Steep Slopes & Fatigue: The Vuelta a España 2024 Ultimate Test

benuto in espa today Stage 15 is the day in the valalta espa where surely the battle between Primos rogl three-time winner of the VTA and race leader Ben o Conor will come to a head I'm going to take you with me from start to finish here so we can discover just how hard this stage is up here in a storus Spain's Lush and mountainous region in the North [Music] yeah estas is a region with a lot of tradition of cycling with a lot of mountains a lot of climbs we are in the region of Il tangu one of the best Spanish climbers of the history it's quite a short stage but hard and we have a few climbs early on that could be quite decisive for the breakaways so if the break hasn't fallen by around kilom 40 when we do the first categorized climb then we could end up with a really strong breakway that goes to the line otherwise I would suspect if a breakway goes quite early that maybe there is some control for Primos it's a relatively short stage for border to control and I think it's a climb that suits him quite well especially after the performance two days ago yeah it will be a hard final um not just the very end I mean it's a long it's a long climb in general is 19k so yeah will be a big day for sure actually I like it but some teammates tell me like these need to be legal but I try to climb not put a fet up the ground but now yes for me is is excited to to be in a climb like this I really hope to have good legs and be there the Riders are coming through one by one and we're talking about what they're facing today it's around 140 km nearly 19 km that final Ascent up to the top the pades and it's a ski station up in the sky and they named the final climb the qu negro after a ski run up there gradients of 24% at various times including the last 2 km this is going to be a vicious day this climb is nasty uh do you think we're going to see some sort of uh outcome between OK Conor and roag for sure today is the one of the most important days for the GC PES is a mythical climb it's a hard climb with a large road but also the last part of qu negro is is terrible for me one of the most hardest finals in in laa for sure tomorrow is the rest day and today will be really really interesting I think it's all going to come down to the right hand turn the last sort of 2 and 1/2k I think that's where you're going to see big big differences I think it will be very hard and guys will get dropped before then but if you go solo before then you've got a bit of flapping by yourself on flat roads bit of downhill it's risky and you could really blow up and if you blow up there it's altitude it's so steep you just bleed time if you blow up there so I think yeah the last 2 and a half K it sounds short but that's still like 10 minutes or more of climbing when it's so steep I think it'll be a bit similar to when they did K the first time in the tour uh all coming one by one and uh I think it'll be like this yeah it's actually for a climb that I would say probably suits me the most the rest of Thea so uh I can uh just try to go off that kind of like part of optimism and uh and just try get it done we're making our way towards the finish leaving the start behind it's cloudy it's Moody and these ingredients are going to make for even a more epic day of racing we're taking the chair lifts to get up to the top now this 3 km up to the top and this is the best means to get up to the top to see the rider suffering up to the Finish [Music] Line woo Mountain Fresh Air up at 1850 M this is the quu negru and right down there we saw it from the chair lift coming up that's the Finish Line we're up here in the fog the Mist epic this is everything you want in cycling and soon the Riders will be [Music] here how did your legs feel when you hit that 24% uh gradients there in the final 3 2 km better I mean better I have was more suffering with the less steep uh gradient so uh yeah the end was uh quite fine what was it like there on that climb yeah it was pretty much every every man for themselves uh it was a really long climb so all the climbing beforehand wasn't like the previous Mountain stages where it's one big explosion it was kind of a slow burn and then yeah everybody when it's so steep you just have to ride your own pace and uh choose the right gears all right is key slope uh it's meant to descend but uh we had to ride up so yeah interesting anderer but uh yeah very hard the Riders are rolling in up here at the top and the fog is still rolling in as well what a battle we had Pablo Casto from krent farma surpris us again attacking Civic off and vast off to win the stage up here alone solo celebration and back behind we are treated to the GC battle we wanted with Primos RL lighting it up like we thought he would but he was matched by Enrique Moss importantly though he put around 20 25 seconds in on Ben o Conor not probably what he wanted but he gained up to round Now setting 45 seconds back in the overalls we head into the third and final chapter of this book called the walta SP another battle done but the war's not over in the 2024 walas SP