Vuelta a Espana 2022 - Pre-race chat

DeadCalm

Teams are starting to be announced.

BORA - hansgrohe for Vuelta a Espana: Ryan Mullen, Danny van Poppel, Sam Bennett, Jonas Koch, Sergio Higuita, Wilco Kelderman, Emanuel Buchmann and Jai Hindley.

AG2R Citroën for Vuelta a Espana: Ben O'Connor, Clément Champoussin, Dorian Godon, Jaakko Hänninen, Bob Jungels, Nans Peters, Nicolas Prodhomme and Andrea Vendrame.

Team BikeExchange - Jayco for Vuelta a Espana: Simon Yates, Lawson Craddock, Luke Durbridge, Kaden Groves, Lucas Hamilton, Michael Hepburn, Kelland O'Brien and Callum Scotson.

Trek - Segafredo for Vuelta a Espana: Mads Pedersen, Dario Cataldo, Kenny Elissonde, Julien Bernard, Juan Pedro López, Antonio Tiberi, Alex Kirsch and Daan Hoole.

No_Ta_Doctor

Feels like ages since we've had a proper TTT, quite looking forward to stage 1.

DeadCalm

UAE Team Emirates for Vuelta a Espana: João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Pascal Ackermann, Brandon McNulty, Juan Sebastián Molano, Ivo Oliveira, Jan Polanc and Marc Soler.

It'll be interesting to see how Juan Ayuso fares in his first GT.

m.r.m.

The UAE team seems stronger than their Tour team.

roscoe

No Amador or Fraile for Ineos. Both riding Tour of Denmark.

kingstongraham

m.r.m. said:

The UAE team seems stronger than their Tour team.

I think Pogacar would probably give the Tour team the edge.

It's stronger for the sprint stages, I suppose.

m.r.m.

I meant as a squad around Pogacar. Would have been useful to have Ayuso and Almeida etc. at the Tour.

kingstongraham

m.r.m. said:

I meant as a squad around Pogacar. Would have been useful to have Ayuso and Almeida etc. at the Tour.

I'm not sure a 19 year old who has never done a GT would have massively improved a Tour squad that was already climber heavy.

DeadCalm

Ineos: Richard Carapaz, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Ethan Hayter, Luke Plapp, Carlos Rodríguez, Pavel Sivakov, Ben Turner, Dylan van Baarle.

kingstongraham

DeadCalm said:

Ineos: Richard Carapaz, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Ethan Hayter, Luke Plapp, Carlos Rodríguez, Pavel Sivakov, Ben Turner, Dylan van Baarle.

How can a team that strong feel a bit meh? Two GT winners, two who've won a GC in the last couple of weeks, this year's PR winner and Spanish champion - and yet...

Pross

Feels odd sending a team leader who is leaving at the end of the season.

blazing_saddles

Three days to the team presentation and so far, half a dozen teams have confirmed their lines ups.
Get a shift on the rest of you, or else fantasy games are going to struggle...

DeadCalm

blazing_saddles said:

Three days to the team presentation and so far, half a dozen teams have confirmed their lines ups.
Get a shift on the rest of you, or else fantasy games are going to struggle...

The teams have been listening to your concerns...

Jumbo-Visma for Vuelta a Espana: Primoz Roglic, Edoardo Affini, Sam Oomen, Sepp Kuss, Robert Gesink, Mike Teunissen, Chris Harper and Rohan Dennis.

Movistar Team for Vuelta a Espana: Alejandro Valverde, Enric Mas, Carlos Verona, Nelson Oliveira, José Joaquín Rojas, Mathias Norsgaard, Gregor Mühlberger and Lluís Mas Bonet.

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team for Vuelta a Espana: Remco Evenepoel, Julian Alaphilippe, Rémi Cavagna, Dries Devenyns, Fausto Masnada, Pieter Serry, Ilan van Wilder and Louis Vervaeke.

