2013 Vuelta

[monty1104]

The Vuelta route for this year has just been announced. Looks like a fantastic route, again, one for the climbers. 11 summit finishes (1 more than last year) and the penultimate stage finishes atop the Angrilu Will be immense.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vuelta-2013-route-announced

Stage one will be a TTT beginning on a large batea (a floating wooden platform traditionally used for shellfish farming). Could be interesting.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

• TTT is probably a bit long.
• ITT is a cat 3.
• Plenty of uphill sprints again.
• Stage 15 into France is probably the pick.
• Some of the mountain classifications seem a bit dodgy.
• I would like Angrilu earlier so it can define the race.

Of the GT's for 2013, Giro route >>>>> Vuelta route > Tour route

 

[Buzzasto DaSilva]

Stage one will be a TTT beginning on a large batea (a floating wooden platform traditionally used for shellfish farming). Could be interesting.

I wonder if Centrebet can start a market on the number of Bleeding Carrots to actually make it off of the batea. Surely at least 2 will fall?

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Bumpity bump.

 

[alfy!]

Can't wait!

 

[Mateyman]

So it's on SBS?

 

[ben_1301]

If it's even half as good as last years Vuelta I'll be a happy man!

 

[phantom13]

So it's on SBS?

8 stages from 12am-2am, not great, but ill take it

 

[alfy!]

Astana has announced their team: http://proteam-astana.com/en/news/2013-vuelta-a-espana-preview

• Vincenzo Nibali - ITA
• Paolo Tiralongo - ITA
• Jakob Fuglsang - DEN
• Janez Brajkovic - SLO
• Andrei Grivko - UKR
• Tanel Kangert - EST
• Andrey Zeits - KAZ
• Maxim Iglinskiy - KAZ
• Alessandro Vanotti - ITA

Very strong team, they'll be the ones to beat.

OPQS team announcement: http://www.omegapharma-quickstep.com/en/news/show/opqs-to-la-vuelta-a-espa-a/1380

Movistar: http://www.movistarteam.com/news/2013-8-19/movistar-team-goes-for-the-vuelta

Alongside the race's bib number 1 and team leader Alejandro Valverde will be Eros Capecchi, Beñat Intxausti, José Herrada, Javi Moreno, Sylwester Szmyd, Imanol Erviti, Iván Gutiérrez and Pablo Lastras.

 

[alfy!]

Sky announces its team: http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,29285_8879713,00.html


Henao leading a strong team.

 

[alfy!]

To get you pumped for the Vuelta, the finish of last years stage 8.

 

[iDon]

we got a breakdown schedule of when SBS will be showing stages live? Is there a wrap up show?

 

[alfy!]

we got a breakdown schedule of when SBS will be showing stages live? Is there a wrap up show?

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/road/news/43588/upcoming-cycling-on-sbs

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/event/vuelta-a-espana-2013

The Vuelta a Espana returns to SBS and Cycling Central once again in 2013 and we'll be broadcasting eight live stages as well as providing daily highlights to our online and television audience.

Live streams will be all over the internet too.

 

[chargers 09]

Anyone have the Greenedge line up? Is Clarke a chance to defend his KOM?

 

[alfy!]

Anyone have the Greenedge line up? Is Clarke a chance to defend his KOM?

Start list: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Vuelta_a_Espana_2013-Startlist

Orica GreenEDGE
COOKE Baden
MEIER Christian
HOWARD Leigh
MATTHEWS Michael
DOCKER Mitchell
BEWLEY Sam
CLARKE Simon
GERRANS Simon
SULZBERGER Wesley

 

[alfy!]

Tomorrow night is the night!

A locals perspective on this years Vuelta.

Australia's Adam Hansen is competing in his 7th Grand Tour in a row.

Velonews preview:

With only one individual time trial, the Vuelta is set up to crown a pure climber as winner of the 68th edition of the Spanish tour.

Top favorites such as 2009 winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Ivan Basso (Cannondale), Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida), Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp), and a bevy of Colombians are among the top-flight climbers making tracks to Galicia for Saturday’s start.

One key difference between the Vuelta and the Tour is the inclusion of finish-line time bonuses (20, 12 and 6 seconds, respectively, for the top three finishers).

