[Closed] La Vuelta stage 13 - Bilbao / Urdax-Dantxarinea

A pretty busy stage yesterday with a break never really being allowed much room. With a couple of Sky chaps in the break Movistar got to work on the front. Early race leader Atapuma crashed out of the break but still in the race. There were a few moves on the final climb, even Contador had a go, but it was Dries Devenyns who had a few seconds over the top but was unable to maintain it on the flat roads into Bilbao. A reduced sprint taken by OBE's Jens Keukeleire.

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No changes on GC. In fact Quintana still holds red, combined and spotty jerseys. Valverde has the green and Movistar has the lead in the team competition. Quite the lock out!

The longest stage of the race today, and a hard lumpy one at that...

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Here's [url= http://inrng.com/2016/09/vuelta-stage-13-preview-dantxarinea/ ]inrng's[/url] summary...

The Route: a full day’s racing in the Basque country, a region that includes part of France by some definitions of course. At 213km this is the longest stage in the race and hilly too with 3,720m of vertical gain as they head into the Pyrenees. There are four third category climbs and all between 5-7km at no more than 6.5%.

The Finish: there’s a finishing circuit that’s half in France and half in Spain. Original? Actually it’s a copy of the 2014 Tour of the Basque Country stage won by Tony Martin from a breakaway. The cross back into Spain and arrive in Dantxarinea, a cross-border shopping destination and the finish town but don’t cross the line, instead there’s loop taking them back into France.

It’s mostly on wider roads but there are some smaller sections and it rises and falls and the road rises at over 6% for 1.5km as they cross the border back into France with 8km to go, an unmarked but significant climb before a gradual descent into the village of Dantxarinea again. After the turning for the finish with 500m to go the road rises at 1.5-2% for 400m.

The Contenders: a good day for the breakaway. When Tony Martin won here in April 2014 he did it with help from then team mate Jan Bakelants (Ag2r La Mondiale) and the Belgian is in good form and ideal for a stage like this.

Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) is another pick and if he’s better known for asphyxiating his rivals in sharp uphill finishes he still packs a good sprint from a small group. Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) can sprint even faster but tends to place more than win – third yesterday – even if he’s won a stage of the Tour of the Basque Country too. Otherwise it’s hard to keep the preview concise given the course is open to many and a section of the peloton will fancy their chances in a breakaway in the mountains so perhaps the likes of Thomas De Gendt, Tejay van Garderen and Pierre Rolland are going to sit today out? Gianni Meersman is a safe pick in case of a big sprint while Adam Hansen says he’s waiting for the second half to pick of a stage so he could be in the action too.

Reduced bunch sprint or a break probably today. I can't see many teams being happy to put the work in to keep a break in check. Suspect the GC riders will try and take it as easy as possible today. It's the queen stage tomorrow, 3 cat 1 climbs then a big finish up the top of the HC Aubisque.

Finally with all the talk of bike computers and power meters, some amusing speculation over at [url= http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/08/news/vn-show-whats-wrong-with-quintanas-bike-computer_419515 ]velonews[/url] as to what Quintana was doing fiddling with his bike computer on the Covadonga climb. "Hey Alberto, I'm like 10 seconds down on this KOM, got to go..." 🙂