Euskaltel - Euskadi for Vuelta a Espana: Xabier Mikel Azparren, Ibai Azurmendi, Mikel Bizkarra, Joan Bou, Carlos Canal, Gotzon Martín, Mikel Iturria and Luis Ángel Maté.

kingstongraham

Is this some sort of punishment for Teunissen?

RichN95.

kingstongraham said:

Is this some sort of punishment for Teunissen?

There's two sprint stages in the Netherlands which he'll be keen for

kingstongraham

Well good luck to him on his solo mission.

RichN95.

This is the official Vuelta song for 2022 (yes, there's such a thing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lehePZybt0c

commuterlegs

So in terms of GC, is it between:
Hindley
Yates
Carapaz
Roglic/Kuss
Evenepoel

With Mas, Almeida and O'Connor as outsiders?

DeadCalm

commuterlegs said:

So in terms of GC, is it between:
Hindley
Yates
Carapaz
Roglic/Kuss
Evenepoel

With Mas, Almeida and O'Connor as outsiders?

Assuming he is fully recovered, I'd have thought Roglic is a huge favourite.

I can't see any way that Kuss is going to be up there on GC. Evenepoel is surely an outsider, at best, for the podium.

RichN95.

The current odds (Bet365)

15/8 Roglic
5/1 Evenepoel
13/2 Hindley
8/1 Carapaz
11/1 Almeida
12/1 Yates
18/1 Lopez, Mas
25/1 Sivakov
28/1 Rodriguez
33/1 O'Connor, Haig, Higuta
40/1 Geoghegan Hart, Ayuso, Kuss, Quintana, Kelderman

TheBigBean

Short for Evenepoel given his previous GT efforts.

gethinceri

Tao worth an e/w at 40/1

commuterlegs

As a former winner and seemingly in decent form, Yates at 12/1 seems good value. Guessing Roglic and Evenepoel will take time in the TTT on everyone else?

Pross

commuterlegs said:

So in terms of GC, is it between:
Hindley
Yates
Carapaz
Roglic/Kuss
Evenepoel

With Mas, Almeida and O'Connor as outsiders?

I would take the chances of those 3 outsiders over Evenepoel based on his previous GT ride. Will be interesting to see if he's moved on from that though.

blazing_saddles

commuterlegs said:

As a former winner and seemingly in decent form, Yates at 12/1 seems good value. Guessing Roglic and Evenepoel will take time in the TTT on everyone else?

He would, except for the fact that his last 4 GTs over the last two and a half seasons reads: DNF, 3rd, DNF, DNF......

commuterlegs

blazing_saddles said:

He would, except for the fact that his last 4 GTs over the last two and a half seasons reads: DNF, 3rd, DNF, DNF......

But aside from that he's a nailed on winner right? Right?

DeadCalm

RichN95. said:

The current odds (Bet365)

15/8 Roglic
5/1 Evenepoel
13/2 Hindley
8/1 Carapaz
11/1 Almeida
12/1 Yates
18/1 Lopez, Mas
25/1 Sivakov
28/1 Rodriguez
33/1 O'Connor, Haig, Higuta
40/1 Geoghegan Hart, Ayuso, Kuss, Quintana, Kelderman

Wide open if it weren't for Roglic.

DeadCalm

Cofidis for Vuelta a Espana: Bryan Coquard, Davide Cimolai, Jesus Herrada, Jose Herrada, Ruben Fernandez, Rémy Rochas , Davide Villella and Thomas Champion.

Arkéa Samsic for Vuelta a Espana: Nairo Quintana, Anthony Delaplace, Élie Gesbert, Thibault Guernalec, Simon Gugliemi, Dan McLay, Lukasz Owsian and Clément Russo.

RichN95.

Israel PT: Impey, Woods, Froome, Bevin, Hagen, DeMarchi, Goldstein, Einhorn

Pross

A lot of these teams are looking like Frakenstein's monster, made up from whatever parts happened to be available. I guess that's always the same at this stage of the season though.

JimD666

Roglic at 15/8... is that the odds of him winning or falling off?

😉