Vuelta a Espana 2024 WEEK 2 RECAP + Stage 16 - PREVIEW / FAVOURITES / PREDICTION

La Vuelta 2024 WEEK 2 recap - race situation hi everybody at the end of the second week of the welta the Riders have 26% of the race distance to go and roughly 29% of the cumulative elevation gain so far the parkour did not disappoint and we have a great final week to come the fight for the Breakaway on stage 10 as for most of these week two stages was ferocious with eventually five Riders forcing the break in which vanard proved the strongest taking his third stage win in stage 11 A large group of 38 Riders went up the road containing many of the pre-stage favorites eventually it was Eddie Dunbar taking a great win by making a late surprise breakout stick on stage 12 plenty of Spectators were introduced to Pablo Casto who took aipo Kar pharma's First World Tour win and this on the day the team's founder died stage 13 had all the ingredients for a GC Mountaintop finish yet it turned out differently than expected with 23 Riders going up the road and getting over 17 minutes on the GC group from these 23 Woods took the win on the Steep finish climb stage 14 which looked like a full-on breakaway stage went to The Versatile sprinters F Malisa bik controlled the break yet had expected the final climb to be more difficult than it proved to be as a result of which Kaden gross and his full train made it through the stage to outsprint wfar to the line also Stage 15 to kuo negro delivered UAE lit up the race from the start and quickstep baced the GC group all day clearly in an attempt to Tire RIT and to ensure he didn't come to The Quon negro fresh a strategy which worked because after his initial Lune rogich got reeled back in by mass and oconor only lost 33 seconds up front sakov paced the entire final climb seemingly delivering sakov to a stage win at the bottom of the quo negro our man Pablo Casto who had looked like he'd get dropped on multiple occasions lunched as if there was only 100 m to go and when flas of eventually caught up he lunched again to take his second stage win of the VTA absolutely epic stuff and if the rumors are right he'll be riding for reos next year at the Brooks at F Malisa bike did not start a stage and poo Sanchez at M Star did not finish it here's the GC going into the rest day with oconor initially maintaining a 43 second lead on rogich yet rogich got penalized for drafting not only a fine and withdrawal of UCI points yet a 22nd penalty meaning he's losing most of the time he won during today's stage and is now sitting on 1 minute and 3 seconds from oon in the fight for third we have mas gapas and L in the green Jersy competition while fard is leading with 109 points on growes there's a maximum of 240 points on offer till Madrid note that 100 of these points will almost certainly go to climate Ty Breakaway Riders so in my book vanard only needs a few extra points to fully secure the jersey in the fight for the pado do Jersey we saw vanard trying to make it into the front group on Stage 15 yet he didn't manage and Vine gathered the points along the way clearly making a statement that he's also interested in the Jersey as a result he is now in a tie with fard and looking at what is still to come I would say it's Advantage fine or even Casto to bring the P ad dos to Madrid week two was dominated by Vuelta 2024 WEEK 3 overview Breakaway stages and I'm expecting the same on the final week Bora has shown no intention to control stages and I don't see why that would change in Wake three M Star isn't strong enough to control the break and AAR is happy to let the break go up the road which is a mistake in my book because aonor is doing better when the stage is tough as we saw today then quickstep tried to control the stage today yet it fired back on them and UAE only cares about sending people in the break FMA Lisa bike May control stage 17 dropping grows on the climbs yet that's about it as I see things now stage 19 has the most chances of going to the GC the final week of the FTA Vuelta 2024 Stage 16 - course profile - stage preview starts with another Mountain Stage 181k and ending at top the or category climb to Lagos the covadonga in total there's nearly 4,00 met of elevation gained to conquer a similar stage was run in the 2021 VTA won by RIT who took one minute and 35 seconds on his competitors for this addition based on what we've seen so far I think the Breakaway stands a good chance to make it stick here on their way to Lago kadona they'll be served with the first category Mirador delito 7K at nearly 8% average and another steep category 1 climb which also features multiple sections in the double digit gradients to end the top Lagos de of aonga which is as rightfully pointed out by some of you one of the only or category climbs in this fter here's the stage shots at La Vuelta 2024 Stage 16 - Riders to watch + betting odds the time of recording with Rog liit the main favorite and then here's the Riders to watch in my book please note that this preview is recorded prior to the resting day so keep an eye out for Riders dropping out of the race over the second day land in a GC scenario or katano in the Breakaway for obvious reasons I no longer thereare betting against Casto at K Pharma F or Soler at UAE and cus at FIS Malisa bike he at Baran Victoria caras ATF rogich and vazov at Red Bull Bora enri M at M Star Max P at DSM Ferman de at aana dbar or Schmid at Cho alula and Skil MOA or Verona at little Tre Woods at Israel Premier Tech is air at kofidis and Ben Conor or Felix gal at Deaton ag2r and in La Vuelta a Espana 2024 Stage 16 - Cycling Guy top 10 favourites + podium prediction terms of stars rogl and muset four stars because in GC scenario it should be between them Woods fine and gal get three stars gasto Dunbar and P get two stars and Solair and Schmid each get one star for my Podium prediction I'm going rogue and I hope I'm wrong here because OK Conor deserves better than that yet gal has amazing legs and has shown frustration throughout because he had to wait for aonor on multiple stages him losing big time today can only mean one thing in my book that he has gotten freedom to go into the break on Tuesday winning the stage ahead of fine and Dunbar enjoy the rest day and the stage and see you on Tuesday for my stage 17 preview