Stage Results and Tomorrow’s Stage Preview
We are now in the final week of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana and after a rest day, Stage 16 was a second time trial, this time a 32km race from Santillana del Mar to Torrelavega. Australain Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing was expected to take out the stage, but he dominated the time trail finishing 50 seconds ahead of his nearest compeditor. Simon Yates finished 13th in the stage to make sure he kept his lead at the top of the general classification, and keeping hold of the Red Jersey for another day.
Link to stage sixteen route map
Dennis started his ride early in the day so set his time of 37 minutes and 57 seconds and then needed to watch a majority of the field come through to contest his time. He watched on as riders attempted to match his time but no one came close. At the end of the day Joey Rosskopf, a team mate from BMC Racing finished second a further 50 seconds down. The big surprise of the day came from Steven Kruijswijk of LottoNL-Jumbo who finished third in the stage, 51 seconds behind Dennis. This made a big impact in the overall classification as it moved Kruijswijk into third position overall.
Overall classification after stage Sixteen
Yates was able to gain a further 7 seconds of his closest rival Alejandro Valverde to extend his lead to 33 seconds. Nairo Quintana didn't make much of an impact, dropping down to fourth overall after Kruijswijk moved into the top three.
- Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott at 64 hours 52 minutes 58 seconds
- Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 33 seconds
- Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo at 52 seconds
Tomorrow - Stage 17 Start Ribera del Arriba to finish at Lagos de Covadonga
Stage 17 of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana will again hit the mountains with a 157km ride from Getxo to Balcón de Bizkaia, with the final climb awaiting riders is a 4km climb up an 11% incline to the finish line.
No long after their start in Getxo riders will head for the Alto de la Arboleda, which will see riders climbing for 7km at an incline of 5.2%. When they reach the peak, they will only be 17km into the stage and will continue on further descent and inclines until they reach the final 50km of the stage where they will be hit with 5 touch climbs leading to the finish line. As riders get closser to the finish, the road conditions will worsen with the road narrowing and the surface turning to a corregated concrete track, with some parts the incline will reach 24%. With five stages to go, it will be interesting to see if teams attack on this stageor save themselves for the stages ahead.
I'll be covering each stage of the Vuelta A Espana, giving a breakdown of each days stage, my previous post for @cyclefeed were the results of stage fifteen of this years Vuelta, so feel free to have a look:
@run.vince.run/2018-vuelta-a-espana-stage-15
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Please Note all maps are made by myself using Strava