Vuelta a Espaรฑa
This year, the Vuelta starts on Saturday from Italy, where the first 4 stages will be held, the 4^th^ finishing in France. Curiously, there is no rest day between this Italian sequence and the following stages in Spain. In spite of the presence of a high-speed train connection between the 4^th^ stage finish and the 5^th^ stage location, the transfer will be by plane.
There will be 1 time bonus sprint per stage. Depending on the stage, it will either be at one Intermediate Sprint or at the top of a categorised mountain climb.
For points classification: there will be 1 Intermediate Sprint per stage, rewarded by 20 points (only the first 5 riders score points). Concerning stages victories, only the very first and last stages bring 50 points; the rest (half-half) brings either 20 or 30 points; points are always awarded to the first 15 riders.
Mountain classification (white jersey with blue dots):
- 4^th^ cat. : 2 points (2 riders)
- 3^rd^ cat. : 3 points (3 riders)
- 2^nd^ cat. : 5 points (3 riders)
- 1^st^ cat. : 10 points (5 riders)
- HC : 15 points (6 riders)
- Angliru : 20 points (6 riders)
The 5 Pro-Teams engaged are: Q36.5, Lotto, IPT, and the 2 Spanish teams Burgos and Caja Rural. Kern Pharma who won 3 stages (!) last year was not invited.
Vingegaard (๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma), who has yet to win something this year, is probably the favourite for GC, with Almeida (๐ต๐น UAE) as a contender. Carapaz cancelled his participation again, after cancelling his participation on the Tour of France... Outsiders could be Tiberi (๐ฎ๐น Bahrein), Gall (๐จ๐ญ Decathlon), Ciccone (๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek), O'Connor (๐ฆ๐บ Jayco), perhaps Gaudu (๐ซ๐ท FDJ) if he suddenly returns to being a pro rider.
Pedersen (๐ฉ๐ฐ Lidl-trek) will go for the green jersey and stage wins. I fail to see any contender or even outsider, as there are almost no top sprinter (but Philipsen (๐ง๐ช Alpecin)) or 4x4 riders (but Pidcock (๐ฌ๐ง Q36.5) ?) on the startlist.
A snore fest.
There was nothing on the course of the stage for the breakaway. One or two climbs could have easily deserved a 4^th^ category ranking, but no: nought.
All teams considered this stage as a sprint stage. Uphill sprint, but sprint. It went exactly the same, with all teams starting to make parallel trains (which is always 100% useless) something like 30 km before the finish, and pulling like maniacs until they cause the first mass crash.
Luckily for FDJ, Guillaume Martin๐ซ๐ท had already crashed and abandoned in the only short descent of the course, which allows the team to be first at something.
Roglitch*'s spirit was over the race: there was zero attack until 500 m from the line.
Gaudu (๐ซ๐ท FDJ), much better than expected, finishes 3^rd^. Other than that, the two favourites of the day, Vingegaard (๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma) and Ciccone (๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek) finished on the same line, the former winning.
What else did I note?
Pedersen๐ฉ๐ฐ was trying to lead his team for Ciccone๐ฎ๐น halfway in the climb, but was struggling hard and wasn't very useful. He was replaced by JF. Bernard๐ซ๐ท, whom he had replaced previously, I think.
The whole Q36.5 pulled all day until they disappeared in the crash. Pidcock๐ฌ๐ง finished 10^th^; I am sure but it is likely he went down in the crash.
Zingle (๐ซ๐ท Visma) and I think Van Dijke (๐ณ๐ฑ Bora) were the riders who had the most difficulties to restart after the crash. Zingle needed medical assistance, perhaps to put back in place a dislocated shoulder. edit LOL: I hear that his bike got stolen during the operation ๐ฆนโโ๏ธ
So, it looks like it wasn't stolen, but had been put into the sweeper car.
However it may have been among the 18 Visma bikes that were stolen during the following night ๐