The 3rd and final Grand Tour of the year is just around the corner, the Vuelta a España,
and where better to do our preview show than this authentic tapas bar in the heart of Bristol,
called Bravas. This will be the 69th edition of the race and it will start on Saturday
23 August in Jerez de la Frontera, home of sherry - any excuse - and it will finish 3
weeks later in Santiago de Compostela.
The 2014 route is 3181.5km long. But, despite 8 mountain finishes, it is actually considered
easier than previous years. There are still a further 5 hilly or mountainous stages, 2
individual time trials and 1 team time trial, which leaves just 5 stages for the sprinters
to contest.
The race does actually finish with an individual time trial, albeit a short one, which means
all of the riders will have to race right through to the last day and they won't unfortunately
have their traditional procession.
Any excuse.
In the Vuelta's early days, it used to take place in the spring before any of the other
Grand Tours. However, since it's been moved to the late summer or even early autumn it's
typically played 2nd or even 3rd fiddle to the other 2 Grand Tours - the Tour de France
and the Giro D'Italia. However, speculation is rife this year that it could be the best
Grand Tour of them all, and there's good reason for that.
Absolutely. This is possibly going to be the most hotly contested race of the year. That's
partly due to the misfortune of certain riders in the Tour de France, for example Chris Froome
and Andrew Talansky, both riders crashed out of the Tour. They are potentially going to
be lining up at this race, along with Alberto Contador - potentially.
Maybe. And of course we've also got the entire Giro D'Italia podium from this year, which
is Nairo Quintana, his compatriot Rigoberto Uran and of course the young Italian Fabio
Aru from the Astana team.
The 2 big Spanish favourites, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde will also be there,
despite having finished the Tour de France just a few weeks ago, alongside the 3rd place
finisher from the Tour de France, which is Thibaut Pinot of FDJ.fr.
We've also got Dan Martin, Wilco Kelderman and Cadel Evans, who will be lining up no
doubt with lofty ambitions, and just maybe even Carlos Betancur, if his team can find
him somewhere in Colombia.
With a mullet like that though, surely they can track him down pretty easily.
Well they've got Google Earth in France, haven't they, they must be able to use that?
Yeah. And despite all that GC chat, we still haven't got to last year's winner Chris Horner
or Lampre-Merida. He's showing pretty much exactly the same form he had last year, going
on his performance at the Tour of Utah where he finished 2nd just the other day.
Dan - given that lineup, who do you think is going to be coming out on top?
Well everyone always says it's the riders that make the race, and when you read out
that list of riders there are a phenomenal number of top-level performing GC riders - I
think it will be a cracking race if we get them there on form. Chris Froome - you'd hope
that he'd be motivated for it, and we saw the big battle between he and Nairo Quintana
last year on the climbs of the Tour de France. Nairo of course is still young, so he's one
year older now than last year. He proved himself at the Giro D'Italia, I think we could have
a big fight between those two. There have even been rumours - I'm not entirely sure
as we shoot this whether Contador will be on the start line, but there were rumours
that he was training much longer before his team actually said he was after his injury at Le Tour.
It has to be said though that crashing out of the Tour de France is by no means going
to get you to the Vuelta in good form, not to mention the psychological comedown of not
making your big objective of the year, so there's no certainty that Chris Froome is
going to be pinging. But if he is, potentially, who's going to win a straight fight: him or Quintana?
Well that's the big question, and I guess we'll have to wait until the race to actually
find out. But it's not just the GC riders who are going to be the big names in the race.
We've also got Mark Cavendish potentially. If he goes well at the upcoming Tour d L'Ain,
his team have said they will put him in. So he will be the big name sprinter, and he's
of course another rider who's looking to make up for a disastrous Tour de France where he
crashed out on Stage 1.
Peter Sagan is also down for this one. Hopefully he's going to actually win something...that's
possibly a bit harsh.
Possibly people said that about us.
Yes, that's true. And I said it about Nibali as well. Anyway, there we go.
Yeah, and look how he answered you!
Go on Peter, win something!
So we've mentioned the possible inclusion from Omega Pharma-Quickstep of Mark Cavendish,
but Si, who will be his main competitors when it comes to the flat stages if he's there?
Well it's pretty tasty as well actually. Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ.fr will be there, and I'm
really pleased to see him there. He won several stages at the Giro this year, but he is leaving
FDJ.fr at the end of the year for Cofidis. Often when a rider does that, the team pretty
much flick them at the end of the season to give the UCI points and the opportunity to
another rider who's staying with the team. So props to FDJ.fr for putting him in the
Vuelta. John Degenkolb from Giant-Shimano will also be there. Tom Boonen, Cav's team-mate,
so he's not going to be competing against him, but another tasty sprinter if the opportunity arises.
Thanks very much.
So those are the big name riders. Dan, what are they going to be facing?
Well I think we've already mentioned the race is going to be book-ended with time trials.
It opens with a 12.6km team time trial, and finishes with a 9.7km individual time trial at the end.
Sandwiched between though is a much longer 35km individual time trial. We've also got
5 flat days, we've got 13 mountainous days, 8 mountaintop finishes and incredibly, 40
classified climbs throughout the race.
As we mentioned as the top of the show, the race starts in Jerez de la Frontera, which
is right down in the Southernmost tip of Spain. It's in the Andalusian region and at that
time of year, it can be pretty inhospitable, with temperatures in the high 30s. That's
centigrade - for all you Americans out there, they're not actually going to be contesting with snow.
It's mainly going to be the sprinters fighting it out down there. They'll be contesting stages
2, 4, 5 and 7.
The first hilltop finish comes early on stage 5. It might only be 5km long, but it should
give us a good idea of who's going well for the GC. It certainly did last year, and either
way it's going to show us who doesn't have the legs for the GC this year.
