Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
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2020 Tour de France | 2019 Giro d'Italia
All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height. - Casey Stengel
Current racing:
- Oct 20 - Nov 8: Vuelta a España
Upcoming racing:
- Jan 21 - 24, 2021:
Schwalbe Classic & Tour Down Under
Latest completed racing:
- October 3 - 25: Giro d'Italia
- Oct 21: Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne
- October 18: Ronde van Vlaanderen
- October 14: Scheldeprijs
- October 11: Gent-Wevelgem
- October 11: Paris-Tours
- October 7: De Brabantse Pijl/ La Flèche Brabanconne
- Sept 27 - Oct 5: Tour of Portugal
- October 4: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- September 29 - Oct 3: BinckBank Tour
- September 30: La Flèche Wallonne
- September 24 - 27: UCI World Road Championships
- September 22: Paris-Camembert
- August 29 - Sept 20: Tour de France
- September 15 - 19: Tour de Luxembourg
Vuelta a España stage 13 reports
We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Stage winner and new GC leader Primoz Roglic's Jumbo-Visma team sent me this:
Primoz Roglic has won the thirteenth stage of the Vuelta a España. The Slovenian was one second faster than Will Barta in the only individual time trial of this year’s edition of the Spanish grand tour and rode to his eleventh season victory. Roglic reclaimed the red leaders jersey at the expense of the Ecuadorian Carapaz.
Primoz Roglic on his way to winning stage 13. Gomez Sport photo
At the first two intermediate points, the leader of Team Jumbo-Visma was still behind Barta, but Roglic turned the tables on Barta on the final climb. In the general classification, the Slovenian starts the next stage with a lead of thirty-nine seconds on number two Carapaz.
"Finally I win another time trial”, Roglic said. “It was a while ago. I felt strong today. I found that surprising, because I thought I would suffer a lot more. Many people thought that I would take much time very easily, but in the end everyone starts such a time trial with equal opportunities. We all know that it is just full house and that is not always fun. Fortunately I had good legs today and I was able to do a nice time trial. We have to stay focused now and keep fighting to the end.”
Sports director Frans Maassen looked back on a successful day for his team. “Primoz wanted to have something left for the final climb at the end of the time trial. On the last climb he just did very well. We hoped we could take time in the GC. We did, but the Vuelta has certainly not yet been decided. We are happy that Primoz is in good shape and he will give everything to bring the red jersey to Madrid. In any case, our leader is surrounded by a strong team. We will see what the next few days are going to bring. We can expect quite a few attacks.”
Here's the report from second-place Will Barta's CCC Team:
The stage 13 race against the clock was an important target for Barta coming into the race and he made his intentions clear immediately after rolling off the ramp in Muros, setting the provisional fastest times at both the first and second intermediate checkpoints on the way to Mirador de Ézaro. Dumbría.
After an efficient bike change at the foot of the short but steep 1.8-kilometer climb up to the finish line, which had an average gradient of 14.8 percent, Barta once again settled into his rhythm quickly and continued to look strong as he powered up the category three ascent before stopping the clock at 46 minutes 40 seconds.
Look at that rear sprocket on Barta's climbing bike! When a top pro needs something like that, it is a real climb. Photos: Gomez Sport
The American’s time, nine seconds ahead of the next-placed rider as he moved into the hot seat, held strong as rider after rider rolled across the line with only Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo-Visma), who also moved back into the red jersey, able to go faster by the slimmest of margins to take the day’s honors at the end of the day.
Will Barta:
“I think if you had asked me yesterday if I would be happy with second place, I would have said that I would have been ecstatic about it but when, in the end, it’s by just one second, it’s obviously a bit disappointing. However, overall, I am happy with my effort and I don’t think that there is anything else that I could really have done.”
“I talked quite a bit with Marco [Pinotti] coming into the time trial about the power and pacing especially at the beginning as it was pretty flat but actually, with the headwind, it was challenging because there was never a point where you could really ease off the pedals. The final climb was just a wall really and so for the last kilometer or so going into that I tried to ease off slightly just to make sure I had something for that because it’s a really hard climb and, in fact, the final kilometer of it was pretty excruciating.“
“This time trial was the biggest goal of my race. I was really looking forward to it. It would have been super to win but, like I said, I’m happy with my performance. The first couple of days after the first rest day I wasn’t feeling super good but thankfully the legs came around and I was able to show my strength today. It’s a nice last week and we are still motivated to race for some good results. I think there is a lot of room for the breakaways so hopefully we can find ourselves in there.”
Here's the report from GC second-place Richard Carapaz's INEOS Grenadiers:
Richard Carapaz put in a fantastic, battling time trial performance as he finished seventh on stage 13, 49 seconds behind stage winner Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).
The result means Roglic takes the overall race lead, but Carapaz remains just 39 seconds behind the Slovenian with five stages remaining.
Throughout the 33.7km test, Carapaz was in contention with Roglic and Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) who currently occupy the other podium spots.
A handful of seconds down at the first intermediate split, Carapaz then trailed Roglic by 19 seconds at the second check point, with Carthy making up 18 seconds on the Ecuadorian.
The finale of the time trial was a short, sharp climb to Mirador de Ézaro which saw Carapaz drop back on the stage, finishing seventh, with Roglic taking the stage win by one second and regaining the race lead.
Richard Carapaz on the stage's climb. INEOS photo
Richard Carapaz:
"It was a really hard time trial, but I’m very happy with the result, we have come to win the Vuelta and it is still the goal.
"I think that La Vuelta is still open, there are a lot of possibilities, there are going to be a lot of very hard days, where everything can change.
"This morning we prepared ourselves to fight for the Vuelta today, now we will continue fighting."
And here's the report from Bora-hansgrohe:
After the second rest day, the riders faced the race against the clock, a 33 km course from Muros to the Mirador de Ezaro. The first 31 km of the only ITT of this year's Vuelta ran flat along the Atlantic coast before a strenuous climbing section featuring a 14.6 percent steep final climb to the Mirador de Ézaro. For the ascent, riders were able to switch from their time trial bike to a racing bike. Around midday, the first rider opened the individual time trial and set the target time of 14:54 minutes at the finish.
Rudi Selig was the first BORA - hansgrohe rider to roll off the start ramp, while teammate Felix Großschartner, currently seventh in the overall standings, was the last rider from the squad from Raubling to take on the stage. At the first intermediate time check, the Austrian climber sat in 14th place, subsequently lost some time by the second point, and in the end finished 19th with a time of 48:33 minutes.
Ultimately, Primoz Roglič crossed the finish line with the winning time of 46:39 minutes. After his solid time trial, Felix was able to defend his 7th place in the general classification, but lost 1:44 minutes to the current leader.
"I expected a bit more in the time trial, because I'm usually quite good at it. The numbers were strong but the others were simply better today. In retrospect, I’m satisfied that I was able to extend my time over my immediate competitors. The race was quite good overall and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Over the coming days, I’ll have to concentrate fully and avoid making any mistakes.” - Felix Großschartner
"Today, the goal was to stabilise Felix's position, while all the others were to save energy for the next few stages. Felix put in a good time trial performance and we’re now hoping to finish the Vuelta strongly.“ - André Schulze, Sports Director
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