And so it begins. After levels to Pico Villuercas and thru the sierras of Cadiz and Jaén to whet the urge for food, stage 9 of the Vuelta a España will see Ben O’Connor defending his pink chief’s jersey towards a bunch of potential contenders in a fearsomely troublesome mountain stage in Sierra Nevada.
The challenges on Sunday is not going to simply be the rivals or the three main climbs tackled en path to a downhill end in Granada; the Vuelta may also face one more day of intense warmth, with temperatures hovering to the mid 30s or maybe greater.
“It’s the primary actual crunch second within the Vuelta,” O’Connor’s Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale sports activities director Cyril Dessel informed Cyclingnews earlier this weekend. “The first huge second of the primary week and the primary out-and-out excessive mountain stage of the race.
“What’s additionally true is that earlier than the Vuelta Ben had marked down this stage with an X as one of many ones he thought he might do nicely in, as a result of he is aware of the roads very well. Sierra Nevada is the place a variety of riders, not simply Ben, have educated at altitude.
“So we’re in a state of affairs which we didn’t essentially think about beforehand, having the chief’s jersey. But we’ll do our utmost to defend it.”
Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale do have ‘earlier’ defending a Grand Tour chief’s jersey, however it dates from nicely earlier than any of their present riders turned professional. In 2009 Rinaldo Nocentini was Tour de France race chief for eight days, from Andorra to Verbier, when eventual winner Alberto Contador took excessive spot on GC.
Dessel, because it occurs, was one of many Italian’s teammates on the Tour that yr, as was his co-sports director on the Vuelta, Stéphane Goubert, and Dessel himself was briefly the yellow jersey again in 2006. So their first-hand expertise of defending an sudden race lead could be useful once more. But the longstanding French group have by no means had a race lead in both the Giro or Vuelta and simply as for O’Connor, Sunday represents one thing of a voyage at nighttime.
Saturday’s setback for O’Connor at Cazorla, shedding the bones of a minute of his result in Roglič, solely raised the stakes greater, in fact. But as O’Connor identified after Saturday’s stage, “Tomorrow [stage 9] may be very completely different. I don’t thoughts these climbs in Sierra Nevada. Hopefully I’ve an excellent day and hold this pink jersey.”
Steep climbs, tough descents, and Vuelta historical past
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Sunday’s stage is for sure one of many 4 or 5 hardest levels of the whole 2024 Vuelta a España, and positively probably the most difficult to date. It includes a double ascent of the brutally troublesome Alto de Hazallanas climb, in addition to the fearsome Puerto de El Purche to heat issues up. Both climbs are completely different however nearly equally robust method roads to the Sierra Nevada ski station.
El Purche, specifically, is steeped in Vuelta historical past – though by way of Australians and the race, it doesn’t determine that favourably. Known on the time on the Alto de Monachil, it was on El Purche in 2009 the place a gradual impartial service help prompted Cadel Evans, fleetingly the race chief, to lose any probability of taking the general victory.
As for Hazallanas, in its first look in 2013, it mattered enormously, because it was the place US racer Chris Horner blasted away to make a major down cost on profitable the 2013 race general. After not being notably related when the race went as much as Sierra Nevada in 2017 and 2022, this time round, with a double descent and a quick drop right down to Granada, 11 years on there’s each probability it might have an equally essential position to 2013.
The descents off Sierra Nevada could be nearly as related because the climbs, too, with a part of the lengthy drop off Hazallanas again into Granada the identical one utilized in 2006, when Alexander Vinokourov managed to go away behind an under-geared race chief Alejandro Valverde and transfer into the highest spot general. The method to Hazallanas, too, consists of a brief however infamously technical and slim, ‘corkscrew’ descent – which then promptly begins with a ‘wall’ of some 13 or 14%, making certain an much more nervous method.
“We’re going to do every part we will to restrict the gaps. But it’s value remembering that in 2022, after we went up by way of Hazallanas to Sierra Nevada, Ben acquired fifth,” Dessel says.
“So it’s a climb which may be very laborious, and so is the entire final a part of the stage, in actual fact; there are 2,750 metres of vertical climbing in 67 kilometres, and plenty of laborious percentages on these climbs as nicely.
“It’ll be laborious to regulate the race, for positive. But we’ve acquired almost 4 minutes’ benefit proper now and we will play it defensively, even when others will likely be decided to assault us as a lot as they’ll.”
Can O’Connor survive one other Roglič onslaught?
O’Connor may also be capable to depend on a number of knowledgeable climbers to assist him within the excessive mountains, of whom Felix Gall and Valentin Paret-Peintre are in all probability one of the best identified. The Austrian was an Alpine stage winner within the Tour de France in 2023, and Paret-Peintre adopted swimsuit within the southernmost Apennines within the Giro this May.
Gall was already alongside the Australian on the important thing climbs on levels 7 and eight, which bodes nicely for his probabilities of performing as a high mountain escort for O’Connor on Sunday, and is at the moment mendacity tenth general himself.
“Felix is in an excellent place, too,” Dessel stated. “I’m not going to inform you all of the plans now we have for Felix for Sunday, however he’s well-placed and we’ll see how we use him.”
Regardless of Gall’s position, the actual mountains take a look at will likely be for O’Connor and whether or not after Saturday’s defeat – however not at all a rout – he can deal with the raspingly steep ascents of Sierra Nevada.
“You might say these sorts of climbs swimsuit him as a result of he’s a rider who is de facto good at getting over a number of lengthy, laborious mountains in speedy succession,” Dessel stated. “That’s what we’re dealing with on Sunday – three troublesome ascent and I’m positive that’sll swimsuit him higher than a shorter, punchier ascent like we had on stage 4, for instance.
“Also stage 4 was a bit particular, as a result of it was so scorching. There had been a few climbs early on, however they went so slowly by way of that baking warmth that it was principally as if it was a single climb, which is one thing that doesn’t swimsuit him. But Sunday is a lot better.”
Even with that confirmed climbing capability, for O’Connor defending a Grand Tour lead in a excessive mountain stage as robust as Sierra Nevada goes to be one thing of a voyage at nighttime. But for Dessel, one aspect is all however assured to type a part of Sunday’s stage – that Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and the opposite GC rivals will likely be pushing O’Connor as laborious as they attainable can.
“Roglič is a formidable rival,” Dessel stated. “He by no means throws within the towel and he’s going to struggle day by day to go for the Vuelta. So I’ve little question he’ll take each alternative he can to assault.”
Even earlier than Cazorla, as Dessel factors out, “We noticed in Córdoba that he made his group work flat out, even when it wasn’t so laborious and he went for a time bonus. So there’ll be a battle on Sunday [stage 9] and subsequent week nearly day by day there’s a GC alternative, too.
“But one factor is essential to recollect: the Vuelta is a good distance from its end in Madrid, there are going to be a great deal of fights to come back. And it’s not simply Roglič who’s come right here to struggle for the Vuelta victory, both.”
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