Stage 1 (TTT): Jerez de la Frontera › Jerez de la Frontera – 12.6 km
The 2014 Vuelta a España gets underway with a short, flat team time trial in Jerez de la Frontera. At only 12.6 kilometers, the route shouldn’t see any massive time gaps between teams, but motivation to put in a strong ride will still be high; in this Vuelta, which seems likely to be hotly contested, every second will count, and the GC riders will want to get off to a strong start. Moreover, several teams are packing some serious chrono talent and will have their sights set on showing off their ability against the clock in the opening stage of the race.
One such team looks to be the top favorite for this TTT. Fabian Cancellara headlines a powerful Trek squad loaded with talent that also includes Jesse Sergeant, Kristof Vandewalle, and Bob Jungels. That’s a lot of firepower. They’re a little light on cumulative experience with so much youth in the team, but this is a goal for Trek and they have the talent to go for the win.
OPQS should contend for stage victory as well. They will be led by World Champ Tony Martin and the team will be driven to put Rigoberto Uran, suddenly a top-notch chrono rider in his own right, into a good position on GC.
Sky has a number of workhorse time trialists to help place Chris Froome (obviously a stellar time trialist himself) into a good spot on the leaderboard on the first stage, and it would be a surprise to see anything other than a great performance from them on Stage 1.
BMC and Movistar are also well-staffed for a race against the clock and could be in the mix for stage honors. Orica-GreenEdge is without a number of their stronger time trialists in this Vuelta, but Brett Lancaster, Cam Meyer, and Michael Matthews (very fast in a short time trial) should give them a shot at a good result.
While they aren’t on the same level as Trek, Giant-Shimano could surprise some people on Stage 1. They have several young chrono talents in Lawson Craddock, Chad Haga, and Tobias Ludvigsson that will be able to drive a high pace on the stage. Cannondale is another team that could outperform expectations; a shorter time trial like this suits a number of their riders.
VeloHuman Stage Favorites
1. Trek Factory Racing | 2. Omega Pharma – Quick-Step | 3. Team Sky
Be sure follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for live commentary of this and every stage of the 2014 Vuelta a España! The next preview will be up after the conclusion of Stage 1, so stay tuned. In case you missed it, the overall race preview can be found here.
The third and final Grand Tour of the 2014 season has arrived and it should be quite the event. The Vuelta a España has a reputation as an opportunity for riders who have missed out on earlier season goals to take one last shot at glory in a major stage race. With injuries derailing the plans of so many of the sport’s biggest names who had been targeting other races on the calendar in 2014, that reputation will be taken to a new level in the year’s edition of the Vuelta. The startlist is overflowing with talent, with past winners of the General, Points, and Mountain Classifications of all three Grand Tours and multiple past World Champions in attendance. It’s shaping up to be a star-studded showdown.
The Route
The parcours of the 2014 Vuelta looks to be a bit less challenging than several recent editions have been, but that may only lead to a closer GC battle and more competition for bonus seconds at stage finishes. Most of the stages likely to have major GC implications sit roughly in the middle of the three-week period. That means that those who have arrived a bit off of peak form will take every available opportunity in the opening stages to ride themselves into shape before the real mountains appear. Once they do, the GC battle will be on, and with a few consecutive days of decisive racing packed into the second week, things could start to shape up long before the final stages of the race are underway. Still, the Tour de France should serve as a reminder of just how difficult Grand Tour racing can be, even on the stages that don’t look likely to shake up the GC, and even if the leaderboard looks set by the time the third week is in full swing, there are no guarantees in this sport; the riders will have to maintain focus all the way to the finish if they want to come out on top.
The Vuelta opens with a short, flat team time trial that is unlikely to have too big an effect on the General Classification. Stage 2 shouldn’t be much more eventful for the red jersey hunters. Stages 3 through 5 have a few hills along the way or at the finish line that could make for interesting stage battles, but probably won’t affect the overall leaderboard.
Stage 6: Benalmádena › La Zubia (167.1 km) – The Alto Cumbres Verdes that closes the stage isn’t a legbreaker, but it will offer the first real battleground for the climbing specialists in this Vuelta.
Stage 6 presents the first real mountain challenge of the Vuelta, with a summit finish. A 4.6 kilometer climb at an average gradient of 7.8% won’t decide the Vuelta by any means, but it will at least be a chance to see who is on strong form in this race. Stage 7 has hills throughout but nothing that will challenge the GC men, and the breakaway artists and more punchy riders will look to pick up a victory, while Stage 8 is almost guaranteed to end in a sprint.
Stage 9, the final stage before the first rest day of the Vuelta, will offer a major mountain showdown, finishing with the double challenge of a Cat. 2 climb followed almost immediately by a Cat. 1 summit finish.
Stage 10 (ITT): Real Monasterio de Santa María de Veruela › Borja (36.7 km) – A long downhill section will favor the powerful chrono specialists and could contribute to significant gaps among the GC riders.
Following their day off, the peloton will take on a stage likely to have a major impact on the overall outcome of the Vuelta: a 36.7 kilometer time trial. After an early Cat. 3, the remainder of the parcours is downhill, which will allow the real power specialists to put their skills on display, and could lead to significant gaps on the GC leaderboard. There won’t be much time for the red jersey seekers to rest after the chrono, with another mountaintop finish waiting on Stage 11.
Stages 12 and 13 should go to those riders who have come to the Vuelta looking for stage victories, but Stage 14 kicks of a trio of tough mountain days, with a difficult parcours that includes two Category 1 climbs (include the La Camperona summit finish). Stage 15 and the challenging Lagos de Covadonga climb come next, before a brutal Stage 16 that includes four Category 1 climbs, including the arduous La Farrapona climb to the finish line, 16.5 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.2%.
After a welcome rest day, a flat Stage 17 will provide the sprinters with another shot at victory. Stage 18 ends with a Cat. 2 climb that the puncheurs will love, while the a late hill on Stage 19 could set up a showdown between fast finishers and explosive opportunists.
