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A Tour of Spain 2020 very different begins this Tuesday in the middle of a deep concern by the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in Spain and throughout Europe. A shortened 18 day format and maybe a only family element, a tour that will likely see a pure climber at the top of the final podium in Madrid.
From the Slovenian National Championship in mid-June, the first cycling event held in Europe after strict quarantines, the draconians sanitary measures they have been an inevitable part of all races.
Taken to happy ending of the Tour de France, seemed to give a glimmer of hope for world cycling, but the second wave of infections of COVID-19 throughout Europe, along with theHeld at the end of the first week of the Giro d’Italia, they sowed a great mystery about the 75th edition of the Iberian round.
Several cities and parts of the country on the route of The Tour 2020 are applying some form of quarantine, including the Navarra region, which has the higher levels of contagion of all the communities of Spain, along with start and finish cities such as Salamanca and Ourense. The greatest concern is in the last stage of the race in Madrid, although the cases seem to be declining in the Spanish capital in recent days.
However, a campaign was launched a little over a week ago, asking the public across the country stay away from the race and enjoy it for television, radio and social networks. As happened in the Giro and the Tour, the team area will be closed to the public.
There has also been a 26 page protocol document, based on a series of measures approved by the UCI, the Spanish health authorities and the Spanish Cycling Federation, who seek further extreme the measures applied in the Tour. It remains to be seen if all this will be enough to ensure a race without incident, but the only realistic evaluation of its effectiveness will be once La Vuelta lowers the flag this Tuesday in Irún.
The favorites
When he stepped off the podium in 2017 it is possible that not even the four-time Tour de France champion, Chris Froome, thought your last race with Team Sky, today INEOS-Grenadier TeamYes, it would be a Tour of Spain.
The cool Kenyan runner did run rivers of ink in June when it was announced that I would not be part of the team for the Tour de France and that your bet and final competition with the team of Dave brailsford it would be the Tour of Spain 2020. With the reinforcement of the still current Giro d’Italia champion, Richard Carapaz, Froome will look for his third red after the spectacular title of 2017 and the disqualification for doping of Juanjo Cobo in 2011.
The second or first line of bets, depending on the point of view, is made up of the defending champion, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), ousted in the last breath of the throne of the Tour de France by his young compatriot, Tadej Pogacar.
Both the ex-ski jumper and the Jumbo-Visma’s second “killer bee”, Tom dumoulin, they will expose their grand tour champion credentials, but achieving victory in Spain will be crucial to ensure Roglic starts the 2021 season on the right foot. The power of his team with Sepp Kuss, Robert Gesink and George Bennett, tremendously effective on the Tour, they will likely make the Dutch grassroots squad the team to beat at the Vuelta.
The local team Movistar team comes with the urgency of a result that saves a very gray season with a single victory for the month of January in the Challenge Mallorca when the pandemic was just a rumor. The fifth place of Enric Mas in the Tour it knows very little for a formation used to winning for four decades.
To defend the house, Movistar will use its three best swords: the veteran Alejandro Valverde, winner of the Vuelta in 2009, runner-up in 2018 Enric Mas and the champion of Paris-Nice 2018, Marc Soler, albeit with gallons, the team Eusebio Unzué brings up the same unknowns that he has not been able to answer throughout the season.
To the list of favorites must be added to Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) more colombians Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), third on the podium in Madrid in 2016 and Daniel Felipe Martínez (EF ProCycling) stage winner in the Tour de France.
Then there is the question of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) And if, as in 2013, he will use La Vuelta to resuscitate your three-week runner status after two tours plagued by injuries, or if he will focus his actions on look for victories stage in the Pyrenean peaks.
Although there are relatively few opportunities to sprint, heavy-gauge finishes will be seen thanks to Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep). The German will be making his debut at La Vuelta after a successful 2019 Giro and two victories in Tyrrhenian-Adriatic, while Bennett knows the Vuelta well after getting two stage wins in 2019.
