La Vuelta a Espana - The MN Pro-cycling Peloton rides again!

[MaillotRojoPan]

The third Grand Tour of the year, following the Giro d'Italia in spring and the Tour de France in summer. It's always a tough ride and this year's is a beast.

If you've seen pro-cycling on tv for instance, or witnessed local rides and been a bit curious about the hows and whys we have such a spectacle of endeavour, tactics, sacrifice, strops and often pointless 'break-a-ways' then be curious no more - the committed MN peloton members will ride with you and chat as we go. Some members will be distracted by so many fit young men with bulging thighs, but be kind to them.

Next up, a course outline, timings and general stuff about La Vuelta.

La route,
So we start off in the south in Andalusia, including the southern sierras, up toward Valencia on the eastern coast, up to Andorra and the Pyrenees, skirt the Basque, and eventually ride south into Castilla with a finish in Madrid.

Tap the map for a (slightly) clearer image...

Thanks for doing the thread. As you can see from my screen name, not only was I on the list but I was unable to get a new password for the old name so here I am with a new sponsor having been locked out for a few days.

Controversy from the off as the organisers decide on a Vuelta/cyclo cross mash up

www.cyclingnews.com/news/vuelta-a-espaa-riders-question-conditions-of-dirt-bike-path-team-time-trial-course/

ariadne! Hola! Yes Jeffrey has a few questions to answer, hasn't he? Hope all of this is okay with you?

FelicityLemon - very nice.

Yeah...it's a bit surprising that teams are expressing 'surprise' only now, when the route had been advertised for months - maximise the protest, rather than it coming out in dribs and drabs?

Absolutely!

Here's the start list:

Vuelta a Espana 2015: startlist

Astana
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP)
Fabio Aru (ITA)
Mikel Landa (ESP)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Dario Cataldo (ITA)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
Alessandro Vanotti (ITA)
Andrey Zeits (KAZ)

Ag2r-La Mondiale
Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA)
Gediminas Bagdonas (LTU)
Mikael Cherel (FRA)
Alexis Gougeard (FRA)
Blel Kadri (FRA)
Sebastien Minard (FRA)
Matteo Montaguti (ITA)
Rinaldo Nocentini (ITA)
Johan Vansummeren (BEL)

BMC Racing
Tejay van Garderen (USA)
Darwin Atapuma (COL)
Marcus Burghardt (GER)
Alessandro de Marchi (ITA)
Jean-Pierre Drucker (LUX)
Amael Moinard (FRA)
Joey Rosskopf (USA)
Samuel Sanchez (ESP)
Peter Velits (SVK)

Etixx-QuickStep
David de la Cruz (ESP)
Carlos Verona (ESP)
Maxime Bouet (FRA)
Niki Terpstra (NED)
Iljo Keisse (BEL)
Nikolas Maes (BEL)
Pieter Serry (BEL)
Gianluca Brambilla (ITA)
Martin Velits (SVK)

FDJ
Arnaud Courteille (FRA)
Mickael Delage (FRA)
Kenny Elissonde (FRA)
Murilo Antonio Fischer (BRA)
Olivier le Gac (FRA)
Lorrenzo Manzin (FRA)
Laurent Pichon (FRA)
Kevin Reza (FRA)
Jussi Veikkanen (FIN)

IAM Cycling
Vicente Reynes (ESP)
Marcel Aregger (SUI)
Larry Warbasse (USA)
Matteo Pelucchi (ITA)
Sylvain Chavanel (FRA)
Jerome Coppel (FRA)
Thomas Degand (BEL)
Simon Pellaud (SUI)
David Tanner (AUS)

Lampre-Merida
Przemyslaw Niemiec (POL)
Maximiliano Richeze (ARG)
Valerio Conti (ITA)
Tsgabu Grmay (ETH)
Mattia Cattaneo (ITA)
Kristijan Durasek (CRO)
Ilia Koshevoy (BLR)
Nelson Oliveira (POR)
Ruben Plaza (ESP)