Stage 20: Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil › Puerto de Ancares (185.7 km) – The challenging Puerto de Ancares climb will offer a final opportunity for the uphill specialists to put their talents on display in this Vuelta.
The Puerto de Ancares climb that closes out Stage 20 will offer a battleground for a final mountain showdown among the GC contenders. It’s a harsh 12.7 kilometer ascent that averages 8.7% and includes several long stretches with gradients well over 10%. If the Vuelta hasn’t been decided already, this will be the site of a furious uphill battle.
The final stage of the Vuelta a España is a flat, 9.7 kilometer time trial that will offer those who specialize in short chronos a chance to shine on a big stage. The overall contenders will be on their toes, but only the slightest of GC gaps will be under threat with such a short route.
The General Classification Contenders
The startlist is full of GC talent, with several riders who could conceivably win this race. Many of the biggest names come with question marks. As such, it’s hard to call any one rider the out-and-out favorite to take this Vuelta a España. Still, a few riders stand out above the competition as the most likely contenders, with two in particular in a class of their own: Chris Froome of Team Sky and Nairo Quintana of Movistar.
Froome’s all-round talent speaks for itself. The winner of the 2013 Tour de France is one of the world’s best climbers and also an elite time trialist. At his best and most motivated, he is rarely defeated in a stage race. It doesn’t seem likely motivation will be much of a problem here: having dropped out of a Tour de France in which he was the favorite for a repeat success, this is the last real opportunity for both Froome and his mighty Team Sky to get any major results out of a season they entered with high expectations. Form is the only real question mark for Froome. He was back on the bike pretty quickly after injuries forced him out of the Tour, but it’s not easy to build a season around a race in July only to switch goals and hope for peak form in August and September. On the other hand, if the last three years are any indication, perhaps the biggest predictor of success in this race is a lack of Grand Tour mileage earlier in the year: for each of the past three winners, the Vuelta was the only three-week race undertaken that season. Froome’s very early exit from the Tour could leave him fresher than many of his top rivals in this race who already have a Giro or Tour under their belts. He also has multiple Grand Tour Top 10 finisher Mikel Nieve as a strong second, along with other reliable supporters like Phil Deignan (who has had a nice year for Sky), Dario Cataldo, Peter Kennaugh, and Vasil Kiryienka.
Nairo Quintana put his uphill mastery on display in last year’s Tour de France, climbing his way to 2nd place in that race despite not even being team leader at the start. He followed up that excellent performance with a victory at the 2014 Giro d’Italia, where he was clearly the strongest rider, overcoming an early illness to win rather handily. He has made big strides a time trialist over the past season, developing into a more complete rider every day, and he showed by winning the Vuelta a Burgos that after an extended break from racing following the Giro d’Italia, form isn’t an issue. The Giro mileage is there, but Quintana has obviously had time to recover, and he’ll benefit from an always powerful Movistar lineup. Alejandro Valverde makes the start as well, and while his disappointing 4th in the Tour de France (despite the absence of Contador and Froome) would suggest that his days of challenging for Grand Tour victory are coming to a close, especially with the added fatigue of having just raced in one, he’s still a consistent performer in three-week races who seems likely to put in a Top 10 result. The ability to launch a two-pronged assault on the steep stuff makes Movistar a very dangerous team, even if Froome is at 100%.
Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez had high hopes for this season, and everything looked to be going according to plan when he won the Volta a Catalunya, but injuries sustained in a nasty crash at the Giro derailed his campaign there and knocked him out of competition for a while. He decided to use the Tour de France as an opportunity to ride back into form (it should be noted that riding one Grand Tour as preparation for another is a rather unconventional plan these days), and though he was unable to come up with any big results in that race, he showed with a podium performance in the very challenging Clasica San Sebastian that followed that he was rounding into shape. With bonus seconds likely to be of some importance in this Vuelta, this is an excellent parcours for Rodriguez, who can hunt mountain bonus seconds better than most, a trait that will help him challenge for the win in his home Grand Tour. Trusted lieutenant Daniel Moreno is here as well. He has not had as strong a year as he had in 2013 (when he was 10th in the Vuelta and racked up several victories on the season), but he did just put in a great ride at the Vuelta a Burgos, finishing only 3 seconds behind Quintana on GC. Like Rodriguez, Moreno has a lot of punch in the hunt for time bonuses, and in addition to acting as Purito’s top teammate, he could land a decent overall result himself.
The nasty tibia fracture he suffered in the tenth stage of the Tour de France puts Alberto Contador a bit further down in this preview than he typically merits in a Grand Tour pre-race discussion, but he’s stil certainly worth mentioning. At full strength, he’s unmatched on the climbs and strong against the clock, and he possesses the killer instinct to deliver when the stakes are high. Unfortunately, he’s not likely to be at full strength, as an injury like the one that forced him out of the Tour is not quickly overcome. Still, Contador was flying in the run-up to the Tour and he will be highly motivated to put whatever remains of that form to good use. He has said he is targeting stage wins in this race, but Contador isn’t the type to back down if he should find himself still in the mix for GC as the race drags on. If he does manage to recover his strength and get involved in the battle, he’ll obviously be a top conteder. That’s a big ask, and as it stands, he’s certainly not the favorite he might be without the recent injury, but he also can’t be counted out.
Rigoberto Uran of OPQS showed his top-notch climbing legs and explosiveness on the way to a 2nd overall finish in the 2013 Giro, but he reached a new level as a GC rider this year, flashing great ability against the clock. Form is a question mark, as he was a bit off the pace in the recent Tour de l’Ain, his first race back from a long post-Giro break, but he has a history of performing well even after long periods out of competition. Uran has the talent to battle it out for the podium. He has a great team backing him too, with Wout Poels, who was brilliant in support of Uran in the Giro, on the squad as well. Don’t be surprised to see Poels looking for opportunities to succeed on his own either.
