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Race thread: ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ Tour of Burgos 2026, Aug 4โ€“8 (www.vueltaburgos.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/procycling@lemmy.world
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This ProSeries race takes place on the scorched by the sun plateaus around the city of Burgos in Castile.

This year, it doesn't look like there will much space for sprinters on this punchy race, the GC of which goes to a climber. The first stage is the traditional hectic finish in Burgos (sprinters-punchers have a chance there together with punchers-climbers), and the last one the traditional mountain finish at the lakes of Neila.

The official website is very thorough, and the technical guide even more: for example, for stage #1, it contains over 100 photos of the various curves, crossings and even of the manholes covers and cracks in the road!! ๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿ‘

Riders

This is Gaudu's comeback to actual (?) competition. Since May, he's only started the National Championship in June, and the San Sebastian classic on Saturday, for 2 DNF... Let's see if he can put out this week something that justifies a bit of his salary...

There are quite a number of rather high profile contenders! F. Gall (๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น Decathlon), J. Vine (๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ UAE) if he can survive the usually stressing finishes of the first days without crashing, G. Ciccone (๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Lidl-Trek), Pellizzari (๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Bora), M. Rondel (๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Tudor).

As outsiders, P. Sivakov (๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท UAE) already won the race, A. Eulalio (๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น Bahrain) will try to find his crazy Giro legs, J. Nordhagen๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด and B. Tulett๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง will defend Visma's chances, L. Bisiaux (๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท France) will supplement Gall, and M. Beloki (๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ EF) has just won the (much, much weaker) Tour de l'Ain.

Stages

Stage 1

165 km, D+ 1500m

The traditional punchy finish on the castle hill in Burgos, after the flattest stage.

Press to see the map

Stage 2

177 km, D+ 2300 m

A finish for long punchers on this murito.

Press to see the map

(yeah, I know, the less important climb got a larger picture ๐Ÿ™‚)

Stage 3

183 km, D+ 3200 m

This stage and its almost-on-top-finish will very likely start sorting GC favourites. They won't be able to hide on this difficult Puerto del Escudo (a new one on this race, but it was apparently ridden a few times on the Vuelta).

Stage 4

178 km, D+ 1900 m

Can sprinters make it through this one in a front group? Otherwise, it looks like a good chance for breakaways, between 2 mountain stages.

The 'climbs' are not terrible at all today:

Finnish profile:

Stage 5 (last)

137 km, D+ 2900 m

The usual decisive finish on top.

Press to see the map

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[โ€“] [S] 1 point 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Stage 1

165 km, D+ 1500m

The traditional punchy finish on the castle hill in Burgos, after the flattest stage.

It went as usual: the breakaway died over the new ring road that comes just before the actual entry into the city, and then there was a group finish in the climb, with a Kern rider who started early but blew up as other riders launched the sprint over the last 150 m.

Visma takes the first 2 positions with the two Englismen M. Brennan๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง the sprinter-puncher, and B. Tullett one of the GC favourites. A pair of Decathlon riders did well too, the all-terrain Labrosse๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท and the possible GC co-leader Bisiaux๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท.

This is Gaudu's comeback to actual (?) competition. Let's see if he can put out this week something that justifies a bit of his salary...

Nope. Not today anyway. Several miles before the finish, he brought a few teammates up in the peloton, and then dropped. ๐Ÿ™„

edit: Ah, here is his classification: 151^th^ at 3โ€ฒ30โ€ณ...

I am waiting for the official classification, but there will certainly be splits at the finish, with several GC favoutites behind.

edit: so, of the list of favourites & outsiders I had picked:

  • only B. Tulett (๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Visma) and L. Bisiaux (๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Decathlon) are in the top dozen;
  • M. Rondel (๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Tudor) follows at 6 seconds;
  • A. Eulalio (๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น Bahrain), J. Vine (๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ UAE), P. Sivakov (๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท UAE), M. Beloki (๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ EF), J. Nordhagen (๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Visma), F. Gall (๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น Decathlon) and G. Ciccone (๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Lidl-Trek) are in the large group at 12 seconds;
  • so only Pellizzari (๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Bora) is pushed back to the group at 28 seconds; what's a bit concerning is that the split happened right before him.
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  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Maybe Pellizari is just tired, for such a young rider he's had a long season.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    You're not at the cutting edge any more, Carsten. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    He is almost 23 years old. That's OLD nowadays! ๐Ÿ˜„

    I look at his past and future program. So far, he has done a lot of stage races, so that's truly many racing days, but that also means relatively significant breaks in between: 1 month off before the Trentin, 2x2 weeks off before and after the Giro, 5 or 6 weeks off before San-Sebastian; and after Burgos, apparently 1 month off is coming before the series of small and big Italian classics in September/October.

    He may not end the year with more or much more racing days than in the last two season, if I trust PCS (and I do, for I am not going to check elsewhere ๐Ÿคฃ): 60 and 64; while he stands at 50 now.

    What I mean to say with this racing days statistics is that he has been used to it already for 2 years. Nevertheless, one may also think that he was running less as a leader or with high and well-defined objectives, and had less pressure to be good almost every day.

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