Lotto-Soudal
Jasper de Buyst (BEL)
Kris Boeckmans (BEL)
Tosh van der Sande (BEL)
Bart de Clercq (BEL)
Jurgen van den Broeck (BEL)
Jelle Vanendert (BEL)
Maxime Monfort (BEL)
Adam Hansen (AUS)
Thomas de Gendt (BEL)

Movistar
Nairo Quintana (COL)
Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Andrey Amador (CRC)
Fran Ventoso (ESP)
Rory Sutherland (AUS)
Imanol Erviti (ESP)
Javier Moreno (ESP)
Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP)
Giovanni Visconti (ITA)

Orica-GreenEDGE
Johan Esteban Chaves (COL)
Damien Howson (AUS)
Jens Keukeleire (BEL)
Caleb Ewan (AUS)
Simon Gerrans (AUS)
Mitchell Docker (AUS)
Mathew Hayman (AUS)
Daryl Impey (RSA)
Cameron Meyer (AUS)

Team Cannondale-Garmin
André Cardoso (POR)
Joe Dombrowski (USA)
Alex Howes (USA)
Ben King (USA)
Dan Martin (IRL)
Matej Mohoric (SVN)
Moreno Moser (ITA)
Andrew Talansky (USA)
Davide Villella (ITA)

Team Giant-Alpecin
John Degenkolb (GER)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Luka Mezgec (SVN)
Zico Waetyns (BEL)
Lawson Craddock (USA)
Johannes Frohlinger (GER)
Thierry Hupond (FRA)
Koen de Kort (NED)
Tom Stamsnijder (NED)

Team Katusha
Joaquim Rodriguez (ESP)
Vladimir Isaychev (RUS)
Pavel Kochetkov (RUS)
Alberto Losada (ESP)
Daniel Moreno (ESP)
Egor Silin (RUS)
Angel Vicioso (ESP)
Eduard Vorganov (RUS)
Tiago Machado (POR)

Team LottoNL-Jumbo
Bert-Jan Lindeman (NED)
Tom van Asbroeck (BEL)
Martijn Keizer (NED)
Mike Teunissen (NED)
George Bennett (NZL)
Timo Roosen (NED)
Dennis van Winden (NED)
Maarten Wynants (BEL)
Maarten Tjallingii (NED)

Team Sky
Chris Froome (GBR)
Geraint Thomas (GBR)
Nicolas Roche (IRL)
Mikel Nieve (ESP)
Vasil Kiryienka (BLR)
Christian Knees (GER)
Ian Boswell (USA)
Sergio Henao (COL)
Salvatore Puccio (ITA)

Tinkoff-Saxo
Peter Sagan (SVK)
Rafal Majka (POL)
Daniele Bennati (ITA)
Pawel Poljanski (POL)
Maciej Bodnar (POL)
Sergio Paulinho (POR)
Jesper Hansen (DEN)
Jay McCarthy (AUS)
Pavel Brutt (RUS)

Trek Factory Racing
Frank Schleck (LUX)
Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
Riccardo Zoidl (AUT)
Jasper Stuyven (BEL)
Danny van Poppel (NED)
Markel Irizar (ESP)
Yaroslav Popovych (UKR)
Boy van Poppel (NED)
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)

Caja Rural-Seguros
David Arroyo (ESP)
Amets Txurruka (ESP)
Pello Bilbao (ESP)
Omar Fraile (ESP)
Ricardo Vilela (POR)
Jose Goncalves (POR)
Carlos Barbero (ESP)
Lluis Guillermo Mas (ESP)
Angel Madrazo (ESP)

Team Colombia
Alex Cano (COL)
Fabio Duarte (COL)
Leonardo Duque (COL)
Walter Fernando Pedraza Morales (COL)
Carlos Quintero (COL)
Brayan Steven Ramirez (COL)
Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)
Rodolfo Andres Torres (COL)
Juan Pablo Valencia (COL)

