the sprint teams. Pure sprinters are sure to crack on the Puerto de Montserrat, but those who can climb may survive, unless a GC team has other ideas. In other words, this could go either way.
*** Thomas De Gendt, Valerio Conti, Zdenek Stybar
** Edvald Boasson Hagen, Luka Mezgec, John Degenkolb, Sam Bennett
* Luis León Sánchez, Patrick Bevin, Ben King
Valls
1 stage of La Vuelta have departed from Valls
24,112 inhabitants.
Valls is the capital of the comarca of Alt Camp, in Catalonia, Spain.It tends to be said there are few disciplines that are as good as cycling at combining the duality between individual and team sport. No cyclist can win without the support of his fellow team members. This is a lesson the riders of La Vuelta 19 will learn for themselves in Valls, the home of the ‘castells’. Nearly ten years ago, UNESCO declared these human towers Intangible Cultural Heritage, as an unrivalled example of effort, spectacle and mutual support.
Calçotada is an annual event in Valls, Catalonia celebrating the harvest of calçots. They are grilled over a hot fire, wrapped up in newspaper, served on terra cotta tiles and eaten, after peeling with bare hands, by dipping them one by one in romesco sauce and are accompanied by red wine and bread.
A course of roasted lamb and sausage and white beans follows. For dessert, oranges and white cava are served.
Igualada
3 stages of La Vuelta have had finales in Igualada
39,316 inhabitants.
Considered the European leather capital, Igualada has managed to safeguard its heritage involving this industry though its unique leather museum, the Museo de la Piel, which displays this material’s diversity of uses and applications, as well as the evolution of its manufacturing technique.
A tradition of quality and excellence that could also be applied to the city’s relationship with La Vuelta. Three stages in the race’s history have finished in Igualada, with such famous winners as Agustín Tamames, Giuseppe Perletto, and Bernard Hinault.
Igualada is a municipality in the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the Anoia River and at the western end of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona railway. Igualada is the capital and central market of the Anoia comarca, a rich agricultural and wine-producing district. So here's a picture of some local beer!
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Jorge Arcas (Movistar Team), Silvan Dillier (AG2R La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana Pro Team), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Jonas Koch (CCC Team), Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ), Carl Fredrik Hagen and Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Nic Dlamini (Dimension Data), David de la Cruz (Team Ineos), Ruben Guerreiro (Katusha Alpecin), Nikias Arndt and Martijn Tusveld (Team Sunweb), Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo), Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates), Alex Aranburu and Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Jesus Herrada and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Fernando Barcelo (Euskadi-Murias).
Hope they all stay rubber side down today.
Not sure whether the chasers can catch the 4 out front.
Stybar off the front.
Dry to wet roads in the valley
Very sketchy on the run in.
Roglic better get in the queue. :P
You are just saying what you think others want to hear. Free your mind
But they've been rubbish for years and are only now getting their act together.
Bouhanni has been carrying the team for the past four years, contributing over 50% of their wins in that time. In the right environment, he's an asset.
Well no, he is paid well over a million euros a year and hasn't got the wins to justify that.
I disagree, he's not won as much in the past two seasons, which has coincided with Vasseur's tenure as team manager at Cofidis, but in his first three years at Cofidis he contributed 29 of their 53 wins and was ranked on the fringes of the top 20 riders in the world for each of those three years. He managed 6 wins, including a Vuelta stage last year, despite Vasseur's ongoing criticisms of him in the press.
He's won multiple stages in both the Giro and the Vuelta and many other WT races, so can easily justify his salary. He needs a change of environment, to a team that values and respects him, and he'll soon be back winning races.
That's not saying a great deal.
He's managed a couple of home GC wins this year, but has only managed a 2nd in a TDF stage, last year and a couple of Luxembourg stage wins, outside these French provincial races.
Nowhere near Bouhanni's palmares.