Last year’s winner Chris Horner, now riding for Lampre-Merida, had another difficult start to his season after being seriously injured when hit by a car while training. He was unable to follow up his strong 2013 finish with any big results in the early part of this year, but he looked strong in the Tour de France, where he rode in support of Rui Costa while still getting back to his best. He certainly looked to be closing in on that top level with his 2nd overall in the recent Tour of Utah. He’s another year older but that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference with Horner, who proved in last year’s race that he should not be underestimated when the road goes up. Lampre has a very nice squad of support riders and potential alternatives with Przemyslaw Niemiec (fresh off a 5th overall in Poland), Damiano Cunego, and the underrated Jose Serpa.
Update: In accordance with the rules of the MPCC, of which Lampre-Merida is a member, defending champion Chris Horner has been withdrawn from the Vuelta startlist due to low cortisol levels.
Giro 3rd place finisher Fabio Aru leads a strong Astana team. He thrives in the high mountains, and although this parcours may not have the grueling climbs of the Giro, Aru has the skillset to benefit from bonus seconds as well. The biggest concern for the 24-year-old will be staying strong throughout all three weeks: he has never raced two Grand Tours in one year, so it’s unclear how his body will respond. If he can hold up over the course of the Vuelta, he’ll be a dangerous contender. Tanel Kangert and rising talent Mikel Landa will also make the start.
Garmin-Sharp has several GC options. Explosive climber Dan Martin had designs of Giro glory, but crashed out on the very first day. In fact, the list of big races over the last two seasons in which Martin has crashed or come down with illness is surprisingly long. However, Martin was always planning to ride this Vuelta, and having crashed out of the Giro before finishing a single stage, he comes into this race with the major boon of not having finished another GT so far this season. It’s a good route for him, and he showed excellent form in the recent Tour de l’Ain, so if he can stay healthy for three weeks, a strong performance could be in the cards. Garmin-Sharp also sends 2014 Giro Top 10 finisher Ryder Hesjedal, who could put in a decent ride, as well as Andrew Talansky. Talansky is supposedly riding the race in support of his teammates, having withdrawn from the Tour following several crashes, but he’s been hot this year and he’s been 7th in this race in the past, so it’s not out of the question that he puts in a GC challenge in 2014.
With fewer truly brutal climbs than typically feature in the Giro or the Tour, this is a nice parcours for Belkin’s Wilco Kelderman, a strong time trialist who also has the ability to pick up bonus seconds in group finishes. The question for Kelderman will be whether he is strong enough yet (at just 23-years-old) to ride well through the second half of a Giro-Vuelta double. He was on good form at the Tour of Utah and certainly has the skillset to battle among the Top 10. Robert Gesink is another great option for Belkin. Having missed a large portion of the season with heart problems, Gesink showed good form in Poland and, of course, he doesn’t have any Grand Tour miles in his legs yet this season. This is a nice opportunity for him to get back into the mix. Laurens Ten Dam is here as well, coming off a nice 8th overall in the Tour de France. He might still have something left in the tank to challenge for the Top 10, and at the very least he’s an excellent teammate for the mountains.
AG2R sends Carlos Betancur, who spent months out of competition after the Ardennes Classics and did not look on form in his recent run at the Vuelta a Burgos. He has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to be in the conversation, but on raw talent he’s one of the best riders in the race and is worthy of a mention. BMC sends the one-two punch of Cadel Evans and Samuel Sanchez. Both are obviously well past their primes, but on a somewhat tamer course like this, and still packing strong finishing kicks for bonus seconds, both could have a shot at good results. FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot makes the start following his stellar Tour de France, but maintaing his great form all the way through a podium performance at the Tour and into this race isn’t easy, and he has said outright that he’s hunting stage success and possibly the King of the Mountains jersey. Still, he’s worth keeping an eye on.
Giant-Shimano’s Warren Barguil made the 2013 Vuelta his coming out party with two stage wins, and now he returns with even bigger aspirations. He has not landed many big results yet this year but he was climbing well at the Tour de Pologne and he has a strong team of young, talented all-rounders (like Lawson Craddock and Chad Haga) around him. Coming into the race fresh and without any Grand Tour mileage this season, Barguil could put in a good ride. Orica-GreenEdge enters uncharted territory in this race; for once, they have a rider with some GC potential in Johan Esteban Chaves. A terrific climber, Chaves has taken stages in the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of California this year, and he has the talent to land a decent result.
Lotto Belisol appears to be backing Maxime Monfort for GC; Jurgen Van Den Broeck is on the startlist but it seems likely that he’ll be in the hunt for stages rather than mixing it up on GC. Trek has a lot of firepower in the race, and they aim to support Haimar Zubeldia as their GC rider over other talents (like strong climber Julian Arredondo) in the squad. Actually challenging for the podium may be too much to ask for Zubeldia, but he has a knack for landing Top 10 results. Cofidis’s Daniel Navarro, FDJ’s Kenny Elissonde, MTN-Qhubeka’s Sergio Pardilla and Louis Mentjes, and Caja Rural’s David Arroyo are other outsiders who will hope to be in the mix for General Classification.
The Stagehunters
The quality of riders looking for stage wins in this race is also particularly high. Nacer Bouhanni, Giro Points Classification winner and, more recently, winner of a stage at the Eneco Tour, will hope to pick up more 2014 victories in the sprints. Peter Sagan, John Degenkolb, and Michael Matthews are all in attendance as well, and they’ll look to challenge Bouhanni for the flatter bunch finishes and fight it out amongst themselves when the tougher profiles leave the heavier sprinters behind. We should be in for some great battles between the three versatile riders on the hillier stages. I like Degenkolb a lot in this race; when healthy, he’s been very fast this year, and he’ll be highly motivated after being slowed by an injury in the Tour.
Other sprinting talents making the start include Tom Boonen, Roberto Ferrari and Maximiliano Richeze, Yauheni Hutarovich, Moreno Hofland, Daniele Bennati, Gerald Ciolek, Andrea Guardini, Jens Debusschere, Fabio Felline, and Matteo Pelucchi. Philippe Gilbert will likely be in the mix on the flatter stages, and he’ll obviously be a top candidate to battle it out with the GC men for the shorter uphill finishes.
