The Vuelta Crosses the Cantabrian Mountains

Over the Past Few Days the Vuelta Has Gone Through a Brutal Three-Stage Mountain Block.

One look at the profiles of these stages is enough to see how important the seconds won here would be for the climbers fighting for the general classification. This is exactly where they had to gain a decisive advantage over riders with other specializations and, where possible, settle the score among themselves too.

Stage XIV

Stage XV

Stage XVI

The race organizers made this year’s Vuelta rather special. We have already written that nine new summit finishes were planned for the jubilee Grand Tour. Most of them feature sections approaching a 20% gradient, and conquering those counts as a special quality even among outstanding climbers — a quality that, when such a section is in the finishing zone, gives them a particular edge to gain at least a little time at every such finish. Add the 10-second bonus for a stage win, and it’s clear that from the outset the organizers increased the chances of the climbers who excel on steep gradients and summit finishes.

But so that they wouldn’t sleep too peacefully, the three-stage mountain block was scheduled at the end of the second week, followed after the rest day by a super stage — an individual time trial of almost 39 kilometers!

That was precisely the main question of this mountain chain in Cantabria and Asturias: would the climbers gain a decisive advantage over the hugely talented young Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who had been holding a serious position in the general classification so far? After all, Tom made the podium in this discipline at last year’s World Championships — and with whom! With true greats of the specialty, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin.

Tony Martin, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Tom Dumoulin on the podium of the 2014 World Championships time trial in Ponferrada Photo: cyclingweekly.co.uk

The specialists mainly discussed two scenarios. The simplest and least likely: Tom would not survive the three-day mountain marathon, would hit a crisis somewhere and drop out of the GC fight altogether. The second: he would naturally choose defensive tactics and would certainly lose time — but how big would the gap between him and the climbers be? What advantage would the climbers need to feel comfortable before the time trial? Given the huge load of two weeks, Tom’s advantage shrinks, but I think the comfort zone for the climbers ahead of him had to exceed 2 minutes. Perhaps a temporary strategic pact between the climbers’ teams (Katusha, Astana, Tinkoff-Saxo, Movistar) was needed too: all against Tom, with the final showdown among themselves on the last standalone mountain stage, the twentieth. But since that stage finishes on a descent, I think the pact didn’t happen.

As expected, on all three stages the GC contenders left it to the final kilometers, where Joaquim Rodríguez (Purito) used his advantage, took a stage and pulled on the race leader’s red jersey. Astana’s Fabio Aru tried to minimize his losses; he struggled especially on stage 16 and lost the red jersey there, though he trails Purito by just one second. Poland’s Rafał Majka also kept his podium chances, though he is only 16 seconds ahead of the aforementioned Dumoulin, which will certainly be overturned. In the mountains it was Movistar who disappointed us: neither the great Colombian Nairo Quintana nor the great Spaniard Alejandro Valverde proved competitive. The Tour de France is clearly still in their legs. Still, the third week lies ahead and both are still within reach, 3:11 and 3:58 behind the leader respectively.

Tomorrow the big question will be answered: what intrigue lay behind planning the start of the third week like this.

And this is how the general classification looks before the third week

1. Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha) 67:52:44

The attack by Catalan Joaquim (Purito) Rodríguez of Russian team Katusha that won him the red jersey on Vuelta stage 16 Photo: Tim De Waele/TDWsport.com

2. Fabio Aru (Astana) 0:01

Italian Fabio Aru of Kazakh team Astana on Vuelta stage 15 Photo: Graham Watson/cyclingweekly.co.uk

3. Rafał Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) 1:35

Poland’s Rafał Majka of Russian team Tinkoff-Saxo on the Vuelta’s eleventh, Andorran stage Photo: Luca Bettini/BettiniPhoto

4. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) 1:51

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin of Dutch team Giant-Alpecin switches to his own pace on the final climb of stage 16 Photo: Graham Watson/cyclingweekly.co.uk

8. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 3:11

The great Colombian Nairo Quintana of Spanish team Movistar on Purito’s wheel on Vuelta stage 16 Photo: Tim De Waele/TDWsport.com

9. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 3:58

Spain’s Alejandro Valverde of Spanish team Movistar leads the closest chasing group on Vuelta stage 14, holding position (though at that moment you wonder what Alejandro is doing — he is towing Tom toward the other climbers up the road, including his Colombian teammate) Photo: Yuzuru SUNADA

No offense to those in fifth, sixth and seventh place in the classification. They will only be fighting to stay in the top ten. We are looking at those aiming for the podium!

Stage 16 inside the peloton

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.