Good to see 40 year old Valverde on the attack today, for quite a while he was the virtual red jersey GC leader, however back in the peloton the might of Ineos Grenadiers set the pace and brought the breakaway gap down to less than a minute at the finish, Carapaz must of had a sweat on
Super stage win of Michael Woods, bet his legs will be tired tomorrow!
A couple of changes to the top ten GC, Valverde up one position to 9th, and George Bennett up three positions to 10th.
Stage 7 results: Vitoria-Gasteiz to Villanueva de Valdegovía (159.7km)
Michael Woods (Can) EF Pro Cycling, in 3-48-16
Omar Fraile (Esp) Astana Pro Team, at 4 seconds
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team, at same time. + combatively award
Nans Peters (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, at 8s
Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis, at same time
Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates, at 13s
Alex Aranburu (Esp) Astana Pro Team
Ide Schelling (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe
Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo
Davide Formolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time.
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General classification after stage seven
Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, in 28-23-51
In addition to Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma), Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) and Michal Golas (Ineos Grenadiers) are out of La Vuelta 2020.
Very disappointed to hear Kenny Elissonde a non-starter of today’s stage, don’t know why yet (?) He’s an excellent Trek-Segafredo team specialist climber and has been doing well in GC 17th position at 3-48, and only yesterday was looking good in the break.
With no other prospect in the Trek team to threaten the GC they will probably resume buccaneering for stage wins.
Perhaps after he saw the condemning footage from the overhead helicopter
Sam Bennett was the first to cross the line, but was disqualified for barging Emīls Liepiņš (Trek-Segafredo), with Pascal Ackermann taking the stage victory instead.
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Yesterdays flat stage didn’t cause any changes to the top GC, or jersey wearers.
Today’s stage 10 is a very hilly 185km, so could be some interesting breakaway action, however the top GC contenders will probably want to keep their powder dry for the two very tough mountain stages coming over the weekend.
Stage 10 results: Castro Urdiales to Suances (185km)
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, in 4-14-11
Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
Andrea Bagioli (Ita) Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Alex Aranburu (Esp) Astana
Robert Stannard (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
Julien Simon (Fra) Total Direct Energie
Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation
Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis, all at same time
Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates, at 3 seconds
Magnus Cort (Den) EF Pro Cycling, at same time
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General classification after stage 10
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, in 40-25-15
Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos, at same time
Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 25 seconds
Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycing, at 51s
Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, at 1-54
Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 3-19
Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 3-28
Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 3-35
Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-McLaren, at 3-47
Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 3-52
Points classification after stage nine
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, 129 points
Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, 83 points
Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, 73 points
Mountains classification after stage nine
Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis, 27 points
Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma, 24 points
Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, 24 points
Youth classification after stage nine
Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, in 40-27-09
David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 4-21
Gino Mäder (Sui) NTT Pro Cycling, at 4-58
Team classification after stage nine
Movistar, in 121-25-21
Jumbo-Visma, at 5-57
Astana, at 12-43
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Primož Roglič is back in the red jersey, and amazingly Roglič and Carapaz are leading the GC at the same time… similar to what happened in the Giro between Tao and Jai, but now we have Prim and Rich
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Stage 11, Saturday 31st October: Villaviciosa to Alto de la Farrapona (170km)
Today’s stage is a Halloween horror, five mountain climbs that get progressively harder over 170km. The 16km summit finish climb is sure to bring a top GC reshuffle.
Definitely one to watch on the highlights tonight!
Wow, this stage was definitely designed by a devil!
@Debs With your accurate prediction of the Giro under your belt, do you think Roglič (or Carapaz) can actually win this race, or who else is would you name for the final three?
Geoff, it’s looking very much like it obviously is;
a two horse race between Roglič and Carapaz
Roglič is odds on favourite to win obviously. It will be interesting to see how things develop over this mountainous weekend. Carapaz has the help from his strong Ineos team and will need it.
The time trial on Tuesday may be Carapaz’s undoing, this could be another stage win and time grab for Roglič.
But a long way to go yet, anything can happen, and it usually does
Marc Soler had a fantastic breakaway ride yesterday, his 2nd stage place resulting in a rise up the top ten GC from 10th to 6th place, and at 50 seconds behind his team mate Enric Mas.
However Soler was unlucky to be with someone as strong as David Gaudu who easily took the stage win. Soler was also unlucky to only gain one minute plus so many seconds over his rivals, after having put in such an effort. But good to see a team like Movistar making an attacking move against the power teams of Jumbo and Ineos
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Stage 12 maybe a defining day for the GC.
They have the summit finish on the Alto de l’Angliru to contend with!
Stage 12, Sunday 1st November: La Pola Llaviana to Alto de l’Angliru (109.4km)
Debs, I’m not sure that Movistar can substantially be differentiated from the ‘power teams’ of Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. They are currently funded by what I believe is the largest mobile phone company in Spain and have historically been funded by various banks. It has been the foremost Spanish cycling team for many years (albeit under different names - I remember Indurain’s dominance when it was called Banesto). Moreover, according to the Wikipedia entry their doping history is not one to be proud of!
Looks very much like Marc Soler hadn’t recovered from yesterday, after finishing today’s stage over 14 minutes down, he plummets back down on GC from 6th to 13th.
One minute gained yesterday, 14 minutes lost today, must be hurting him not to have won the stage yesterday.
Roglič and Carapaz 