It’s worth noting that while most of the top fast men are likely to at least put up decent showings in the Points Classification, the Vuelta points jersey quite often goes to a climber thanks to the number of uphill finishes and an equally weighted points system regardless of the profile. Sagan, Matthews, Degenkolb, and Bouhanni (in that order, in my mind) all have a shot, but one will have to rise well above the others to make a legitimate run at a classification more likely to be won by the uphill specialists with the explosiveness to pick up stage wins.
Several great time trialists are in attendance hoping to pick up victories with two individual chronos on the menu. Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin headline the list, with the extremely talented Adriano Malori also among the best riders against the clock on the startlist. In addition to the many names with good time trialing ability already mentioned in the GC section of the preview, we’ll probably also see Kristof Vandewalle and Bob Jungels (who talked to VH this week about his goals for the Vuelta), Rohan Dennis, Jesse Sergent, Manuel Quinziato, and Brett Lancaster shining in the ITTs.
Many of those strong solo artists are also likely to be protagonists for long-range success in the breakaway-friendly intermediate stages, along with versatile riders like Luis Leon Sanchez, Nathan Haas, and Adam Hansen. Julian Arredondo headlines a list of climbing specialists who are ostensibly here for mountain stage wins and should be given some freedom to get up the road once they’ve dropped from the GC leaderboard. Along with whoever among the aforementioned GC riders resorts to hunting stages after falling out of contention for the overall, Adam Yates, Alessandro Di Marchi, Amets Txurruka, and Yuri Trofimov are others who could fight it out with the red jersey hunters for stage honors in the mountains.
VeloHuman Favorites
General Classification
Winner: Chris Froome Podium: Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez Other Top Contenders: Rigoberto Uran, Alejandro Valverde, Fabio Aru, Wilco Kelderman, Daniel Martin, Daniel Moreno, Alberto Contador
Points Classification
Winner: Joaquim Rodriguez
VeloHuman will be previewing every stage of the 2014 Vuelta a España, with profiles, favorites, and outsiders for every day of racing. The preview of Stage 1 is already up! There will be plenty more commentary and analysis on Twitter, so be sure to follow @VeloHuman if you haven’t already.
-Dane Cash
Photos by Tom Raftery, Manuel Quiroga, and Gerben van Heijningen.
21-year-old Bob Jungels made a grand entrance onto the pro cycling scene in 2013, winning a stage and taking 5th overall in the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg, and taking both the individual time trial and the road race titles at the Luxembourg national championships. Now in his second year at the WorldTour level with Trek Factory Racing, Jungels has continued to develop as a talented all-rounder, with particularly strong performances in time trial stages in some of the year’s biggest races so far. This weekend, however, he will take part in his very first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España. He talked to VH about the season-long buildup to the three-week event, his preparation, and his objectives for Spain’s biggest race, in which he hopes to gain experience for the future.
“The main goal of the season was to learn,” he told VeloHuman. “I did a lot of WorldTour races this year, so the main goal was just to get as much experience as possible, and of course the Vuelta now is the first big tour and a completely new thing for me. Of course, it’s a new challenge, but it’s a goal also, because I want to do well. But the most important thing is to learn for the future.”
As big a challenge as his first Grand Tour ride is likely to be, the considerable developments Jungels has made as a rider over the course of the season, which he thinks has gone well so far, have helped him feel more prepared for the race.
“I have progressed a lot in climbing this year,” he explained. “My time trial was not bad already last year, and I think I’ve made some big steps in stage races, and that is also my goal for the future, to be good in stage races. So the Vuelta is a good test for me to see how far I can go already. I’m really happy with my season until now; I’ve had a few good results in time trials and also in medium climbing stages, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Though he acknowledges that the Vuelta a España will be a very new experience, when asked whether he’s nervous about this undertaking, Jungels says that he’s more looking forward to what lies ahead.
“I would not say nervous. For me, I’m a little bit in awe, to be in a big team, to be part of these nine riders in the Vuelta. I’m really looking forward to it. That’s maybe more the thing. Of course a little bit nervous because I don’t know how my body will react, but I’m definitely looking forward to it and I hope everything goes well,” he said.
Likely contributing to his excitement and confidence is the presence of a few seasoned veterans on Trek’s Vuelta squad, as riders like Haimar Zubeldia and Fabian Cancellara are set to make the start alongside Jungels and several other very young pros.
“For us young riders it’s always important to have a few older riders to help, riders who have more experience than we do,” Jungels said. “It’s a really important part for us to learn from them because, like I said, the most important thing is the experience for us and we don’t have it until now, so it’s pretty good to have guys with us from whom we can learn.”
Jungels has come close to major victories several times already this year, with Top 3s on stages in Paris-Nice, the Critérium International, and the Critérium du Dauphiné. When asked about what he thinks he is capable of in the Vuelta, he was cautiously optimistic about his chances for stage success.
“I think the line up for this Vuelta is quite special because a lot of guys had to abandon the Tour, like Froome, Contador, all these guys,” he said. “So I think it will be really hard, but one thing is for sure, I don’t have any expectations on the GC, so I’ll try to go for stages and do my best. I hope to get a good result in a stage.”
He hasn’t poured over the entire road book just yet to target any one particular stage, but he does have objectives for himself in the race.
“One thing, I try to do my best, that’s for sure,” Jungels said. “I haven’t really looked at every stage in particular, but of course I want to do well in the TTs and maybe in the medium climbing stages. One thing I want to prove a little bit is that I can climb pretty well, because I see in training that I’ve taken big steps in the mountains, so I think it should be a goal for me.”
Trek Factory Racing brings a versatile team to the race, and they look well-staffed to pursue several different goals.
