La Vuelta'17 S.4 **SPOILERS** Escaldes-Engordany / Tarragona. Anella Mediterránea 2018

imatfaal
imatfaal Posts: 2,716
edited August 2017 in Pro race
After Stage 3
1. GBR FROOME Christopher 21 TEAM SKY 08h 53' 44''
2. ESP DE LA CRUZ MELGAREJO David 11 QUICK - STEP FLOORS 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
3. IRL ROCHE Nicolas 36 BMC RACING TEAM 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
4. USA VAN GARDEREN Tejay 38 BMC RACING TEAM 08h 53' 46'' + 00' 02''
5. ITA NIBALI Vincenzo 151 BAHRAIN - MERIDA 08h 53' 54'' + 00' 10''
6. COL CHAVES RUBIO Johan Esteban 41 ORICA - SCOTT 08h 53' 55'' + 00' 11''
7. ITA ARU Fabio 131 ASTANA PRO TEAM 08h 54' 22'' + 00' 38''
8. GBR YATES Adam 48 ORICA - SCOTT 08h 54' 23'' + 00' 39''
9. ITA POZZOVIVO Domenico 89 AG2R LA MONDIALE 08h 54' 27'' + 00' 43''
10. FRA BARDET Romain 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 08h 54' 32'' + 00' 48''

withdrawals on 3
176 KING Benjamin DDD DNS
162 FOURNIER Marc FDJ withdrawal

Stage 4 Escaldes-Engordany / Tarragona. Anella Mediterránea 2018

198.2km - Coefficient 2 (A stage with some difficulties) [honestly it looks like a big downhill piece of cake compared to some of the other stages in this race]

Profile
PROFIL.png

Single Climb - Km 132.0 - Alto de Belltall.13 kilometre-long climb at 2.8% - category 3 [my sort of GT climb]

Geodiversity
Escaldes-Engordany – Tarragona

This stage begins in the border between Andorra and Catalonia, and the peloton must cover the provinces of Lérida and Tarragona from North to South. From a geological perspective, the route will cross Catalonia's three main geological domains: the Pyrenees, the Ebro Basin and the Costero-Catalana Mountain Range... zzzzz

Food - great food in Catalonia. Romesco Sauce for Sea Food - Tarragona
1 head of garlic
2 romesco peppers
3 slices of dry bread
2 ripe tomatoes
100 gr. roasted almonds and hazelnuts
Oil, vinegar, salt and sugar

Roast the garlic heads, leaving a raw clove aside. Roast the ripe tomatoes and peel the skins off and remove the pips. Fry the bread (don’t burn it), and place on kitchen paper to absorb the oil. Steep and blanch the romesco peppers in order to remove the pulp. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend adding a pinch of sugar, salt, some oil and vinegar (a little). Add salt or vinegar to your liking and let it cool.

From the traditional,
418190417public_upload-img_702_cal-joan.jpg

to the modern, Romesco is perfect
2008604075public_upload-img_715_plat-pulvinar.jpg

Cava - the superb/superior alternative, originates from a small winery between Tarragona and Barcelona; Caves Cordoniu

456-botella.jpg

Obilgatory horse - the Catalan Horse is now extinct [sorry]; the closest relative is the Losino

losino2w.jpg

Comments

  • Should be a day for Degenkolb this one.

    And Trek/Segafredo should be keen to put all their eggs in the stage win basket after yesterday.
  • Last 5 Kms Today:
    stage-4-finish.jpg

    That finish looks hard : four 90 degree turns in the last km and then a slight uphill drag to the line. It's going to be very unpredictable.
    The roundabout at the 3 km mark combined with the 90 degree turn beforehand has the potential to be absolute carnage.
    Hopefully, no crashes though
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    S. Rossetto 185 COF + 10' 00''
    J. Osorio Arboledan 215 MZN + 16' 09''
    J. Le Bon 164 FDJ + 18' 33''
    D. Rubio Hernandez 197 CJR + 18' 58''
    N. Schultz 199 CJR+ 23' 01''

    Have 7 minutes
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Last 5 Kms Today:
    stage-4-finish.jpg

    That finish looks hard : four 90 degree turns in the last km and then a slight uphill drag to the line. It's going to be very unpredictable.
    The roundabout at the 3 km mark combined with the 90 degree turn beforehand has the potential to be absolute carnage.
    Hopefully, no crashes though


    Good spot. Sean Kelly is now also talking about it on Eurosport

    36595464891_898c8e6c50_h.jpg

    The crude black dots show the course of the last 300-400m into the car park!
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,312
    Wonder if this can be used similarly to how EBH did it on stage 19 of the Tour.
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Should be a day for Degenkolb this one.
    Hardly - Degenkolb is ill; it's one reason why he finished with the last 40-odd yesterday.
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Wilko Kelderman down - back on bike and has team mates with him
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Mark Christian down and seemingly waiting for a wheel
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,509
    Pozzovivo crashes at 3.2km
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Danni Moreno and Pozzavivo down - outside 3km
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,069
    Pozzovivvo down in a crash outside 3 kms.
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    Everyone must be on the absolute limit no wonder they're crashing
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    Go On Cannondale
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    balls no green on the podium
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,069
    Trentin takes it comfortably.
  • dish_dash
    dish_dash Posts: 5,551
    Lobato went too early and Trentin reeled him in...
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,069
    Crazy finish though. How can organisers think a final kilometre like that on stage 4 of a GT is acceptable?
  • Well, the last 5 minutes were entertaining :D
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    Pozzovivo lost 3.25
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Ridiculous finale - especially annoying that today's Eurosport "segment" was fernando escartin talking about how proud he was to have made a course safe for riders
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    BTW tomorrow's could cause even more problems but for other reasons. Road book says final climb to line is 3.4km at 3.4% but it is also clearly shown) and I have checked) as 3.4 km with 340 metres vertical which is pretty close to 10%. And teams who haven't recce'd! properly will have a horrible shock
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,236
    DH3MRajXsAAZF-y?format=jpg&name=large
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    they are doing about as good a job as possible of attracting a new sponsor - or has that been sorted? The "big" announcement on Saturday was just a Vuelta prize giveaway
  • sagefly
    sagefly Posts: 295
    Orica looking decent, can Chavez carry it through?
    Turned out nice again!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,236
    Have noticed on the podcast Friebe already talking about the TT.

    Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.
  • Bo Duke
    Bo Duke Posts: 1,058
    Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.

    That bongers ascent on what is it, day 13 (?) will sort the men from the boys... bet they average 27kpm for the entire stage before the 30% ascent..... I can't even walk up that never mind ride the darn thing. Folks will lose 2 minutes just on that section. Pozzovivo must be favourite shirley?
    'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP
  • imatfaal
    imatfaal Posts: 2,716
    Bo Duke wrote:
    Think we're all forgetting how bonkers this route is.

    That bongers ascent on what is it, day 13 (?) will sort the men from the boys... bet they average 27kpm for the entire stage before the 30% ascent..... I can't even walk up that never mind ride the darn thing. Folks will lose 2 minutes just on that section. Pozzovivo must be favourite shirley?


    There are four bonkers catergorie ascents - but in my opinion the killers are Stage 17 has a "short" climb at the end with sections of 26 and 27 percent, and stage 20 ends on Angliru which has a kilometre at over 15% and ridiculous surfaces. 14,15,17, and 20 have especiale bonkers catergorie ascents - all of which could put five+ minutes into any rider who goes out too hard.