Cofidis, Solutions Credits
Daniel Navarro (ESP)
Nacer Bouhanni (FRA)
Yoann Bagot (FRA)
Romain Hardy (FRA)
Cyril Lemoine (FRA)
Dominique Rollin (CAN)
Stephane Rossetto (FRA)
Julien Simon (FRA)
Geoffrey Soupe (FRA)

MTN-Qhubeka
Steve Cummings (GBR)
Louis Meintjes (RSA)
Johann van Zyl (RSA)
Kristian Sbaragli (ITA)
Songezo Jim (RSA)
Jaco Venter (RSA)
Natnael Berhane (ERI)
Youcef Reguigui (ALG)
Jay Robert Thomson (RSA)

Team Europcar
Yukiya Arashiro (JAP)
Pierre Rolland (FRA)
Antoine Duchesne (CAN)
Fabrice Jeandesboz (FRA)
Jerome Cousin (FRA)
Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA)
Cyril Gautier (FRA)
Tony Hurel (FRA)
Romain Sicard (FRA)

Television coverage in the UK?

It looks like EuroSport does live coverage from 3pm onward, then ITV4 has highlights 7pm to 8pm.

And that is a busy start list! As was said on the other thread, it's almost like a re-run of Le Tour, with accounts still to be settled!

Have a soft spot for Blel Kadri on AG2R Mondial as he was the break-away rider in 2014 when we were waiting for them all off Cote de Holme Moss near my house. Helicopters, cheers from folk further up the road, then he appears about 3 mins ahead of the peloton.

Should be a good tour, sand and carpet notwithstanding. Hope Dan Martin does well I have a soft spot for him and if the rumours are true then he'll be at Etixx next season, win win. :)

Oh yes, I do love Dan Martin. He deserves a few good wins.

Agree it looks an awful lot like a re run of the tour. Who is holding a grudge, are teams going to work together to make sure Froome doesn't run away with this one, will Froome still have the legs, will anyone still have the legs? I think this is going to be fun .

Ahem, I will only be looking at the bulging thighs of the over 30's maybe late 20's because I don't want to be inappropriate . If Spartacus manages an entire race without breaking a vertebra I will have eyes only for him.

Am in town tomorrow morning so will pop into a turf accountants (?) and put a small bit on G. getting a podium finish. It's a destiny thing, I reckon.

ooh - Froome is 3-1 for the win, slightly behind Quintana at 9-4 favourite....

Hola amigos!

Evening DA - quite looking fwd to the 'escapados' tag on tv. #simplesoul

This year's Vuelta has really caught my attention, doesn't seem like 2 minutes since the end of Le Tour. I don't think Froome has the legs for this, my money would be on Quintana.

What's happened to marcel kittel, he is not on giant alcipen list, bad enough not having on the tour, he is an awesome sprinter and he really loves his hair!

I was wondering about that too bike, had decided in my head that they had all fallen out as he had thrown a strop over not doing the TdF and was threatening to go to another team. Turns out I need to get out more as it is a more sensible decision that he won't be able to keep going over the full three weeks as there are a lot of hill top finishes and it's a demanding course. My idea sounded more exciting. Poor Kittel, he cares so much for his hair as well, shame it's not going to get much air time this year. Oh, wait...

We're almost off! Just a late team entry....TTT favourites, the Johnson family, recky the course.

I'm actually really excited to see them going round something a little different. It's the same for all of them so fair. They need nice fat tyres for the beach . I bet it won't be sandy like it was when they practiced.

I like having an evening race, might have a small gin to celebrate in a bit.

Still think they should be required to pass a kitten between them, each holding for no more than 2 mins. IF they drop it, it's disqualification.
Livens things up, Esp. for the kitten.

¡Hola Drama!

How do you do it MrS, please tell! [gri

Grrr! Can't the hang of emoticons on this phone.