La Vuelta 2021 - Stage 21: Padrón > Santiago de Compostela - 33,8 km ITT **Spoilers**

blazing_saddles

Stage 21: Padrón > Santiago de Compostela - 33,8 km ITT

05-09-2021
Start time: 3-29pm

La Vuelta's last stage is and individual time trial on undulating terrain. The course between Padrón and Santiago de Compostela is 33.8 kilometres long, 10km shorter, to the 1993 race-concluding test between the same two towns that was won by Switzerland’s Alex Zülle. From the start, the course heads north-west to Carrais and the climb, the second half heads in a more easterly direction to the finish at Santiago de Compostela.



The test’s most significant section of climbing, starts at around 10kms, with the gradient rising steadily through some tight turns. The first intermediate checkpoint is located at the 13km mark, the road climbing a little more beyond it. After the descent, the second intermediate checkpoint lies just past this village of Bertamiráns. The elevation gain in the last 5 kilometres is 120 metres.



The final kilometres twisting upwards through the city to reach the Plaza de Obraidoro in the front of the magnificent cathedral that’s a magnet for pilgrims. The last man will head down the start ramp at 7:49 p.m. local time.



Favourite 21st stage 2021 Vuelta a España

*** Primoz Roglic

The best of the also rans

** Jan Tratnik, Nelson Oliveira, Josef Cerny
* Ion Izagirre, Lawson Craddock, Chad Haga, Steven Kruijswijk, Andrea Bagioli

Padrón

1 stage of La Vuelta have departed from Padrón
8.384 inhabitants
Province of La Coruña

Padrón has already hosted a La Vuelta stage departure. In fact, the La Coruña municipality knows what it is like to be a decisive stage in the Spanish grand tour. This route, departing from Padrón and finishing at Santiago de Compostela, was already completed in the final stage of La Vuelta 1993. Alex Zülle won that time trial, though his victory was only partial and did not allow him to beat his compatriot, Tony Rominger, in the overall classification.



The most famous produce of Padrón are its peppers (Galician pementos de Padrón), which are small green peppers from the Capsicum annuum family. They are served fried with olive oil and coarse salt. Most taste sweet and mild, though some are particularly hot and spicy, which gives its character to the dish.



Santiago de Compostela

7 stages of La Vuelta have had finales in Santiago de Compostela
97.260 inhabitants
Province of La Coruña

In the last 30 years, whenever La Vuelta has left Madrid in order to finish the edition in a city other than the capital, the chosen one has always been Santiago de Compostela. The La Coruña municipality will again be a decisive one in La Vuelta 21, coinciding with the celebration of the Jacobean Year. Hence this edition of the Spanish grand tour that departed from the Burgos Cathedral finally crosses the finish-line where the pilgrimage comes to an end: at Santiago de Compostela.
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the 9th century. In 1985, the city's Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



Betanzos Omelet

If you’re a potato omelet fan, Betanzos is your next stop. It is not a dish with many ingredients, as it only has four: egg, Galician potato, olive oil and salt. The success is probably due to the fact that they only use potatoes of autochthonous origin and, of course, eggs from free-range hens.



Raxo con queso de tetilla at Casa Lelín

One of the few meat dishes in Spain that is combined with any type of sauce. The most common raxo-topping sauces are made from roquefort cheese or mushrooms.
The one below takes Galician marinated pork and smothers it with another regional delicacy: tetilla cheese. The smooth, creamy cheese melts over the cubes of meat and into the bed of freshly cut and fried potatoes creating a rich mess flavors



The structure of the day.
Has to be the Plaza de Obraidoro, where this Vuelta ends, in Santiago de Campostela.
The Praza do Obradoiro (Galician for "Square of the Workshop") is main square of the Santiago de Compostela old town, although not placed at the real centre. It lies to the West of the main façade of the Santiago de Compostela cathedral, and thus the Pórtico da Gloria must be crossed to get into the building from the square. It is surrounded by four important buildings, said to represent the four powers of the city: the aforementioned Santiago de Compostela cathedral to the East (the Church), Hostal dos Reis Católicos (the doctors and bourgeoisie) to the North, Pazo de Raxoi (the government; after the Spanish transition to democracy was seat for the President of the Xunta of Galicia, nowadays the city council) to the West and the Colexio de San Xerome (the university) to the South.

jimmyjams

Thanks for your informative prefaces, Blazing Saddles; I enjoy them.
I don't know the detailed cycling history side of things so well, so I like those parts, and I even occasionally discover something (to me) new and interesting foodwise - Chorizo a la sidra from your Stage 18 preface for instance.

I like your choice of food dishes for this last stage, although I've not before seen Raxo con queso de tetilla as in your example above. However, raxo (marinated pork) and tetilla (the cheese type) are often combined in Galicia – together inside an empanada (so as a sort of flat pork pie), or inside a rye-bread sandwich (the sandwich filling being two very thin cooked pork fillets with the cheese in between them).