In all, the Vuelta covers from 3,358 kilometers, with 21 stages and two rest days. There are two time trials — the team time trial Saturday and the individual time trial on stage 11 — and six flat stages favoring the sprinters.
There are 13 legs that are medium- or high-mountain stages, with 39 rated climbs over the three weeks of racing. Nine mountaintop finishes mark the route, with four others finishing atop short but steep kickers.

And my favourite race preview blogger C-Cycling's preview:

This Vuelta, however, is wide open. Vincenzo Nibali is my personal favorite for the overall win but it won’t be easy to repeat his 2010-performance. I expect Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim ‘Purito’ Rodriguez, Ivan Basso, Sergio Henao and Samuel Sanchez to fight for the Red Jersey and I’m sure a we will see a couple of outsiders in the mix as well.

In the beginning, I wrote I saw at least 25 riders with a chance of making Top10 in this race. I’ll leave you with the list of those riders. The order is irrelevant.


Nibali Majka
Valverde Arroyo
Purito Mollema
Basso Cataldo
Henao Capecchi
Sanchez Intxausti
Betancur Moreno x2
Horner Zubeldia
Pozzovivo Marczynski
Roche Ten Dam
Scarponi Uran
Pinot Dan Martin
Landa De Clercq
Nieve
Vanendert Antón
De Gendt

21 stages, 1 TTT, 1 ITT, 6 sprinter stages and 12 uphill finishes. The Vuelta is going to be a ripper.

 

[monty1104]

What a perfect time for me to get Foxtel again!

 

[monty1104]

Belkin, Astana and Euskatel all with really strong teams. This is the first time I reckon I would've seen Sammy Sanchez, Mikel Nieve and Igor Anton all race the same GT for Euskatel.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Valverde proved last year that he can do the Tour-Vuelta double, but Purito is unproven in that regard. Looking forward to Bentacur's efforts, but my pick is a possibly underdone Nibali.

 

[alfy!]

Valverde proved last year that he can do the Tour-Vuelta double, but Purito is unproven in that regard. Looking forward to Bentacur's efforts, but my pick is a possibly underdone Nibali.

So many unknowns (backing up after the TdF, injuries, lack of form, riding two GT's in a season, looking forward to the world champs) going into this years edition which makes it very exciting and wide open.

 

[monty1104]

Wouldn't write off Uran and Henao either. Both have the ability.

 

[alfy!]

Starting off with a team time trial, a fairly flat ordeal. A couple of previews:

It isn’t a long team time trial, and it’s not hilly either. Omega Pharma-Quick Step will be hoping to defend their world TTT title at the upcoming championships in Italy, and after just missing out in the Tour de France, they will be gunning for this one. Tony Martin leads the squad, but they are missing some of their big pieces, like Sylvain Chavanel and Niki Terpstra. Still, they’ve got some talent here. Astana’s strong squad looks poised to challenge them. Movistar and Saxo-Tinkoff both have a boatload of talented riders, but this parcours might be a bit flat for them. Sky’s roster isn’t packed with as many TT stars as it was in the Giro and the Tour, but they’ll probably be alright. Speaking of the Tour, Orica-GreenEdge fielded a very different squad there, and I don’t expect them to provide back to back Grand Tour TTT wins. RadioShack – Leopard will be led by Fabian Cancellara. Don’t overlook them, despite their aging roster behind him. Traditional favorites BMC and Garmin aren’t packing many heavy hitters. Katusha will be gunning to keep Purito from losing too much time.

As usually, the Vuelta starts out with a team time trial. This year, the distance is longer than the previous three years and that means we will see much bigger differences in the classification early on.
The teams get to the starting ramp in Vilanova De Arousa by boat and from here the route takes them south towards Sanxenxo. The profile is rather flat - very different from last year - and we can expect the teams with big engines like Omega Pharma Quickstep (Tony Martin) and Radioshack (Fabian Cancellara) to do well. The riders will be enjoying a tailwind for the majority of the route and that too favors the two mentioned teams.

 

[Hellgood]

Hopefully get the chance to catch some of this

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Love a TTT opening a big race. Good chance to see all of the teams and have the commentators speak about them all, so we know who to look for during the next three weeks.

 

[monty1104]

Is tonight a later start because it is a TTT stage? From memory the Vuelta is always a bit later, but I don't remember it being that late (2.30am start on Eurosport)