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.
Yeah Gaudu was hanging behind the peloton for many miles, and then in the climb he said he didn't feel right until the last 2 km started. It may correspond to the speed reducing because of the gradient getting harder, because the whole false flat / moderate climb part must have been ridden at high speed. Like a Cipressa / Poggio climb, now that I think of it. And while single climbs with a sprint finish have rather been sort of a good spot for Gaudu, Milan-Sanremo probably isn't (he's never even ridden it).
Among the favourites we listed, I reckon only Tiberi is 20 seconds behind. I mean, many others got counted a 2 seconds gap, but well, that's not very important.