Following his participation in the Clasica San Sebastian, his first race back after injury during the Tour de France, Tinkoff’s GC leader Alberto Contador lines up at the five day Vuelta a Burgos in Spain. The race will be a strong test and preparation race in the build-up for the Tour of Spain, for both Alberto and his teammates.
Alberto will be joined at the race by a selection of riders capable of supporting him in his goal of a strong GC position, as well as racing for their own stage successes. Jesús Hernandez, Sergio Paulinho, Ivan Rovny and Yuri Trofimov come to the race from San Sebastian where they raced alongside Alberto. Michael Gogl comes to the race after a strong fourth place overall at the Tour of Denmark, while the team is completed by Adam Blythe and Jay McCarthy.
Despite wins in most of the major Spanish stage races in the calendar, the Vuelta a Burgos is a race that Alberto has never etched on his palmares. However, with the race forming part of Alberto’s build towards the Vuelta a España following his Tour de France disappointment, it may be more of a case of finding form than racing for the victory.
The race offers the team a range of different opportunities, and Sport Director Ivan Basso confirmed that the riders will have their chances over the five days. “For Alberto, he comes here from injury so we have to see how he is. We will focus on bringing him through the race in a good way, and we will see how he recovers from San Sebastian and go from there.
“For the other riders, it’s a good race to take their opportunities for results. We will see day-by-day who can do what. In this race I think you can get your own results, which is important for the riders. I want to see the Tinkoff spirit, which is in our DNA, to see the team fighting, motivated, committed and working hard in the race.”
The race gets underway with a relatively flat stage that suits the sprinters before the GC will see a shake up with the second day’s team time trial. Stage 3 will be more suited to the breakaway, or a small group coming to the finish with three categorised climbs to tackle, while stage 4 also will be a tough test that should shed the pure sprinters.
Finally, the race comes to a climax with the queen stage on Saturday, covering seven categorised climbs, including the final mountain top finish after 163km of racing. This final day will be a good test for Alberto to see how his climbing legs have recovered after the Tour, and how his recovery process is coming along.
Basso continued, “It’s nice for me as it’s my second experience as first Sport Director, and I’m happy to share this with Jan Valach – we’ll repeat the same experience of Croatia where we had a great race. This is a much different race, first of all because our GC captain is there, Alberto, and it’s an important race as we have 12 other WorldTour teams there, and it’s a very difficult race. We will try each day to see what we can do.”
The Race
Stage 1, Sasamón – Melgar de Fernamental, 158km
With just one categorised climb on the parcours for the opening stage, the race’s first leader should be decided in a bunch sprint. The third category climb crests after just 50km of racing before a flat run to the finish.
Stage 2, Burgos – Burgos, 10.72km TTT
The race’s only time trial, stage 2 will see teams put their overall strengths to the test with this short, fast team time trial. To make things slightly more complicated, the riders will tackle the Alto del Castillo just before the midway point.
Stage 3, Sedano – Villacayo, 198km
The climbs start to become a bit more testing on stage 3 as the peloton tackles three categorised ascents over the day’s 198km route. The final climb of the day will reach its summit with just 17km to go, and after a fast descent, the riders will fight out the stage on a flat run-in.
Stage 4, Aranda de Duero – Lerma, 145km
Another tough, rolling stage faces the peloton on the fourth day, tackling two categorised climbs, as well as other uncategorised ramps. A slightly uphill finish will draw out the puncheurs, unless a breakaway survives to fight out the finish.
Stage 5, Caleruega – Lagunas de Neila, 163km
The final stage of the race is also the queen stage, with its mountain-top finish atop Laguna de Neila, over 2000m altitude. The GC should be sorted out on the slopes of this final climb, with the climbers looking to leave their mark. However, with six other classified climbs on the route, there’s plenty more to challenge the riders on the day.