On paper the Ineos-Grenadiers and the Jumbo-Visma will lead the baton and rhythm of a list of big names on the starting grid, three of whom They are former champions of La Vuelta that with such a hard journey, they will surely put on a show.
Travel
In April, organizers of La Vuelta canceled the planned departure in the Netherlands due to the pandemic and transferred it to Basque Country, starting with a day between Irún and Arrate. The first day of the race will end in one of the tutelary ports of great Basque cycling.
Stages in Portugal were also pulled off the route due to the coronavirus pandemic. La Vuelta 2020 had planned to visit Portuguese territory for the first time since the race started there in 1997, with a stage finish in Porto and a start the next day in the nearby city of Viseu.
Stage 15 will be the longest with 230 kilometers on a winding route from Mos to Puebla de Sanabria with five third category climbs, ideal for stage hunters or some ambush that makes the general rumble.
But it’s the mountain that I eat for 75 years he will not fail La Vuelta that this year will have a total of 47 categorized peaks. The ‘Cima Alberto Fernández’, first-class climbing will be located in one of the legendary ports of the Tour, the Col du Tourmalet, that will serve as a goal already in the sixth stage.
The second week is possibly the hardest, with an ending in the Alto de la Farrapona in stage 11, where Alberto counter sealed victory in The Tour 2014 in front of Chris Froome, while stage 12 of the following day ends in the fearsome Anglirú, stage where the same “Pistolero” won his last career as a professional in 2017.
The third week of the Vuelta begins with the unique individual time trial on a route of 33.7 kilometers from Walls to the Ézaro Viewpoint, a true 1.5K wall with ramps up to 28 percent.
However, the battle for the red jersey will not be decided until the last weekend, where an arrival at the top of La Covatilla it can mean the difference between victory and defeat. The 2020 Vuelta concludes with a flat stage to Madrid whose goddess Cibeles will crown the champion in the Paseo de La Castellana.
Stages
1st: Tuesday, October 20. Irún (13:11) -Arrate (17:18), 169.5 kms
2nd: Wednesday October 21. Pamplona (13:49) -Lekunberri (17:20), 151 kms
3rd: Thursday October 22nd. Lodosa (13:15) -Laguna Negra (17:18), 163.8 kms
4th: Friday October 23rd. Garay-Numancia (13:09) / Ejea de los Caballeros (17:19), 190 kms
5th: Saturday October 24th. Huesca (12:54) -Sabiñánigo (17:17), 185.5 kms
6th: Sunday October 25th. Biescas (13:09) -Tourmalet (France) (16:56), 135.6 kms
Monday October 26. Rest (Vitoria)
7th: Tuesday, October 27. Vitoria (13:22) -Villanueva de Valdegovia (17:04), 160.4 kms
8th: Wednesday, October 28. Logroño (13:03) -Moncalvillo (17:03), 164.5 kms
9th: Thursday, October 29. Castrillo del Val (13:25) -Aguilar de Campoo (17:05), 163.6 kms
10th: Friday October 30th. Castro Urdiales (12:45) -Suances (17:03), 187.4 kms
11th: Saturday October 31st. Villaviciosa (12:24) -La Farrapona (16:59), 170.2 kms
12th: Sunday, November 1. Pola Laviana (14:08) -Angliru (17:05), 109.2 kms
Monday 2 November. Rest (A Coruña)
13th: Tuesday, November 3. Muros-Ézaro, 33.5 kms, CRI
14th: Wednesday, November 4. Lugo (12:00) -Ourense (16:59), 205.8 kms
15th: Thursday 5 November. Mos (10:51) -Puebla de Sanabria (16:55), 234.6 kms
16th: Friday 6th November. Salamanca (13:00) -Ciudad Rodrigo (17:03), 162 kms
17th: Saturday, November 7. Sequeros (12:10) -La Covatilla (16:58), 175.8 kms
18th: Sunday, November 8. Hipódromo de la Zarzuela (13:59) -Madrid (17:05), 125.4 kms
