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Sunday, August 25, 2024

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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all thy wit, can cancel half a line of it. - Omar Khayyam

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Current racing:

• August 17 - Sept 8: Vuelta a España
• August 25: Bretagne Classic Ouest-France
  

Upcoming racing:

• August 28 - September 1: Renewi Tour

Latest completed racing:

• August 20 - 23: Tour du Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine
• August 12 - 18: Tour of Poland
• August 14 - 18: PostNord Denmark Rundt
• August 13 - 16: Tour du Limousin
• August 11: La Polynormande
• August 10: Clasica San Sebastian
• August 5 - 9: Vuelta a Burgos
• August 4 - 7: Arctic Race of Norway
• July 27 - August 4: Olympic cycling

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Vuelta a España stage eight reports

We posted the race organizer's report with the results.

Here's the report from stage winner Primoz Roglic's Team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe:

8th stage - 2nd victory. Primož Roglič has added another chapter to his impressive Grand Tour history. Today's win is his 21st stage victory in one of the three grand tours. But it wasn't the hunt for records that was decisive today - the hunt for seconds is currently taking centre stage.

Roglič has made up almost a minute on the current leader of the Vuelta over the past two days. He remains in second place in the overall standings, now 3:49 minutes behind Ben O'Connor. With the stage win, Roglič also takes the lead in the mountain classification and will start tomorrow in the blue dotted jersey. After the previous red and white jerseys, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe now has another classification jersey for the 2024 Vuelta in its ranks.

Primoz Roglic enjoys his stage win. Sirotti photo

Primož Roglič:
“It was another tough day, the chance to win the stage was there and I took it. I was lucky to have the legs for it today. We'll see how my body reacts to this effort. So we'll enjoy the moment and try our best again tomorrow.”

Tomorrow's ninth stage leads through the Sierra Nevada. With more than 4500 metres in altitude, it puts the previous mountain stages in the shade. It is undoubtedly the biggest challenge for the riders in the first half of the Vuelta.

Here's the Vuelta report from third-place Mikel Landa's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Mikel Landa notched up his ninth Grand Tour stage podium on what was arguably the hardest finish of the Vuelta a España so far, Sierra de Cazorla – a 4.8km third-category climb irregular in gradient which featured punishing 20% slopes that poured lead into the riders’ legs and made for some important gaps.

Coming at the end of the short stage eight that started from Ubeda, the ascent immediately strung out an already depleted peloton, who was also split by a crash that held up several of the general classification favourites. T-Rex Quick-Step’s Mikel – who on Friday ticked off his 150th La Vuelta stage start – was one of the few to avoid the incident despite the pile-up happening just in front of him, and later found himself in a small three-man group that set out in pursuit of the remaining escapees.

In the final 1500 meters, the climb ramped up to double-digit gradients, and it was there that another selection took place. Pain etched on his face, teeth gritting, the 34-year-old Basque conjured up a valiant effort in the preposterously steep final kilometer of Sierra de Cazorla, overtaking the last member of the original breakaway to take third behind Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), who captured the win.

Mikel Landa finishes third. Sirotti photo

“At the start of this race, I found it a bit difficult to get into the rhythm, but now I am feeling good. Today we had a hard final ascent, an explosive one, and as you could see some significant gaps were made on those tough slopes. Fortunately, I had good legs and felt quite strong, so I gave my best and I am happy with my third place. The Vuelta is still long and a lot of things can happen, but I have a lot of confidence after these first demanding climbs of the race and will continue to take it one day at a time”, explained Mikel, who is fifth overall ahead of the first week’s final stage.

Here's the stage 8 report from sixth-place Carlos Rodriguez's Team INEOS Grenadiers:

Carlos Rodriguez avoided a late crash on the final climb to finish sixth on stage eight of the Vuelta a Espana.

The Spaniard was able to check up and avoid the crash as the decisive climb to Cazorla began, but had to fight back to the head of the GC group with the support of team-mate Jhonatan Narvaez.

Sixth over the line saw him finish 21 seconds back on stage victor Primoz Roglic (Red Bull - BORA - Hansgrohe). Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) shipped some seconds on the steep final slopes but retained the red jersey as the race began its second week.

Carlos Rodriguez finishes stage 8. Sirotti photo

The stage saw Carlos move up eight places to 12th overall, now 5:56 back on the red jersey of O’Connor.

Earlier, seven riders had headed up road, holding a gap of 3:20 over day’s highest point – the second-category Puerto Mirador de las Palomas. In the early phases of the race INEOS Grenadiers, including Laurens De Plus, had pushed hard to get up the road during a rapid start to the day.

Here's the Vuelta report from 18th-place David Gaudu's Team Groupama-FDJ:

For the third time in a week, the Vuelta a Espana ended with a hill-top finish on Saturday. In Cazorla, a rather explosive effort was required, and David Gaudu tried to limit his losses as much as possible, after a complicated start to the climb due to a crash in front of him. The Frenchman then fought hard to take eighteenth place, one minute behind the winner Primoz Roglic. The Groupama-FDJ leader now sits in sixteenth place overall before a really hard day on Sunday towards Granada.

