Vuelta a España 2019

Henryski · August 22, 2019, 9:53am

Yeah Tom seems to be a great follower and he rarely dares to make a break on his own, he’s got great consistency though just like Froome and his bad days are only slightly off bad days just like Froome which i think is one of the secrets of winning tours these days ie; Limiting your losses when things go sour. Bernal was a prime example of this on the steep slopes of Le Belle Filles and the time trial. He just didn’t panic and his time did come esp in the super high mountains above 2000m. I wonder what route they choose next year as i’m absolutely sure there will be much less super high cat mountains because of Bernals percieved advantage on this terrain. If they limit this and increase the tt miles them Froome will benefit no doubt, It’s a real tricky one for the course selectors. Maybe they’ll do more mountain stages with a downhill or level finish to suit the pocket rocket Alaphillippe. Next years tour seems like it’s gonna be probably the best ever with regards to the wide range of possible winners. There’s 10 or more so realistically possible winners given that riders can have exceptional good days as well as bad days and luck and crashes also play a major part sometimes. Mind you it all depends how teams allocate their best riders for next year with regards the Giro.

Debs · August 22, 2019, 8:50pm

[ Post 21 ]

List of Starters

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MOVISTAR TEAM

AG2R LA MONDIALE

ASTANA PRO TEAM

BAHRAIN - MERIDA

BORA - HANSGROHE

CCC TEAM

DECEUNINCK - QUICK - STEP

EF EDUCATION FIRST

GROUPAMA - FDJ

LOTTO SOUDAL

MITCHELTON - SCOTT

TEAM DIMENSION DATA

TEAM INEOS

TEAM JUMBO - VISMA

TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN

TEAM SUNWEB

TREK - SEGAFREDO

UAE TEAM EMIRATES

BURGOS BH

CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA

COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY - MURIAS

Debs · August 22, 2019, 8:55pm

Make a mental note of Post 21 for reference ^

If you click on any individual rider it links you to the official LA VUELTA site where you can see all the available rankings of the rider, and explore the site for all the other classifications of this grand tour : )

Debs · August 23, 2019, 9:42pm

Breaking News:

Richard Carapaz will not race the Vuelta a España after he crashed days before the opening stage.

The Giro d’Italia winner fell last Sunday (August 18), according to his Movistar team, and suffered shoulder injuries.
The team then added: “Movistar confirms Thursday that Richard Carapaz will not start the 74th edition of the Vuelta a España , which starts on Saturday in Alicante.

“In spite of the treatment received since then and the absence of fractures, the evolution of the lesions advises a greater precaution for its total restoration, so he will not take part in the race.”

They’ve been keeping this news very quiet, Carapaz is one of the hot GC favourites now knocked out of this years la Vuelta.
If he deliberately missed out on this years TdF so he could concentrate he efforts on this Vuelta (?) then he must be very disappointed : /

Oh well, it’s not like Movistar are short of leaders…

Debs · August 24, 2019, 4:56pm

Stage 1 : Saturday August 24: Salinas de Torrevieja to Torrevieja (13.4km)

Team time trail, just a quarter of an hour or so of hard work for them over that distance.

The highlights of todays race can be seen on freeview ITV4 at 22.25hr later tonight : )

(Spain timezone is 1 hour ahead of UK)

Dimension Data (RSA) 6.56pm
Ag2r La Mondiale (Fra) 7.00pm
Euskadi Basque Country – Murias (Esp) 7.04pm
CCC (Pol) 7.08pm
Burgos – BH (Esp) 7.12pm
EF Education First (USA) 7.16pm
Groupama-FDJ (Fra) 7.20pm
Caja Rural – Seguros RGA (Esp) 7.24pm
Katusha-Alpecin (Sui) 7.28pm
Ineos (GBr) 7.32pm
Cofidis (Fra) 7.36pm
Mitchelton-Scott (Aus) 7.40pm
Bahrain-Merida (Bah) 7.44pm
Sunweb (Ger) 7.48pm
Trek-Segafredo (USA) 7.52pm
Astana (Kaz) 7.56pm
Lotto-Soudal (Bel) 8.00pm
UAE Team Emirates (UAE) 8.04pm
Bora-Hansgrohe (Ger) 8.08pm
Jumbo-Visma (Ned) 8.12pm
Deceuninck – Quick-Step (Bel) 8.16pm
Movistar (Esp) 8.20pm