I'd have been inclined to include Vieiras (Baked Scallops) as one of the dishes. This because the dish is baked and served in scallop shells, the symbol of the St. James Way, so fitting the theme of this edition of the Vuelta, it starting on the St James Way (at Burgos) and finishing at the Way's end (at Santiago de C.). The dish is also local to Santiago de C.

Scallop shells (two per person) are filled with a mixture of chopped scallops, finely-chopped onion, garlic, a little diced ham, herbs and spices, then topped with breadcrumbs and baked for about 20 mins.

jimmyjams

I'd probably also include Mas in the one * favourites list, although I think the TT will be basically just between your *** and ** favourites, so Roglic, Tratnik, Oliveira, and Cerny.

And as Cerny will (I think) be the very first off the start ramp, I rather hope victory goes to him – I like the idea of 'first off = eventual winner'. So I hope the chair he, as provisional winner, gets to sit in will be comfy, because he could be sitting there over 3 hours.

Through the TT, I expect De La Cruz will likely overtake Martin in the top-10.

No_Ta_Doctor

jimmyjams said:

Thanks for your informative prefaces, Blazing Saddles; I enjoy them.
I don't know the detailed cycling history side of things so well, so I like those parts, and I even occasionally discover something (to me) new and interesting foodwise - Chorizo a la sidra from your Stage 18 preface for instance.

Oh I missed that, I've made it loads of times! It's dead easy, and if you get it right the cider reduces to a thick syrup! Pro tip - add a bayleaf while simmering. 😉

Charlie_Croker

^ yummy!

No_Ta_Doctor

Magnificent Magnus takes the hot seat in style

https://twitter.com/VeloVoices/status/1434564563278651397?s=19

jimmyjams

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Magnificent Magnus takes the hot seat in style

https://twitter.com/VeloVoices/status/1434564563278651397?s=19

Yes, after Cerny had an hour sitting there.

Cort Nielsen has also been given the combativity award for the whole Vuelta.

Pross

Cyclists really shouldn't go bare chested.

blazing_saddles

Cort's best form of his life without question.

I hope Yates hasn't gone off too quickly. He's already taken 22" out of Haig.

No_Ta_Doctor

Rolf Sørensen getting excited/nervous again. I think he's on the phone to Jumbo ds telling him to make sure Roglic doesn't take any chances on the descent...

No_Ta_Doctor

Yates has taken nearly half a minute out of Haig at T1.

But is his pacing right?

No_Ta_Doctor

Roglic 20" faster than Magnus at T1.
Chill out, mate. Take it easy on the descent. No point risking the GC....

blazing_saddles

Bernal highlights Ineos's tactical blunder, yesterday by going 5th.

thejimmymethod

Strong for Bernal considering yesterday he said he was just ready to go home, respect that

thejimmymethod

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Yates has taken nearly half a minute out of Haig at T1.

But is his pacing right?

Narrator: "It was not"

thejimmymethod

Rog wins by 14 seconds

blazing_saddles

Roglic sums up this Vuelta: total domination.

Mas seems far too pleased by being caught and passed in the home straight.

No_Ta_Doctor

Well that's Roglic off Rolf Sørensen's Xmas card list...

Cort is in ridiculous form though, could be a real handful in the World's.

No_Ta_Doctor

blazing_saddles said:

Roglic sums up this Vuelta: total domination.

Mas seems far too pleased by being caught and passed in the home straight.

I think he's just thanking Roglic for chasing down any threat to his podium all this week

mididoctors

Damm near stacked it ..... He is strong and deserves the win

pblakeney

Best man in the race won. There is no denying that.

gsk82

blazing_saddles said:

Bernal highlights Ineos's tactical blunder, yesterday by going 5th.

Just think how dull this race would've been without Bernal and Yates. I doubt Bernal or Ineos care that he lost a couple of places while going for bigger things.

blazing_saddles

gsk82 said:

blazing_saddles said:

Bernal highlights Ineos's tactical blunder, yesterday by going 5th.

Just think how dull this race would've been without Bernal and Yates. I doubt Bernal or Ineos care that he lost a couple of places while going for bigger things.

The point I was making wasn't that Ineos didn't light up the race, but that the wrong man in Yates went in the lead group.
Bernal would have made the podium, assuming he finished with, or better than Haig on stage 20.
Then he would have started the ITT just 7 seconds down and yesterday beat Haig by 63 seconds.

Pross

blazing_saddles said:

gsk82 said:

blazing_saddles said:

Bernal highlights Ineos's tactical blunder, yesterday by going 5th.

Just think how dull this race would've been without Bernal and Yates. I doubt Bernal or Ineos care that he lost a couple of places while going for bigger things.

The point I was making wasn't that Ineos didn't light up the race, but that the wrong man in Yates went in the lead group.
Bernal would have made the podium, assuming he finished with, or better than Haig on stage 20.
Then he would have started the ITT just 7 seconds down and yesterday beat Haig by 63 seconds.

That was just bad luck on which of the 1-2 attack routine worked though. I think they played it right. From memory Haig couldn't follow the Bernal effort but Lopez did manage to sit on when Roglic chased it down.