David Gaudu heads to the stage 8 start line. Sirotti photo

This Saturday, on stage 8 of the Vuelta a Espana, everything seemed to announce a breakaway victory after 160 kilometres, on the irregular climb of Cazorla (4.8 km at 7.2%). Consequently, the battle at the start to get the right move obviously proved to be frantic. It began at 1:30 p.m., and it spread over nearly sixty kilometres, on undulating terrain. In accordance with the day’s ambitions of Groupama-FDJ, Sven-Erik Bystrom, Quentin Pacher and Rémy Rochas gave it a try. However, after ninety minutes of fighting, a breakaway of eight men without Thierry Bricaud’s riders eventually went clear. “We wanted to be in front today, especially with Rémy because the final could suit him,” explained the French sports director. “He tried many times, but he didn’t manage to get the right one. In hindsight, we don’t have so many regrets because the breakaway didn’t make it. In any case, there’s still just as much motivation and that’s the most important thing.” The breakaway’s lead initially remained around five minutes, then Israel-Premier Tech took on the chase at full speed.
On the hilly final leading up to the last climb, the gap was significantly reduced, and the peloton tackled the bottom of the Sierra de Cazorla just one minute behind the three remaining fugitives. At the bottom, David Gaudu also experienced a small setback, with Aleksandr Vlasov crashing in front of him. “He got a bit delayed,” commented Thierry. On steep slopes, the Frenchman made an effort to gradually catch up with a very small red jersey group. He managed to do so about three kilometres from the summit, but he was unable to follow when Roglic attacked a few moments later. After a very demanding final kilometre, David Gaudu eventually took eighteenth place, 1’01 behind the Slovenian winner, but only fifteen seconds behind the red jersey Ben O’Connor. “I’m disappointed, I thought I had much better legs”, said David. “It doesn’t pay back the team that has been working hard since the start”. “He limited the losses, especially since he had to make an effort to get back at the bottom,” added Thierry. “We mustn’t forget that it’s 37-38 degrees and that you pay for every effort in these conditions. He’s not giving up, he’s up there. Tomorrow, it will be a strong stage, and things will be clearer then.”

On Saturday evening, the French climber is sixteenth overall, 6’30 behind the red jersey, two minutes behind the podium, and one minute behind the top 10.

Sepp Kuss' Team Visma | Lease a Bike posted this report:

Sepp Kuss finished the eighth stage in the Vuelta a España just over a minute behind stage winner Primoz Roglic. The 29-year-old American got involved in a crash in the peloton on the steep final climb.

As Sepp Kuss heads to the start a fan takes a selfie with him. Sirotti photo

The day after Wout van Aert's second stage victory, the peloton was presented with an uphill finish. On paper, stage eight looked like a chance for the escapees, but the classification teams kept the day's breakaway within reach. 

At the foot of the steep final climb to Cazorla, several riders - including Kuss - were held up by a crash. The American then briefly managed to get back to the group of favourites, but after another acceleration by Roglic, he ended up in a chasing group. Kuss eventually crossed the line in 21st place, 1'07’ behind the stage winner. 

“I felt good and we were well positioned as a team for the final climb”, Kuss responded afterwards. “In the beginning of the climb I got held up by the crash, so I had to chase. I still tried to rejoin the group of favourites, but unfortunately that just did not work out.” 

On Sunday, the tough stage between Motril and Granada is scheduled. Three first-category climbs await the riders.

And here's the Vuelta report from Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:

It was another challenging day on La Vuelta with 159 kilometres from Úbeda to Cazorla on the cards. It was a good start to the race with Gijs Leemreize making his way into the second break attempt that stayed away, gaining a four minute gap on the peloton initially. As they approached the Puerto Mirador de Las Palomas, the pace increased in the peloton and a call came from the car that it looked as if it was going to be a GC day, so Leemreize returned to the peloton to support Max Poole in the brutal closing kilometres of Stage 8.

The front riders begin stage 8's final ascent.

The team fought hard and Poole gave it his all, but after being held up in the crash where he lost momentum, he had to ride in at his own pace. Pavel Bittner maintains his third place in the points classification and Max Poole maintains seventh in the youth classification after eight stages.

“A difficult day”, says Coach Phil West “We again wanted to search for the right the break. There was a lot of action, a lot of fighting, and some really big groups going at first but in the end there was no right break. We were in there with Gijs but I made the decision to pull him back as it wasn’t the right thing as in the end the race really unfolded from the peloton. It was a big GC fight so then we switched tactics to make sure Max came into the final, which was a really savage final, as good as possible. He had hoped for a little bit more there but when I saw what was happening with other GC guys, then it wasn’t a terrible day. We just need to stay calm, it’s a long three weeks and there’s more to come.”

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