Vuelta a Espana Stage 19 is the lone Individual Time Trial (ITT) of this years race. The big question for Friday’s stage is how much time can Chris Froome make up on Nairo Quintana?
Vuelta a Espana Stage 19 – The Profile
Stage 19 is a 37km ITT from Xabia to Calp. The profile is in the main pretty flat. There are a couple of small hills but nothing too challenging for the riders. The course favours the stronger more powerful ITT types of riders. The first half of the stage contains the climbing section – note there are no categorised climbs on the route. The second half features some descending and a flat run to the finish. Riders will run negative splits on the this course.
Of the worlds top ITT riders there are only two present here – Chris Froome (Sky) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar). Froome has to produce the ride of his life to gain as much time as he can on race leader Nairo Quintana. Quintana has to ride well too to limit the losses. A swing of 90 seconds plus will make for a very exciting mountain stage on Saturday.
Champion in Calp
The Big Two
Chris Froome knows this is his last real chance to make significant ground on Nairo Quintana. He isn’t going to make up enough to claim the lead or anything like that but he should pull closer to the Colombian. More importantly he may well be able to distance himself from those around him such as Contador and Chaves. Froome is an expert rider of ITTs especially the fairly flat ones like this and we expect him to eat up the ground. He is a very worthy favourite in our eyes.
The only real challenger to Froome is the Movistar rider Jonathan Castroviejo. He showed in the Olympics what he is capable of and in the absence of the likes of Tom Domoulin, Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara, Castroviejo is the main danger to the Briton. There may not be a whole lot between the two at the end of the stage but Froome will be motivated here which is why we prefer him.
Others
Alberto Contador will be looking for a good time trial to push his claim for second place in the race and having started to show a little bit of life over the last week or so if he can drag a minute and more back on Quintana he might yet get into a position to do something on Saturday. He isn’t going to be a challenger to Froome though and we would just be taking him to place which isn’t the way forward.
Alejandro Valverde is another heavyweight who will be looking for a decent time trial although he might just be preserving his legs for Saturday where he will be looking to protect his lead in the points classification. We can see the Spaniard gatecrashing the top 10 in this stage but not much else.
Leopold Konig could be a spoiler in the field. We’ve seen him ride really well in the last week or so and he rode a pretty decent time trial in the Olympics but there was a lot of climbing in that course and there isn’t as much here so that could well count against him.
Samuel Sanchez is another who will be sniffing a stage win in the time trial. He is a strong and powerful rider who is often good at the business end of Grand Tours but he is another one who might have to settle for a top 10 finish.
One man who could trouble the main two as an outsider is Luis Leon Sanchez Gil. I noticed LLS’ Astana team director saying his charge is ready for a big tilt at this stage and that the team ride in this area when they do their winter training so it could be that Sanchez has a bit of an advantage on the field. Sanchez has been riding well recently and his 16.00 price is enough to tempt us in for an each way punt.
Vuelta a Espana Stage 19 – Tips
WON – Back C.Froome to win Stage 19 for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back L-L.Sanchez Gil to win Stage 19 (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 16.00 with William Hill (1/4 1-3)
Back him here:
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