Race thread: 🇪🇸 O gran Camiño (the Great Way), Apr 14–18
This 5-day race takes place in Galicia (the very wet north-east extremity of Spain). In its short existence, it has been won twice by Vingegaard🇩🇰.
It starts with a 15 km ITT on the shore of Corunna, but it is not flat and includes at least 2 km of cobbled road. Then there are two days which seem made for punchers-sprinters, and it end with two days tailored for climbers and climbers-punchers.
Among favourites are Adam Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) et and Ivan Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar); it looks like all French teams decided to shun this class 1 race this year.
Stage 1, Tue 14 (ITT):
Stage 2, Wed 15:
Stage 3, Thu 16:
Stage 4, Fri 17:
Stage 5, Sat 18:
https://ograncamino.gal/?lang=enOpen linkView original on sh.itjust.works
Why isnt gee-west there? His team isnt even there
This race ends on Saturday, and the Tour of the Alps (Trentino) starts on Monday. Those two races would be ridden by mostly the same 'group' within a team. I didn't check carefully but it looks very much like there isn't a single team which signed up for both races. They either go to Galicia or to Tyrol, but not both.
On top of this, there are two one-day punchy/mountainish races in France on Friday and Saturday. They usually welcomed a mix of French and Spanish teams while top guys/teams where on Flèche Brabançonne and Amstel, but this year, apart from Kern Pharma, they will be depleted from Spanish teams this year because of Gran Camiño happening at the same time.
So, quite a collision of races for similar riders at the moment.
Ah, ah, Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar) performed a rage-quit after a puncture, finishing at leisure pace, 1′30″ behind the winner. (NB: that's still faster than the only Frenchman in the race... 🙂).
The Danes and almost-Danes did well with J. Johansen (UAE) winning the stage with a substantial gap over 2 Portuguese rider, and J. Nordhagen (Visma) finishing 4^th^. Johansen🇩🇰 was ahead on each of the 3 sectors of the course, if I trust the commentators.
A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) is still in the fight, 6^th^ at 40 seconds.
What else? Patrick Gos*.*urny (🇵🇱 Visma) is just behind Yates. I think I remember this name from Oman and around, where he must have been active in breakaways.
The Portugese riders are N. Oliveira for Movistar, and before him Rafael Reis from Anicolor. One cannot help being suspicious about riders like the latter, who only ride in Portugal; but he is a Time Trial specialist.
Not an easy TT, between the climbs and the stone roads that riders tried to avoid by staying over a narrow concrete stripe in the middle, used to collect water, therefore interrupted at regular intervals by evacuation gratings, which must have caused several punctures for riders who didn't care about avoiding them.
Stage 2
J. Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural), who was 5^th^ in TT (and thus in GC), is in the breakaway, but he didn't even try to get the 3x3=9 available seconds of time bonuses... I mean, he didn't even try to go for 1 or 2 seconds. He attacked just after and left with 2 other guys, whom he dropped in the main climb. He would then be caught by the peloton in the hills after the climb.
In the peloton, no differences were made in the climb, but there was a split in the false-flats that followed, and the GC leader Johansen🇩🇰 was on the wrong side of it. He was completely abandoned by his team UAE, and had to pull his group alone, until most of the group dropped him, and then he was still pulling alone the remaining until the line. In their defence, ahead were only A. Yates🇬🇧 and one teammate, I reckon.
I. Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar) was pulling the front group most of the time. Then there were attacks by his teammates (I think, notably, by N. Oliveira🇵🇹 – 3^rd^ in GC).
For the sprint, C. Canal (🇪🇸 Movistar) started early and created a small gap. He was followed by Wenzel (🇳🇱 Kern Pharma), but the Dutch never could completely take his wheel and finished 2^nd^. Fagundez (🇺🇾 Burgos) finishes 3^rd^, before a Visma trio who looked a bit pissed to have missed the podium. The gaps were close to nothing, there is no split on the line between all those riders.
Overall, a rather pleasant race, IMO.
Excerpt from the comments:
🙂
Stage 3
There were accelerations and attacks in the big climb 30-40 km from the line. They condemned the breakaway and soon a group of 2 (Balderstone (🇪🇸 Caja Rura) + G. Bennett (🇳🇿 NSN)) and a group of 4 (A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) + Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar) + Nordhagen (🇳🇴 Visma) + Pinarello (🇮🇹 NSN)) detached and then joined together.
The triple Intermediate Sprints giving time bonuses were more spaced than yesterday, and there were real fights for them even though the first one, at the bottom of a climb after a descent, seem to surprise several riders a bit.
Then the group of 6 split in two equal parts. Ahead, Balderstone🇪🇸 was struggling a bit; behind, Bennett🇳🇿 wouldn't ride as his NSN teammate was ahead, and there was a bit of friction between Yates🇬🇧 and Nordhagen🇳🇴. Then Romeo🇪🇸 dropped the other two ahead, Pinarello🇮🇹 was most active in the chase but couldn't catch him.
Romeo🇪🇸 relaxed a bit in the end as if GC didn't matter to him. The various gaps in the end are not very big, and they act rather oppositely to how the GC was, so the result is that there are now 6 riders in less than 30 seconds, and Romeo🇪🇸 belongs to those 6. Pinarello🇮🇹 gets the GC leader jersey (in the same time as Nordhagen🇳🇴!), despite the utterly idiotic move of G. Bennett🇳🇿 who sprinted for... 4^th^ place in the second trio (therefore there were no available time bonus any more), causing Nordhagen🇳🇴 and A. Yates🇬🇧 to arrive sooner than without his sprint.
The guys from the large group that came behind today are not far either.
Stage 4
Everything waited the last climb (they were climbing the big mount 'Cabeza de Meda' in the opposite direction they had climbed it 30 km earlier) to happen, but A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) took no prisoner. The gap with his chasers, the young Nordhagen (🇳🇴 Visma) and Pinarello (🇮🇹 NSN, a bit farther) remain constant around 15 seconds for a mile or so, but in the end the Englishman accelerated (or all others tired out), and the gap grew in the last mile, reaching 45 seconds for the Norwegian and 1 minute for the Italian.
Several Caja Rural rider came just after. J. Parra🇪🇸 was better than Pinarello🇮🇹 after the first attack by Yates🇬🇧 but the Italian has then recovered a bit and taken the Spaniard over. Balderstone🇪🇸 almost joined him on the line. As it is a 2.1 race, they don't score any point for the stage, but if they can reiterate this performance tomorrow, they will score in GC. They are also 1^st^ in Team Classification, but I don't think it brings any UCI point...
Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar) was so-so today, never quite at the front, but still finishes 8^th^, however almost 2 minutes behind.
A. Yates🇬🇧 is first in GC, but with about 30 seconds over Nordhagen🇳🇴, 1 mn over Pinarello🇮🇹 and 1′30″ over Balderstone🇪🇸, no collapse is allowed tomorrow. The terrain should suit him tomorrow too.