Debs · August 25, 2019, 1:31am

stage one (TTT): Salinas de Torrevieja to Torrevieja (13.4km)

Astana (Kaz), in 14-51
Deceuninck – Quick-Step (Bel), at two seconds
Sunweb (Ger), at 5s
EF Education First (USA), at 7s
Bora-Hansgrohe (Ger), at 13s
CCC (Pol), at 15s
Movistar (Esp), at 16s
Groupama-FDJ (Fra), at same time
Mitchelton-Scott (Aus), at 18s
Lotto-Soudal (Bel), at 19s

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Team Jumbo-Visma finished at 40 seconds down, which included a team crash on a slippery wet part of the road caused by a leaking garden hose, who’d of thought that would happen!
But it’s possible Team Jumbo could have won without this unfortunate delay : /

The Astana team are awarded all the jerseys, López is given the leaders red jersey and other Astana team members put on all the other jerseys which oddly includes the KOM jersey, hey ho, perhaps the GC will take a more interesting turn after Sunday’s very exciting looking hilly Stage 2 : )

Stage two, Sunday August 25: Benidorm to Calpe (199.6km)

Debs · August 25, 2019, 3:57pm

I won’t go into any post Stage 2 spoilers right now but would seem there was a jolly good fight out finish today, will be worth watching on the telly later!

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UK - HIGHLIGHTS TONIGHT ITV4 22:00 - 23:00hr

Debs · August 26, 2019, 12:44am

Results - stage two: Benidorm to Calpe

Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, in 5-11-17
Nicolas Roche (Irl) Sunweb, at five seconds
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma
Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Education First
Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time
Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at eight seconds
Sergio Higuita (Col) EF Education First, at 37s
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
Alex Aranburu (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, all at same time

General classification after stage two

Nicolas Roche (Irl) Sunweb, in 5-26-12
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at two seconds
Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Education First, at eight seconds
Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at 22s
Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, at 33s
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 36s
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), at 38s
Sergio Higuita (Col) EF Education First, at 40s
Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 46s
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time

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Fantastic well deserved win of Quintana!
At least the GC leaderboard looks more sensible now.

Todays stage 3 [ Monday ] and Stage 4 on Tuesday are both flat stages that will probably produce a bunch sprint finish so the top 10 GC may remain the same for a few days : )

Debs · August 27, 2019, 1:50pm

Results of Stage 3: Ibi. Ciudad del Juguete to Alicante (188km)

Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 4-25-02
Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
Jon Aberasturi (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain-Merida
Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Cyril Barthe (Fra) Euskadi Basque Country-Murias
Szymon Sajnok (Pol) CCC Team
Clément Venturini (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, all at same time

General classification after stage three

Nicolas Roche (Irl) Sunweb, in 9-51-14
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 2 seconds
Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Education First, at 8s
Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at 22s
Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, at 33s
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 35s
Sergio Higuita (Col) EF Education First, at 37s
Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Sunweb, at 38s
Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 46s
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time

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The expected bunch sprint in yesterday’s finish, and some slight changes in the top 10 GC.

Hot favourite Primož Roglič gains a second on race leader Roche but slips down from 3rd position to 6th which shows the top ten times have become closer and more competitive.

However the big talk of the show is the Team Ineos big hope GC riders Tao Geoghegan Hart and Wout Poels who are presently well down in 103rd and 104th position at 10:14
Tactics of lulling the opposition into a false sense of security perhaps?

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Breaking News from today’s Stage 4:

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) has abandoned due to a sore knee.

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Highlights - Channel 24 / ITV4 - 19:00 - 20:00hr

Debs · August 27, 2019, 11:49pm

Results: Tuesday 27th - stage four: Cullera to El Puig (175.5km)

1.Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Deceuninck – Quick-Step, in 4-04-16
2. Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe
3. Max Walscheid (Ger) Sunweb
4. Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates
5. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
6. Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
7. Szymon Sajnok (Pol) CCC Team
8. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data
9. Jon Aberasturi (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
10. Juan Sebastián Molano (Col) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time

no change in top ten CG.

