So far the strongest in the Spanish heat battle: Ben O’Connor in red
Photo: imago/Sirotti
Thorough, medium or bloody – that was the core question of the first week of this tour of Spain. The question wasn’t about the meat at the evening buffet. In this case, bloody also meant cyclists’ bodies that were not damaged after falls. No, it was about the core body temperatures of the professionals under the hot late summer sun of Spain. And it was high, clearly too high for some.
The talented Antonio Tiberi had to retire on the 9th stage to Granada on Sunday. »Antonio suffered from sunstroke. He didn’t feel well and had to leave the race,” said his team Bahrain Victorious. Tiberi, who gained dubious fame two years ago because of an air rifle shot at a cat in San Marino, had been on a promising path until then. The 23-year-old Italian was in fourth place and started in the jersey of the best young professional. Then he could no longer withstand the heat and climbed into the team car in a daze. There he was quickly cooled down to avoid a complete collapse. However, he had to end the tour, his fourth Grand Tour, early.
Primoz Roglic, who was eleven years older, didn’t fare much better. “Please let me cool down and have something to drink first,” he asked the journalists at the finish on Sunday evening. The Slovenian, who came second overall and started the day with the mountain jersey on his shoulders, was also extremely hot. That’s why the captain of the German Red Bull Bora team never dreamed of sprinting for third place for the bonus seconds. That’s exactly what Ben O’Connor did successfully. The overall leader extended his lead by another four seconds. But the day before he had also confessed: “I was simply undercooked. It was burning hot again. And the heat really got to me.”
The temperature fluctuations seem to play a larger role on this tour of Spain than the attacks of the competition. Adam Yates, winner of the 9th section, at least based his tactics on the state of his opponents. The Briton left unusually early to escape. However, he was already almost ten minutes behind O’Connor and almost six behind Roglic, who was the benchmark in the rankings after the first week.
So Yates had nothing to lose, especially since his ailing co-captain Joao Almeida didn’t even start. He had two teammates in the eight-man group who ensured a hellish pace that gradually thinned out the breakaway group. When only David Gaudu was left to follow Team Emirates’ time trial train, Yates studied the Frenchman closely. »I saw how the heat was getting to him. She did that to me too, but I tried anyway,” he explained the moment of his attack 58 kilometers from the finish. She succeeded. “And then it was all about suffering,” is how he described the path to the goal. There then followed a suffering report. »I have never suffered like this before. It’s so hot out there! From the last mountain on I was just cramping and didn’t know if I could pull it off,” explained Yates, who had cooled down to normal temperature again with an ice vest.
After the rest day, Yates will start this Tuesday in seventh place overall, only 1:37 minutes behind Roglic and 5:30 minutes behind O’Connor. So far, the Spaniard Enric Mas in fourth overall and the third, Richard Carapaz from Ecuador, have also proven to be comparatively heat-resistant. Red Bull talent Florian Lipowitz also seems to be genetically well equipped with heat shields: in sixth place overall, he leads the young talent ranking ahead of the more highly rated Carlos Rodriguez from Spain and Mattias Skjelmose from Denmark.
The heat was the biggest factor in the first week of the Vuelta, in the second week the mountains are likely to be the yardstick. After two stages with a sawtooth profile through climbs of the 2nd and 3rd categories, the climb to the mountain station of Manzaneda follows on Thursday, to Puerto de Ancares on Friday and to Pajares on Sunday.
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