Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2020 (La Vuelta Ciclista a España)

[heywoodu 16,458]

This is sad though, 24-year old Barceló is out because he had a bout of tachycardia during yesterday's stage and (logically!) the team doctor wants medical checks to be performed on him to rule out significant heart issues.

 

 

[Grassmarket 4,265]

Roglič has been gapped on the very wet & cold final climb.  Richard Carapaz & Hugh Carthy doing the damage.

 

Jon Izagirre gets the win.

 

Leaderboard is now 

 

Carapaz

Carthy @ 18

Martin @ 20

Roglič @ 30

 

[heywoodu 16,458]

Well that was a rather epic meltdown by Jumbo-Visma today  

[heywoodu 16,458]

My entire top-3 for today is in the lead group. That's the good thing, the bad thing is they're with 33 others.

[Grassmarket 4,265]

Often wonder if Basque political militants would get more international support if they didn’t write all their posters in Basque only

 

Lordy, blowing a gale.  Ineos driving the peloton back onto the escapees.

 

Got a group of 5 big names over the top of the cliff - think they are fighting for the win now.  No break among the overall leaders.  Valverde is getting some useful time back.

 

Michael Woods goes for it....wins!

 

Countdown for Valverde....gets about 50 secs.  No other big changes.

[Grassmarket 4,265]

We have literal actual vultures following the race today, so not a good time for out-of-contract riders to crash.

 

20k to go, breakaway almost caught & peloton approaching the big final climb.

 

Hugh Carthy goes for it on the steepest part of the climb, Kuss goes with him, others struggling. 3k of agony left.  Valverde like a roulette player in Vegas - is losing everything he gained yesterday & more.

 

Carapaz & Roglič now going for it, Carthy & Dan Martin trailed.

 

Vlasov going for the stage, truce among the top four.

 

Final is

 

Roglič. Gains about 20 secs net with bonus.

Carapaz

Dan Martin

[heywoodu 16,458]

Froome finishing in the grupetto with the likes of Jasper Philipsen and Mihkel Räim, lol. And that's going to get millions of euros from Israel next year  

[NearPup 4,154]

15 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Froome finishing in the grupetto with the likes of Jasper Philipsen and Mihkel Räim, lol. And that's going to get millions of euros from Israel next year  

Ya, sure looks like not sending him to the TdF was the right call...

[Grassmarket 4,265]

Fans of boring sport in for a treat today with long flat sprinters stage through post-harvest wheat fields.  105km to go.  Should be a Sam Bennett day, barring crashes.

[heywoodu 16,458]

Wind could have made it interesting today, but alas, that was not to be. Favourite Pascal Ackermann already was involved in a crash today, so he might not be the favourite anymore. We'll see.