Debs · August 28, 2019, 12:12am

Stage 5, Wednesday August 28: L’ Eliana to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (170.7km)

A very tough summit finish for today’s very hilly stage.

Plus the following four days are all very hilly, two of which quality as mountain stages

Henryski · August 28, 2019, 3:04am

We’re getting an ealry treat with some hill stages in the first week, i think usually it doesn’t really get going until the second weekend or so.

Debs · August 28, 2019, 10:00pm

After staying away from the peloton much of the day at around 10 minutes up the road in a three man breakaway, Ángel Madrazo Ruiz emerged not only as clear and ongoing KOM points leader, but to also bag himself a very impressive stage win.
The summit finish peak of Alto de Javalambre sits 1,950 metres above sea level, with riders facing an 11.1km ascent averaging 7.8 per cent to get there. The result was a rearrangement of general classification and with Nicolas Roche handing the red jersey back to Astana’s Miguel Ángel López.

Results of stage five: L’Eliana to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (170.7km)

Ángel Madrazo (Esp) Burgos-BH, in 4-58-31
Jetse Bol (Ned) Burgos-BH, at 10 seconds
José Herrada (Esp) Cofidis, Cofidis, at 22s [ winner combative award ]
Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, at 47s
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 59s
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at same time
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-29
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 1-41
Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma, at same time
Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-46

General classification after stage five

Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, in 18-55-21
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 14s
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 23s
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 28s
Nicolas Roche (Irl) Sunweb, at 57s
Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Education First, at 59s
Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-17
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 1-18
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-49

Debs · August 29, 2019, 1:40pm

Stage six, Thursday August 29: Mora de Rubielos to Ares del Maestrat (198.9km)

Today’s stage 6 is a hilly 198.9km with another tough 3rd category summit finish at Ares del Maestrat.

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Breaking News:

After a massive crash; Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb),
Hugh Carthy (EF Education First) and Victor de la Parte (CCC Team) abandon La Vuelta 19.

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Highlights later: Channel 24 / ITV4 19:00 - 20:00

Debs · August 30, 2019, 1:23am

Results of stage 6: Mora de Rubielos to Ares del Maestrat (198.9km)

Jesús Herrada (Esp) Cofidis, in 4-24-55
Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain Merida, at 7 seconds
Dorian Godon (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, at 21s
Robert Gesink (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at same time
Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 37s
Paweł Poljański (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 39s
Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, at 45s
Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, at 47s
David de la Cruz (Esp) Team Ineos, at 50s
Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Mitchelton-Scott, at 2-35

General classification after stage six

Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida, in 23-44-00
David de la Cruz (Esp) Team Ineos, at 38s
Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, at 1-00
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 1-14
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 1-23
Robert Gesink (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at same time
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar), at 1-28
Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 2-17
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 2-18
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 2-47

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A superb summit finish win of Jesús Herrada!
Dylan Teuns and David de la Cruz both capitalised well from being in todays breakaway, enough to take 1st and 2nd places on GC.

Shame about the crash that took out Uran and Roche, caused by water on the road [ again ] apparently, the top ten GC is rearranged again.

EF Education First also lost Brit Hugh Carthy in the crash, and the team’s day worsened when Tejay van Garderen crashed with around 25km to race while fighting for the stage six win from the escape group. He finished last in the stage, uncertain about continuing on stage seven.

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Who’s out so far:

Stage six abandonments
Nicholas Roche (Sunweb) – DNF – crash
Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) – DNF – crash
Hugh Carthy (EF Education First) – DNF – crash
Victor de la Parte (CCC Team) – DNF – crash

Stage five abandonments
Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) – DNF – injury/exhaustion

Stage four abandonments
Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo-Visma) – DNF – injury

Stage three abandonments
Mickaël Delage (Groupama – FDJ) – DNF – illness

Debs · August 30, 2019, 12:53pm

Friday August 30th / Stage 7: Onda to Mas de la Costa (183.2km)

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GC rider Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe), has abandoned today, after non-starting Stage 7 : (