“We will have a big meeting when we arrive over there but Haimar [Zubeldia] was really good and got a Top 10 in the Tour again, and if his shape is still good and if he still feels fresh, I think he can have some ambitions in the GC, maybe to do another Top 10,” Jungels said. “I think for the others, the main goal should be to do well in the stages, and maybe try to get a victory out of the stages. A little bit like in the Giro, where we also had a good performance.”
With only a few days remaining before the Vuelta kicks off in Jerez de la Frontera, Jungels is mostly focused on resting up to be as fresh as possible for the start.
“We decided to just do some good blocks [of training] after Poland and then basically for this week, it’s more or less like a rest week, and then of course a few days before the race we’ll try to do the recon of the team time trial course,” he said.
With some serious chrono talent, including Jungels, Fabian Cancellara, Jesse Sergeant, and Kristof Vandewalle, Trek will be a top favorite for that opening team time trial. After that, the two ITTs and several hillier days could be prime stage hunting grounds for Jungels, who is certainly a rider to watch in this Vuelta a España, and, as he continues to develop and gain experience, in future races as well.
Given his 7th overall finish in this year’s Tour de France, you might think it’s been smooth-sailing all year for NetApp-Endura’s Leopold König, but almost from day one this season, things have not exactly gone according to plan for the rising Czech star. Having battled through a knee injury early in the year and a tough bout with illness more recently, 26-year-old König is now stateside to participate in the USA Pro Challenge, and he battled spotty reception in the Colorado mountains (much to the gratitude of VeloHuman) to answer a few questions about his fight to overcome one obstacle after another on his way to some fantastic results on the sport’s biggest stage, and what lies ahead for the rest of the year.
König closed out his 2013 season on a high note, notching a stage win and 9th overall at the Vuelta a España, delivering the kind of performance for Pro Continental squad NetApp-Endura that announced to everyone just how deserving they were of a wildcard invitation. With an invite to ride in the Tour de France in 2014, it was fairly obvious what NetApp-Endura’s plan would be: build a team around this fast-rising talent to support his GC ambitions and again prove themselves worthy of their wildcard invite.
With the sport’s main event on the horizon, König set out to build his form over the early months to be at his best for the big race in July, but just as the season began, his plans were derailed by a nagging knee injury.
“Ligament issues,” he told VeloHuman. “It wasn’t too serious but the problem was the healing process lasted so long, and the only way to fix it was to relax the knee and not put any pressure on it. So that was very frustrating because we didn’t know how long it would last and finally it was more than one month, it was actually a long time.”
Any plans to target a particular aspect of his skillset for improvement in training went out the window.
“To be honest, there wasn’t much time to get specific training in, and we had to adjust a lot of training because I was one month off the bike and it was just a race with time to get to the Tour in time and to get prepared,” he said. “I actually just did one real training block in the Sierra Nevada that was more focused on climbing, and then I went to Bayern and the Dauphiné. So there wasn’t really much time to get specific training in for the Tour.”
As might be expected, not being able to prepare for the biggest goal of his career was not easy for König.
“I tried to stay relaxed and not really think about it but it was pretty hard to manage mentally because, as I mentioned, we didn’t know when I would be able to train properly, or when I would be able to race,” he explained. “I tried to stay relaxed but there were moments when it wasn’t really easy. But finally it worked out.”
At last on his way back to recovery (he finished 4th at the Bayern Rundfahrt and 11th at the Critérium du Dauphiné), König took on his very first Tour de France with the added expectations that come with being a team leader.
“Everything was much bigger, all the pressure, the media attention, and the things around are just bigger than the Giro and Vuelta, but we went into the Tour with a strong team and we wanted to prove to the organizers that the wildcard we got was worth it,” he said.
König’s Tour campaign itself got off to a rocky start. He lost more time than many of his GC rivals on the cobbles and then crashed hard on Stage 8, losing several minutes. At the end of Stage 9 he was already more than nine minutes off the lead and sitting in 28th place. However, from then on he put in one great ride after another (including a 3rd place performance on Stage 13), climbing higher and higher up the GC leaderboard as the Tour became more mountainous. König attributes his strong second half to his endurance and his ability to get into a groove.
“I think that’s just the way my body is built,” he said. “I’ve done just 2 Grand Tours but I can feel that every week I’m improving and feeling better. The first ten days of the Tour were especially hard and unlucky for me but then I just started to feel day by day more relaxed and powerful.”
By the penultimate stage of the race, König had soared all the way to 9th place, but a stellar time trial catapulted him even higher. He jumped to 7th overall in the Stage 20 ITT, to the surprise of many, though König himself had been anticipating success in the chrono all along.
“To be honest I expected that. I looked forward to this TT as it was supposed to suit me well. And finally you know that’s the last real stage of the Tour and the race is almost done so I really wanted to enjoy it,” he said.
In spite of an inability to train as planned in the run-up to the race, and further difficulty in the first few stages of the Tour de France, König finished 7th overall, among some very impressive company. Now with two Grand Tour Top 10s under his belt, he has cemented his status as one of the sport’s brightest young GC talents. After a short rest period following the Tour, König is now focused on a few late-season goals. He is currently racing in the USA Pro Challenge, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, this part of the season has not been without difficulties of its own, difficulties that saw him lose time on the opening day of the Pro Challenge, though he still has ambitions for the racing that remains.
“On the way to Colorado I got some virus and spent two days in bed with fever so my GC ambitions are gone but I want to try to win at least one stage,” König said. “After Colorado I’m supposed to race the Tour of Britain, which I really like.”
Somewhere in between all the racing, König has also had to find time to think about his future. He’s in the final year of his contract with NetApp-Endura, and having notched so much success (and shown some serious mental toughness battling difficulties along the way) over the past two years, he has plenty of suitors hoping to win his services in 2015 and beyond. While several big-name riders have signed in the past few weeks, König has taken his time weighing offers, but that may be about to change.
“Things are moving ahead now so it’s going to be sorted out very soon,” he said.
