The primary Grand Tour gamers stands out as the similar on the Vuelta a España as they have been on the Tour de France – UAE Staff Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike – however each their tactical approaches to the 2 races could not be additional aside, with the roles nearly utterly reversed in Spain in comparison with what they have been in France.
Visma tried all the things they presumably might to dethrone the infallible Tadej Pogačar on the Tour, a lot in order that they introduced a ‘Classics’ squad in their very own phrases to attempt to explode issues within the punchy first week, realizing full properly {that a} battle solely within the mountains would show tough to emerge from because the winner.
After the primary ITT and as soon as the mountains got here, Pogačar dropped Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard badly up Hautacam, forcing the Dane into much more attacking within the second and third week. This finally got here to nothing however a number of second locations and a second runner-up end total in succession; nevertheless, the kitchen sink was actually thrown en path to Luchon-Superbagnères, Mont Ventoux and the Col de la Loze.
With no Pogačar in Spain as deliberate, whereas he rests for the UCI Highway World Championships, Vingegaard arrived because the heavy favorite – with the roles already reversed for Visma and UAE. Coinciding has been a transfer from all-out assault to staunch defence from Vingegaard within the seven levels the Vuelta has seen to date.
Sure, he is managed to win a stage – on day two to Limone Piemonte – however nonetheless that got here from a response to a Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) burst and was solely an uphill dash, under no circumstances a full mountain check. The primary got here on stage 6, however once more, Visma determined to only shut up store, and Vingegaard was solely pressured into motion by Ciccone as soon as once more.
Partly it is because, with some bonus seconds and an important staff time trial from Visma, regardless of being a person down, on day 5, Vingegaard already had the digital lead on GC. That is no disrespect to Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious), who moved into crimson after a stellar day within the breakaway on stage 6, however he is not anticipated to carry on up the toughest mountain days.
It is smart, however removed from the often ruthless Vingegaard seen at any time when Pogačar is not at a race. With the iconic Angliru not far-off now on stage 13, that would be the first actual climb laborious sufficient for Vingegaard to attempt to put an enormous hole between himself and UAE’s chief João Almeida, who has tried to assault the Dane a number of instances.
He hasn’t but acquired the lead like Pogačar did in France, however Vingegaard’s maintained defence is frightening these within the wheels to attempt to assault him, and UAE are after all going to maintain attempting till they break him, or get damaged themselves.
Stage searching freedom for UAE’s climbing help
Not solely have the GC roles swapped, however these of UAE and Visma’s teammates have as properly. Vingegaard’s help squad was allowed the liberty to assault all through the Tour – with Simon Yates successful stage 10, and Wout van Aert having a number of possibilities on levels 11, 15 and 21, the place he took a memorable victory in Paris.
The aim was to beat Pogačar, however a number of different ambitions remained in play for many who might have probably helped. Visma weren’t afraid to make sure they got here away from the race with extra than simply probably second on GC – which might have been the case had they not had the freedom.
UAE did not utterly shut issues down for his or her domestiques on the Tour, too, with Tim Wellens successful from the break forward of Van Aert and others from the break into Carcassonne, however their efforts have been primarily centered on defending Pogačar and guaranteeing yellow was safe.
Nevertheless, in Spain, UAE seem like doing one thing nearer resembling Visma’s Tour methodology, seen in how the Vuelta has performed out to date, not simply by their hat-trick of stage wins in Figueres, Pal and Cerlers, however who received the latter two – Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso.
Ayuso was scheduled to be the co-leader for UAE alongside Almeida, with the numbers sport a bonus that they had over Vingegaard, however his GC capitulation on stage 6 meant this was now not attainable. Nevertheless, 24 hours after he dropped out of the general working, Ayuso was blasting his manner up the street right into a breakaway and finally took a solo victory on the toughest mountain check of the race to date.
This coincided with Almeida attempting to assault Vingegaard up the ultimate climb, however with Vine and Ayuso each being within the break, he solely actually had Marc Soler with him for firm when UAE began to speed up within the peloton. It might be argued that Ayuso and Vine being within the peloton could have helped Almeida discover separation, however finally, the climb could not have been laborious sufficient, and it did lead to one other stage win.
Vine’s win a day prior got here similarly to that of Yates’ on stage 10 of the Tour, admitting post-stage that he was initially attacking into the transfer on house roads to be an possibility as a satellite tv for pc rider up the street, and a possible stage winner. In each circumstances, the break was let go by the opposite GC favourites’ staff – UAE on the Tour and Visma on the Vuelta – which means Vine and Yates might go for the stage win.
UAE appear to be comfortable pushing for stage wins and guaranteeing different staff targets, comparable to chasing essentially the most professional wins in a season by a staff – with now 76 of the 86 required already claimed – realizing full properly that the massive deciders on GC on the Vuelta would be the days to L’Angliru and Bola del Mundo.
For now, the stalemate stays with an unlimited distinction within the eight seconds separating Vingegaard and Almeida after seven days, in comparison with the 1:17 deficit that the Dane needed to shut on Pogačar after the identical period of time on the Tour, with the roles nearly utterly swapped.
There’s plenty of street between Aragon to Madrid, although, so the would-be attackers and defenders might but swap sides a pair extra instances earlier than the 21 levels and Grand Tour racing in 2025 is up.
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