La Vuelta 2020 - Stage 9: Castrillo del Val > Aguilar de Campoo - 157,7 km *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

Stage 9: Castrillo del Val > Aguilar de Campoo - 157,7 km
Thursday 29 October, 12.25 GMT.

Although the 9th stage of la Vuelta is not entirely flat, the race doesn't come with any KOM points either. At 157.7 kilometres, the race from Castrillo de Val to Aguilar de Campoo should come down to a sprint finish.



Castrillo del Val is located in Burgos at an elevation of 855 metres and Aguilar de Campo at 908 metres. Those are basically the perimetres of the elevation on stage 12, although the section between kilometre 30 and 60 takes place at 790 metres.



Stage 9 is the first of two consecutive sprint finishes. Unusually, the 2020 Vuelta offers more opportunities for the fast boys than either the Tour or Giro.



Favourites 9th stage 2020 Vuelta a España

*** Sam Bennett, Pascal Ackermann
** Jasper Philipsen, Magnus Cort,
* Jon Aberasturi, Jakub Mareczko, Max Kanter

Castrillo del Val

Unprecedented departure
792 inhabitants

The history of Castrillo del Val is closely linked to that of ‘El Cid’. It is where his wife, Jimena, and two daughters lived in the final years of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar’s life, and is where the iconic Castilian’s remains were kept up until the 19th century. The Cid Campeador Military Base was named after this historical legacy. In 2020, this branch of the Armed Forces will celebrate the Legion’s first centenary.



Aguilar de Campoo

Unprecedented Vuelta finale
6.842 inhabitants

Aguilar de Campoo will host part of La Vuelta for the fourth time in the race’s history. Though it has never hosted a finish-line until now, the Palencia municipality does know what it is to host a stage departure (1983, 1985 and 2012). The cookie locality, thus known for the numerous cookie industries based in this territory, began to gain popularity in the middle Ages, during its greatest splendour. Aguilar de Campoo was the residence of Charles V following the Emperor’s first arrival in the Iberian Peninsula in 1517.



Reservoir of Aguilar




Lamb stew

Lamb is very popular in the north of Spain, and in the Basque Country people like to make it into a stew. The lamb is marinated in white wine, cloves, garlic and rosemary, before being cooked and then added to a thick sauce.

m.r.m.

That stew looks amazing.

kingstongraham

m.r.m. said:

That stew looks amazing.

Agreed. I went looking for it. https://www.thekitchenalchemist.co.uk/recipes/2013/11/17/basque-lamb-stew

ddraver

...so goulash basically.

Nowt wrong with that though!

blazing_saddles

It's going to be one of those unofficial rest days.

Bagues (Caja Rural) and Osorio (BH Burgos) have about 5 minutes over a plodding peloton.

Re. the stew: It looked too good not to post it's picture. Easy to see why it's a very popular dish in sheep country.

notquite6foot

Considering how slow Héctor Sáez was going when he crashed, that helmet took a lot of damage.

https://twitter.com/Cyclingvision/status/1321824988161257473

notquite6foot

Bennett does it again.

Career win #50 (including 9 GT stages), Quick-Step GT stage win #100.

EDIT: Seen jury decision.

blazing_saddles

Same as stage 4.
Bora do all the work, Bennett takes home the spoils.

Jumbo pit stops are still not exactly F1 standards.

neonriver

Bennett relegated and QS super salty on their Twitter account

kingstongraham

https://youtu.be/8d03CR7-Yiw

At 17 seconds, he gives a pretty massive shove. Then another at 20 seconds.

blazing_saddles

neonriver said:

Bennett relegated and QS super salty on their Twitter account

Not much sympathy among the dozens of comments, for the "defending his position" line.

salsiccia1

Perhaps Uncle Patrick will sue them

gregster04

Was just saying to my son what a nice guy Sam is and then he gets DQed.

I don’t think the jury could let that go once they saw it.

lettingthedaysgoby

The sort of move they got away with before overhead camera shots

RichN95.

https://twitter.com/OutOfCycling/status/1321871453189529601

Dorset_Boy

I think DQS have a right to feel agrieved. The Trek rider is outside the line of riders and is trying to push in and push Sam out of the line and towards the barriers.
Not sure you could expect Sam to take his hands off the bars and give him a gentle push out of the way.
Perhaps the trek team need to not lose their lead out with 400+m left....

pblakeney

Dorset_Boy said:

I think DQS have a right to feel agrieved. The Trek rider is outside the line of riders and is trying to push in and push Sam out of the line.

It's the difference between a subtle push in and a not subtle push out. I see both sides, but the main point is that there is no point in debating it as the decision has been made.

ddraver

lemme guess...

Irish or OPQS fan - terrible decision, Sammy wouldn't hurt a fly. Loowww Liiiieee the fields...

Latvian or Trek fan - Scumbag should be disqualified from every race ever and in to perpetuity

everyone else - 🤷...meh...can see why it was given...

andyp

ddraver said:

lemme guess...

Irish or OPQS fan - terrible decision, Sammy wouldn't hurt a fly. Loowww Liiiieee the fields...

Latvian or Trek fan - Scumbag should be disqualified from every race ever and in to perpetuity

everyone else - 🤷...meh...can see why it was given...

Spot on.

You could add;

Leferve (when it's his rider who is DQd): "This is a bullshit!"

Leferve (when his rider is the victim): "This guy should be in jail!"

Pross

I didn't see the incident but when I watched the sprint live my thought was how nice it was to see a fairly closely fought but very clean sprint finish with everyone holding their line. Shows what I know!

I did notice DQS doing a bit of a 4th cat dive bomb on that last tight bend on the run in though, choppers.

m.r.m.

How does a sprinter defend his position in the train without leaning in against the intruder? Or is it a question of how much leaning?

webboo

m.r.m. said:

How does a sprinter defend his position in the train without leaning in against the intruder? Or is it a question of how much leaning?

If he was running for the posts with the ball tucked under his arm, then his shoulder barge was legit. But in the last K of a bike race I’m not so sure.

ddraver

m.r.m. said:

How does a sprinter defend his position in the train without leaning in against the intruder? Or is it a question of how much leaning?

A lean is fine. Whacking 'im with your head - which is what he did - less so...

gweeds

Totally legit DQ that. Lefevre talking bollocks as usual.

bm5

Pross - I thought exactly the same as you did when I was watching the coverage on the app this evening.

tailwindhome

ddraver said:

lemme guess...

Irish or OPQS fan - terrible decision, Sammy wouldn't hurt a fly. Loowww Liiiieee the fields...

Latvian or Trek fan - Scumbag should be disqualified from every race ever and in to perpetuity

everyone else - 🤷...meh...can see why it was given...

Ridiculous decision.

Haven't seen it, but clearly Sammy was in the right

kingstongraham

I guess it was a bit less bad than renshaw in the tour few years ago.

cq20

Correct decision. It was a stupid as well as DQ-worthy move by Bennett. He is good enough not to have to resort to hooliganism.

Sean Kelly, who is hardly anti-Bennett, backed the judges decision

ddraver

Blazing Saddles said:

Lamb stew

m.r.m. said:

That stew looks amazing.

kingstongraham said:

Agreed. I went looking for it. https://www.thekitchenalchemist.co.uk/recipes/2013/11/17/basque-lamb-stew

My lockdown attempt...

kingstongraham

Ha - mine tonight too. It's bloody good.

ddraver

I reckon a tad more paprika for a slightly more goulashy taste. And you can also seriously reduce the meat to veg ratio to economise a little. Other than that 👌