Just an observation but where are all the pure sprinters?
Looking at the Green Jersey results with so many climbers doing well in this Points Classification, it’s probably an oddity that will resolve itself as the tour continues, but heck a real shame Cav isn’t here to fill his boots
Points Classification After Stage 9
Kaden Groves - Sprinter (the real deal)
Andrea Vendrame - Climber
Marc Soler - Climber / GC
Remco Evenepoel - Climber / GC
Andreas Kron - Climber
Geoffrey Soupe - Sprinter (lead out man)
Marijn Van Den Berg - Sprinter (with some climbing ability)
Edward Theuns - Sprinter (with some climbing ability)
Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier - Climber(with some sprint ability)
Juan Sebastián Molano - Sprinter
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Kaden Grove’s main sparing partner, Bryan Coquard was DNF stage 5 (due to crash injury) so maybe Kaden has an unrivalled ride all the way to Madrid in Green (?)
But still some way to go, anything can happen.
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The list of genuine sprinters lurking in the peloton:
Kaden Groves - Alpecin-Deceuninck Juan Sebastián Molano - UAE Team Emirates Milan Menten - Lotto Dstny Marijn Van Den Berg - EF Education-EasyPost Edward Theuns - Lidl - Trek Alberto Dainese - Team dsm - firmenich Hugo Hofstetter - Team Arkéa Samsic Iván Garcia Cortina - Movistar Team Hugo Page - Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
Very powerful performance from Filippo Ganna to secure the stage victory.
Remco makes more time gains in the GC and moves up from 4th to 3rd position, but a bigger CG gain from João Almeida rising up from 10th to 6th.
Mikel Landa had the worse GC loss of his 5th place to drop out of the top ten to 11th position, and Lenny Martinez drops a couple of positions to 5th and to lose the White Jersey lead to Remco Evenepoel …however it will be interesting to see tomorrow if Remco chooses to wear his Belgium National Jersey instead and lend the White Jersey to Lenny…
The profile of today’s course is flat but with a final 6.5km climb to summit finish, and with an intermediate sprint & bonus seconds just before the climb begins.
This could tempt sprinters and GC guys to compete before the climb, and the ascent could be congested with a large peloton. Plus it’s doubtful a breakaway will be allowed to get away, so will be very interesting to see how this stage goes.
Eduardo Sepúlveda will need to breakaway to defend the Polka Dot jersey, he leads the classification by just 1 point more than Remco who is looking for a stage win today.
The Sprinters are flexing their muscles in preparation for today’s anticipated sprint finish, but will someone step up to contest the dominance of Kaden Groves?
A very hard two days in the tour begins:
A short but very difficult stage today, and another very difficult stage tomorrow.
This is probably going to cause a lot of position changes and some jersey swopping.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) spoke about his new ambitions at the start: “Yesterday, it wasn’t [the best job in the world] but I think today is a new day, with new opportunities, a new style of racing for me. Let’s hope it can be a perfect day and a perfect job today. Yesterday was a really bad day. For me, it has been a very long season already with a lot of big goals that I achieved. The road to the Vuelta was pretty strange with the world championships before. The TT of the worlds was a big goal so I think it hasn’t been the best preparation and I paid it yesterday.”
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Sepp Kuss Jumbo-Visma Kaden Groves Alpecin-Deceuninck Jonas Vingegaard Jumbo-Visma Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates
With a rest-day tomorrow, today is another favourable day for a winning escape. The route includes a very long 3rd category climb followed by a double ascent of Zuarrarrate. The final climb takes place just 8 kilometres from the finish-line, meaning it could well determine who wins the stage.
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Sepp Kuss Jumbo-Visma Kaden Groves Alpecin-Deceuninck Remco Evenepoel Soudal - Quick Step Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates
Points Classification After Stage 9
INEOS Grenadiers - 25.8km in 27m 39s
General Classification After Stage 10
Jumbo-Visma 35:52:38
Alpecin-Deceuninck …158
KOM after Stage 10
Lotto Dstny 21
Youth Classification After Stage 10
Soudal-Quick Step 35:53:47
Team Classification after Stage 10
Cofidis
UAE Team Emirates …3:23:35
Jumbo-Visma 3:51:10
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty 3:30:56
Team Arkéa Samsic