After delivering Top 10 performances in his first two Grand Tours, König’s impending decision will be closely watched around the sport. Having established himself as a capable GC contender not easily deterred from his goals, Leopold König is certain to make waves in whatever team kit he is wearing in 2015.
The WorldTour returns to the land of the Spring Classics for one week in August, and that week is upon us: the 2014 Eneco Tour is here. A seven-day ride through Belgium and the Netherlands, the Eneco Tour was for many years a race decided almost exclusively by one day of time trialing, but recent years have seen more and more challenges added to the parcours to guarantee that the battle for General Classification rages across the whole week. With classics specialists having a chance to show their strength one last time on the WorldTour calendar and several riders nearing peak form for the upcoming Vuelta, competition tends to be fierce, and the 2014 edition should continue the trend.
The Route
The first two stages take place on mostly flat profiles that aren’t likely to shake up the General Classification. Stage 3 is a short (9.6 km) time trial that certainly will; however, this is not the Eneco Tour of old. Strength against the clock will always be important in a weeklong race with a chrono stage and no real mountains, but there are enough challenges in this year’s Eneco Tour to make the fight for overall victory a much more drawn-out affair.
Stage 5: Geraardsbergen › Geraardsbergen (162.5 km) – It isn’t as long as De Ronde, but the Eneco Tour’s fifth stage visits many of the same challenging landmarks.
Stage 4 takes place in the same region as the spring’s Gent-Wevelgmen, traversing some of the same roads. Fittingly, the next stage will put the peloton through a number of difficult tests made famous by the Tour of Flanders. With two full climbs up the legendary Muur van Geraardsbergen before finishing there after 160 kilometers (with visits to other familiar Ronde climbs, like the Kruisberg and Bosberg, along the way), Stage 5 is a very difficult day that is certain to play a major role in the General Classification of the Eneco Tour.
Stage 6 offers no respite: with nonstop steep climbs all the way from start to finish, including multiple trips up and over La Redoute, one of the toughest challenges of April’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege, it will bring the punchy climbers to the fore. The seventh and final stage of the race is yet another day of nonstop climbing, as the Eneco Tour culminates with a visit to Amstel Gold Race country and many of the same short, steep climbs (though not the Cauberg) that feature in that event. While the weekend of familiar challenges won’t present the riders with any single stages nearing the length of the grueling spring classics, several consecutive very difficult days will guarantee some serious selection on the GC leaderboard.
The General Classification Contenders
Zdenek Stybar returns to the race as the defending champion, with the always impressive Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad backing his campaign for a repeat victory. Strong in the time trial, capable on the shorter climbs, and even handy in a sprint for bonus seconds, Stybar has the versatile toolset to compete, though this edition of the race is even harder than last year’s and uphill ability is at an even higher premium. However, the Czech star showed his climbing mettle in the 2013 Eneco Tour, putting in his best work on the very hilly stages, and he put his climbing form on display as recently as last weekend when he landed 10th the Clasica de San Sebastian. Still, while he put in Top 10 performances in both Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix in the spring, Stybar has not landed as many big results so far this season as might have been expected, and these climbs will really put him to the test. In short, it will be a challenge holding on to his title against some very dangerous rivals. OPQS does have plenty of strong, versatile lieutenants to put the pressure on from all angles, with the likes of Niki Terpstra and Matteo Trentin (among others) in attendance and capable of getting in to the mix on all kinds of different terrain.
2013 runner-up Tom Dumoulin is an elite time trialist who may lament the fact that the chrono stage is 3.6 kilometers shorter in this year’s race, but he’s also a strong climber who should appreciate the climbing challenges that await. 2nd to Tony Martin in Stage 20 ITT in the 2014 Tour de France, he’s on sharp form this summer. He’s also shown a bit more explosiveness this season, which will be a major asset here. His skillset puts him in an excellent position to better his result from last year. Hilly parcours specialist Simon Geschke will be an excellent second.
Sky’s Geraint Thomas has all the skills necessary to fight for the top step on the podium. He has not had much of a break from racing since winning the Bayern Rundfahrt at the beginning of June, but it’s hard to draw up a better parcours for a rider who combines cobblestone prowess with good climbing legs and a particular affinity for short time trials. If he can hold on to top form all the way through the race, he will be very hard to beat. Teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen is actually a two-time winner of the Eneco Tour, but the recent increased focus on uphill tests do not favor his toolset as much as past editions did, and he may be hunting stages and playing lieutenant in this year’s race. Ian Stannard has finally returned from his long break following a serious injury suffered in the spring, and Sky will be glad to see him back on the bike in the WorldTour’s return to the Low Countries.
BMC’s Philippe Gilbert was running well in the 2013 edition before a crash forced him to abandon the race. He’s been dealing with illness recently but his top-notch performance in the RideLondon Classic suggests that he’s back to full strength and ready to contest the 2014 edition of this race. He excels in the shorter time trials, and with the Ardennes-style final two stages, I like his chances to stand on the overall podium. As is standard operating procedure for such a powerhouse team, BMC has plenty of other options: Greg Van Avermaet showed excellent form with an 8th place finish in a very difficult Clasica de San Sebastian, and the sort of climbing chops required to land a good result in that race will be crucial for the last few stages of the Eneco Tour. New acquisition Rohan Dennis, a good climber with an elite time trial, could also try to get into the mix, and Steve Cummings, great in the short chronos, is yet another option, having a strong season so far.
Trek’s Fabian Cancellara is on the startlist after cutting his Tour de France campaign short to prepare for later season goals. Despite its classics-season feel, this has never been a race he’s targeted, and it’s hard to say where it ranks on his list of 2014 goals. As the sport’s most dominant classics rider right now, Cancellara will obviously be among the top favorites if he has the form and drive to hunt for the overall victory. It’s hard to see past him whenever the Muur van Geraardsbergen is involved. His classics prowess hasn’t extended into Ardennes results in his career, but he can usually handle some short climbs, and he’s obviously a top candidate in the time trial stage. Stijn Devolder is always a dangerous teammate.