There are 168 riders in the peloton after the Italian national champion Davide Formolo’s abandon. “Davide was able to finish yesterday’s stage after the crash, but was suffering from pain in the right side of his pelvis & this did not improve overnight”, his team said on Twitter.
Four riders left La Vuelta 19 yesterday due to an unfortunate crash on the kilometre 105 of stage. Overnight, the teams have reported the injuries caused by said accident on press releases we hereafter quote. Both Hugh Carthy and Rigoberto Uran, riders for EF Education First, “have suffered broken left clavicles.” Victor de la Parte (CCC Team) suffers “a fractured scapula and rib on his left side.” Nicholas Roche (Team Sunweb) was luckier as he received “a dozen stitches to his forearm” but “despite a lot of road rash, was cleared of any major injury.”

seakayaker · August 30, 2019, 1:19pm

Thanks Debs for the daily updates. Spotty coverage here and have only seen portions of the 1st, 2nd and 6th stage. The ‘Tour de France’ certainly provides a lot more camera coverage of the race. No camera coverage of the massive crash yesterday but did enjoy the last hour of yesterday’s race.

Looking forward to see what is offered up from today’s race which I get to view hours later after it is completed.

Debs · August 30, 2019, 2:04pm

Perhaps it’s just as well

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But nice to know my efforts are appreciated : )
I only see the one hour of highlights after the finish each day, and i missed 2 of them earlier this week.

But we can follow up to the minute progress on the La Vuelta news site:

Go to site and click on the [ LIVE ] in red box top of screen, or where it says [ Race Centre ]
The site also has the full rankings and classification of all stages and GC.

But LIVE only shows basically how the race is progressing, which is okay but does frustrate sometimes with time lapse info, and no where near as good as live telly coverage.

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Latest News from today’s Stage 7:

Tejay Van Garderen (EF Education First) abandons after 50 kilometres, and is the 9th rider to leave La Vuelta 19. He is still suffering after his nasty crash yesterday.
That puts team EF Education First down to 5 men.

Debs · August 31, 2019, 12:31am

The pundits are suggesting that the big four who finished ahead today are the strongest, and one of those will emerge as overall winner of la Vuelta 19.
They could be correct, however unpredictable things do happen in grand tours, and it maybe premature at stage 7 to make such prediction.

It would seem that Dylan Teuns who took the red jersey yesterday, and David de la Cruz who became 2nd in GC, were both very tired today from yesterdays breakaway blast. Teuns had the red jersey for just one day, finished today’s stage 9:46 down and plummets likewise to 18th GC position, while de la Cruz lost over 15 minutes today and drops from 2nd GC to 31st.

For the 3rd time in a week Miguel Ángel López is handed the red jersey. Roglič just 6 seconds behind.

A fine stage 7 win for 39 year old Valverde

Results of stage seven: Onda to Mas de la Costa (183.2km)

Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, in 4-32-11
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at same time
Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, at six seconds
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at same time
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 42s
Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 48s
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 51s
Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at same time
George Bennett (Nzl) Jumbo-Visma, at 1-07
Óscar Rodríguez (Esp) Euskadi Basque Country – Murias, at 1-20

General classification after stage seven

Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana, in 28-19-13
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at six seconds
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 16s
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 27s
Rafał Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 1-58
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 2-36
Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 2-52
George Bennett (Nzl) Jumbo-Visma, at 3-34
Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Sunweb, at 3-36
Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at same time

Debs · August 31, 2019, 1:54pm

Saturday 31st August / Stage 8: Valls to Igualada (166.9km)

stage 8 is an unpredictable test that could suit the breakaway. The lumpy terrain over 166.9km featured a second category climb in the final, followed by a descent and a flat finish.

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Spoiler Alert!

A 21 man breakaway leads the peloton by over 5 minutes [ at this moment of writing with 60 km to go ] they rapidly head down the gradual descent to start the climb up to the Puerto de Monserrat, a 2nd Category climb over 7 km long at an average of 7%

It’s also raining, the highest GC rider in the 21 man break is Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) at 6:24, it looks possible a couple in the break could threaten those in the top ten GC but only if the pace and break gap picks up or remains the same.

Many top ten CG riders will be focused on saving their energy for tomorrows extremely tough mountain stage!