From Andalusia, the race starts to move North-East up through the country for stages 8 and 9. Both
of them are relatively nondescript, and there are some pretty hefty transfers in there as
well. When it gets up to stage 10, we should probably get some new drinks actually Dan,
because it goes to the Rioja region which is famous for excellent wines. Shall we get some more?
Uh...yeah, go on then!
Can we cut that?
We think that one of the crucial points of this year's race for the GC could be a trio
of stages - 14, 15 and 16 - all of them finish at the top of mountains and one of those is
the Lagos de Covadonga, which is 16km long at an average gradient of 7.4%.
From there, the race then moves over to Galicia, which is why Dan's now moved on to beer.
Any excuse!
Stage 20 presents possibly the last opportunity to win the race. This is the final summit
finish, and although stage 21 is that individual time trial, at only 9.4km long, unless the
race is super tight at that point, it's unlikely that the race is going to be won or lost there.
Interestingly, the Vuelta has re-introduced time bonuses this year, which could play into
the hands of the punchy climbers. But quite a few spring to mind immediately when we talk
about the people that we've already mentioned - Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez
and Alejandro Valverde are all known for their punchiness at the top of climbs.
We've talked about the GC riders to watch, but there's also going to be a whole host
of other riders that are potentially going to be winning stages. Jens Debusschere for
one, the Lotto-Belisol sprinter who's also Belgian champion. In the absence of teammate
André Greipel he's going to be given carte blanche to go for the sprints.
And FDJ.fr - they had a great Tour de France this year, but they also had a fantastic Vuelta
this time last year. 2 stage winners - Elissonde and Geniez, both on mountaintop finishes and
both of them will return this year. A year wiser, a year stronger. Who's to say they can't repeat?
I think Rohan Dennis is worth a mention. He's made the fairly unique move mid-season
from Garmin-Sharp to BMC. But, a change of team, he's going to be incredibly motivated
and he's a very talented lad.
British neo-pro Simon Yates made his Grand Tour debut for Orica-Greenedge at the Tour
de France but his twin brother Adam will do the same thing here at the Vuelta. He won
the Tour of Turkey but he also did amazingly strong performances at both the Criterium
du Dauphiné and also the Tour of California, and who's to say that he can't take a stage win here?
I think his Orica-Greenedge teammate, the young Colombian Esteban Chaves, is also worth a mention.
He won a summit finish in the Tour of California and the Tour of Switzerland, so here the world
is his oyster.
Yes, he's a part of the Colombian renaissance which we've seen a lot of over the last year
or so, as is Julian Arredondo of Trek Factory Racing. Who can forget his attacking style
at the Giro D'Italia this year, which led him in the end to the mountains jersey and
a stage win.
Finally, I think we have to mention MTN-Qhubeka, the African team that are riding their first
Grand Tour. They've got some experienced guys there like Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann,
both of whom are more than capable of winning stages. But the whole squad is going to be
super motivated I think to err...to...really...the whole squad is going to be super motivated
there to really show they deserve their spot.
I think there's some really promising youngsters there as well. We've got the South African
champion Louis Meintjes, who was great at the under-23 worlds last year. Also Merhawi
Kudus. He did a great ride at the Tour of Langkawi this year, he finished 2nd up the
Genting Highlands stage so he'll be at home on the climbs as well.
This is probably the moment you've all been waiting for. GCN are renowned for our ultimate
race predictions.
Mark Cavendish to take yellow in Harrogate.
Simon Gerrans will win stage 2 and take the yellow jersey with it.
Vincenzo Nibali is not going to make the podium.
Listen to this, and then rush down to the bookies and place the opposite bet. Dan - where's your money?
I'm actually going to predict that Nairo Quintana will win every single leader's jersey at the
race. Now before you scoff, Simon, if he does win overall, of course he'll take the young
rider's jersey as well. We saw the last few years Chris Horner and the previous winners
of the race were really right up there in the mountains competition and the points competition
due to the nature of the stages. There's a combination jersey as well - so if he's up
there in every competition, he'll also take that.
That'd be quite flash.
What about you?
I think that Vincenzo Nibali will not make the podium. And I'm pretty confident!
Nice one, Si.
No in all seriousness, I love Vincenzo Nibali. But actually I think that this is going to
be the breakthrough performance of Adam Yates. I was incredibly impressed with his ride at
San Sebastian and I think that he's going t make the Top 10 overall and potentially
win a stage.
Now I'm sure that you're all very disappointed that Matt Stephens couldn't make it here,
even though we're not! But we have him here on the phone - Matt, what are your predictions?
Hello and cheers, or bonjour et santé from France. I'm sorry I can't be with you for
the Vuelta preview show, because I'm here in France as you can see, on a very serious
training camp looking after my form for the latter part of the season.
...detailed bit of reviewing I've done, so I think Chris Froome is going to win the GC
overall. Quintana is going to be 2nd, and I think Rigoberto Uran is going to round out
the podium in 3rd. I think Joaquim Rodriguez is going to be 4th on general classification,
taking a stage en route. Defending champion Chris Horner - I think he's going to be around
5th, and Andrew Talansky I think will be 6th.
Typically concise as ever. Thanks Matt.
Once again, GCN will be present at the race, so if there's anything in particular that
you'd like us to film, please let us know win the comments section down below.
Thanks very much for joining us. Enjoy the race.
Any excuse.
I just really hope that Adam Yates comes good. I've stuck my neck out. Again. Don't like
sticking my neck out, especially having broken it.
We saw what happened last time, you had that brace on for a couple of months or so!
But then having said that, that's quite a bold shout about Quintana.
I was kind of joking really, but...
Joking, but you've actually put a bet on it?
Yeah, but I can lay it off...