Belkin’s Lars Boom has had a great deal of success in the Eneco Tour in the past, winning in 2012, but the parcours is no longer one that suits his style quite as well, and the last two stages will be a major challenge. Bauke Mollema may be the GC rider of choice here, given the back-to-back Ardennes-like stages that close out the race. 2nd in San Sebastian, he’s clearly carried some strong form out of the disappointing Tour de France, and his underrated sprinting ability will be a major asset in a race where bonus seconds often play a significant role in the GC results. Sep Vanmarcke is also on the startlist; the parcours is probably a bit bumpy for him, but he proved in the Tour de France that he doesn’t mind a few climbs. Garmin-Sharp has Ramunas Navardauskas and Sebastian Langeveld, the former very strong in a short time trial and on up-and-down profiles, the latter a proven classics talent who was 3rd in this race back in 2009. Lotto Belisol’s two-pronged attack of Jelle Vanendert and Tim Wellens will love the look of the final two stages and could surprise some people. Bjorn Leukemans of Wanty-Groupe Gobert has a knack for landing good results on this sort of terrain. OGE’s Jens Keukeleire is a rising classics talent who could be in the mix, while teammate Michael Hepburn will likely spend at least a little time near the top of the GC leaderboard given the early position of the time trial in the race. Peter Sagan initially seemed set to participate (and contend) in this race, but he is no longer on Cannondale’s roster to make the start; Moreno Moser looks to be the team’s main hope on this parcours.
The Stagehunters
In a race without any real mountains, so many riders who spend most of their stage-racing days hunting stage victories have a rare real shot at the General Classification (and are therefore among the many aforementioned potential overall protagonists), but there are still a few sprinting heavyweights and time trialing specialists yet to be mentioned who will be searching for individual wins in the Eneco Tour.
The list of strong sprinters includes Lotto Belisol’s Andre Greipel, FDJ’s Nacer Bouhanni, Giant-Shimano’s Luka Mezgec, Lampre-Merida’s Sacha Modolo, and Trek’s Giacomo Nizzolo as likely contenders for a bunch gallop. Tyler Farrar, who did not look great in the Tour of Poland but who tends perform well in the Low Countries, Matti Breschel, OGE’s Leigh Howard and Matt Goss, Movistar’s JJ Rojas and JJ Lobato, Barry Markus, Andrea Guardini, Bryan Coquard, and Tom Boonen could also feature in the sprints.
Plenty of strong chrono riders were already named as possible GC contenders, but watch out for Alex Dowsett, Patrick Gretsch, Jesse Sergeant, and David Millar in the ITT as well.
VeloHuman Top 10 GC Favorites
Winner: Tom Dumoulin Podium: Zdenek Stybar, Philippe Gilbert Other Top Contenders: Geraint Thomas, Greg Van Avermaet, Fabian Cancellara, Bauke Mollema, Ramunas Navardauskas, Rohan Dennis, Jelle Vandendert
As usual, I’ll be tweeting plenty of live analysis during the race, so follow @VeloHuman on Twitter to stay connected. Also, be sure to come back soon for more previews, interviews, and analysis: the Vuelta a España is right around the corner!
The Tour de Pologne is the first stage race that follows the Tour de France on the WorldTour calendar. Now in its seventy-first year, it tends to be an exciting and often unpredictable contest, as many riders are coming into the race following La Grande Boucle, hoping to maintain their form for one more week, while others are returning to competition after long midseason breaks, and are therefore in unknown condition. Pieter Weening was the surprise winner of the 2013 edition. Daniel Martin and Moreno Moster both picked up their first WorldTour victories here. Expect more of the unexpected in this year’s journey through Poland.
The Route
The Tour de Pologne opens with several days that aren’t likely to impact the General Classification: the fast men should reign supreme at the beginning of this week of racing. Stage 1 has a few small hills, but it’s not likely to see any significant separation and will probably end in a sprint. Stages 2 and 3 are almost guaranteed to come down to a bunch gallop, while Stage 4 at least closes out with a succession of small rollers to open the door for some moves (though a sprint is again a likelihood).
Stage 6: Bukovina Terma Hotel Spa › Bukowina Tatrzańska (174 km) – A constant barrage of tough climbs will guarantee fireworks on the penultimate stage of the race.
Stage 5 will be a jarring transition, with some early uphill challenges and then an arduous skyward trip to the Štrbské Pleso resort that is repeated not once, but twice, with the third and final ascent climbing higher than the first two to a summit finish line. Stage 6 is an even harder day of climbing, with almost no flat sections across 174 kilometers of racing.
Stage 7 (ITT): Kraków › Kraków (25 km) – The chrono that concludes the race will play a major part in deciding the final General Classification.
The seventh and final stage of the Tour of Poland is a 25 kilometer race against the clock that starts and finishes in Kraków. It’s a mostly flat affair that will really favor the powerful time trialing experts, and it’s likely to play an integral role in deciding the overall winner.
The General Classification Contenders
A few early hills, a pair of tough mountain stages, and a high-speed chrono make this a profile for the well-rounded riders. The the time trial, in particular, will have a big impact on the overall leaderboard: a 25 km ITT may not seem like much, but with only two real climbing stages to open up any serious gaps on GC, it will be a pivotal test for the contenders.
As unpredictable as the Tour de Pologne tends to be, Rafal Majka will enter the race as a top favorite. He’s a star climber who just won two stages and the King of the Mountains classification in the Tour de France, showcasing stellar form right now, but he has also developed considerably as a soloist this year, putting in a ride good for 4th in the Giro’s first (and less climber-friendly) ITT. With the motivation of performing in front of his home crowd, Majka has the tools to better the 4th overall he notched in the 2013 edition of this race.
The winner of that 2013 running of the Tour de Pologne, Pieter Weening, will be another likely protagonist in the GC battle. He’s had an up-and-down year, anonymous in some races but also winning a stage at the Giro d’Italia and the recent Giro della Toscana. When he is locked in, he’s a major talent, and this is a race in which he’s had a lot of success; in addition to his recent overall victory, he also has been 2nd overall and a stage winner in the past. Versatile Cameron Meyer will be a great teammate.
Movistar’s Ion Izagirre was runner-up in 2013 and looks to be on good form right now, having put in a strong ride in support of Alejandro Valverde in the Tour de France. The 25-year-old can deliver a nice time trial and while the high-gradient climbs can be a bit of a challenge for him, the uphill tests in this Tour de Pologne should be within his capabilities. Movistar also has Beñat Intxausti, who has shown immense talent in various races throughout his career (he was 8th in the Giro and outclimbed Rui Costa and Dan Martin to win the Tour of Beijing last year), but who has also been a nonfactor in plenty of races where he might have been expected to thrive. Eros Capecchi (6th in the 2013 Tour of Poland) and Andrey Amador are other options.
Sky’s Dario Cataldo will like the look of the profile. A strong time trialist who is also capable of powering up the less steep climbs quite nicely, he has the skillset to succeed here. Sky is desperate to find a shred of success right now and Cataldo is a tough competitor who came close to delivering results on a number of occasions in this year’s Giro. This could be his opportunity. Kanstantsin Siutsou, great in the ITT, and up-and-comer Sebastian Henao, great on the climbs, are other options.
Trek has a very strong squad for this race, with several potential GC contenders. It will be interesting to see how they play this: Bob Jungels should land a nice result on the final time trial, though the climbs will be a big challenge for him. Giro d’Italia King of the Mountains Julian Arredondo, on the other hand, shouldn’t have much trouble with those climbs, but he doesn’t have much ability against the clock. The same is true for Robert Kiserlovski, 10th overall in this year’s Giro. In other words, depending on how they decide to take on this race, Trek will have the firepower to light up the mountain stages, or to help support their more capable time trialist through them. Given all of the talent in the roster, it seems likely that they’ll have at least one rider in the mix for the Tour of Poland GC.
Wouter Poels of OPQS has an excellent skillset to contend. Known for punchy climbing ablility, he has developed into a good time trialist as well. He was 4th here in 2011 and has had a great year so far. Teammate Thomas De Gendt is another potential protagonist, with a top-notch time trial. He’s been an inconsistent rider on the climbs recently, sometimes showing great uphill form, sometimes struggling mightily, but if he can put together a pair of good days during the mountain stages, he could be in the mix.
Garmin-Sharp’s Ryder Hesjedal isn’t the rider he was in 2012 when he won the Giro, but he did land a decent 9th in that race this year, and followed that up with some strong riding in support of Andrew Talansky during the Dauphine. He hasn’t raced since, but this will be an important step in his Vuelta preparation. 23-year-old Nathan Brown, good against the clock and capable on climbs that aren’t too steep, could be a nice dark horse candidate.
Belkin’s Robert Gesink enters the race with unknown form, without many racing days in 2014 as a result of a heart condition that required surgery in the spring. A great all-round talent when at his best, he will be a rider to watch in this race. It’s hard to say how he’ll do: if the intense training he’s been doing out of competition has pulled him back into form, he’ll could contend here; on the other hand, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him fall off the pace early.
AG2R’s Christophe Riblon was on the podium of last year’s race, but he’s done very little so far in 2014. He did spend a lot of time putting in work for his teammates in the Tour de France, however, so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise to see him in the mix despite a lack of results this year: he’s obviously a great climber but he’s not bad in the ITT either. Astana’s Fabio Aru established himself as an elite uphill specialist in this year’s Giro d’Italia, but it will be a big ask for him to separate himself enough from the pack on the steep stuff to counteract the inevitable losses in a mostly flat ITT. Janez Brajkovic could be a nice alternative for the team. The chrono will be a major obstacle for Giant-Shimano’s Warren Barguil, but he’s a great climber who should be starting to round into form for the Vuelta. BMC has a very strong nice three-pronged attack in Steve Cummings, Samuel Sanchez, and Peter Velits. Lotto Belisol’s Maxime Monfort, Cannondale’s Davide Formolo, Damiano Caruso, and Moreno Moser, FDJ’s Alexandre Geniez, Lampre-Merida’s Przemyslaw Niemiec (who will try to get something out of this season in his home race after a crash doomed his Giro hopes), RusVelo’s Ilnur Zakarin, and CCC Polsat Polkowice’s Davide Rebellin are other outsiders who could be looking to land a GC result.
The Stagehunters
With several stages likely to end in sprints, the fast men will feature prominently in this race. Lampre’s Sacha Modolo looks to be the class of the bunch (with teammate Roberto Ferrari as a nice alternative), while Belkin’s Theo Bos, Giant-Shimano’s Luka Mezgec, OGE’s Michael Matthews, Movistar’s Juan Jose Lobato, Sky’s Ben Swift (and Edvald Boasson Hagen), and Garmin-Sharp’s Tyler Farrar will be other top contenders in the sprints. AG2R’s Yauheni Hutarovich and Davide Appollonio, BMC’s Thor Hushovd, OPQS’s Nikolas Maes, and Astana’s Francesco Gavazzi will also hope to be in the mix for the bunch finishes.
In addition to the many strong time trialists already mentioned as potential GC contenders, there will be several other chrono specialists in attendance, with Movistar’s Adriano Malori the top name on the list. OGE’s Brett Lancaster, Belkin’s Jack Bobridge, and Giant-Shimano’s Tobias Ludviggson are others with the potential to deliver against the clock.
VeloHuman Top 10 GC Favorites
Winner: Rafal Majka Podium: Pieter Weening, Dario Cataldo Other Top Contenders: Ion Izagirre, Wout Poels, Bob Jungels, Christophe Riblon, Ryder Hesjedal, Robert Gesink, Fabio Aru
As usual, VH will be tweeting plenty of live analysis during the race, so follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for more. Also, be sure to check back in a few days for the preview of the Eneco Tour!
