Mother Nature decided to spritz the course with some showers until about 4pm.  Luckily 90% of it dried it out completely by the start time. The breeze was coming out of the NW at about 8mph with intermittant gusts.

Four TTers trusted the forecast and came out to do battle with the course.  Chris took the FMT honors and in doing so posted a Road category PR -  dropping it by 26 seconds with a 27:11 (22.07mph).   Jade joined the PR brigade by taking FWT honors.  She lowered her RoadAero PR by 7 seconds with an excellent time of 27:38(21.71mph).  Not to be outdone,  Brigitte posted her own PR in the RoadAero category -  she crushed her PR by 34 seconds with a 28:36 (20.97mph) !     

 All three will be competing in the Triathlon World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain located in the semi-autonomous Galicia region of NW Spain.   They topped off their TT with four 15 second sprints to train their fatigue resistance.

We left off at Stage 4 -  Only 65 miles -  starts immediately with a climb out of Andorra la Vella.   16 miles w approx 4000 ft of vertical gain to an altitude of  ~8000ft in the first climb!  Luckily the sun is out.  This day may determine who is riding strong enough to vie for the top 5 at the end of the Vuelta.

The peloton was whittled down to the top riders about halfway through the stage.   Pogacar took off on a solo long range attack with about 30 miles to go.    An elite bunch that included American Sepp Kuss, 4X Vuelta winner Roglic,  Enric Mas, Felix Gall, Oscar Only and youngster J.Widmar could not make any headway.  Pogacar eviscerated the climbs - setting two records along the way.  He ended up finishing 2:39 ahead of the trailing trailing group. 

Stage 5:   On a hilly stage, the Visma crew provided 21 yo Brennan with a great lead out - Wout VanAerts initially stringing out the peloton and handing him off to LaPorte....  Brennan took the sprint for his 2nd stage win.  

Stage 6:  Medium Mtn stage with a one mile gravel section up the final climb. Some sections on the "gravel" section were supposedly 20% grades.   The section of "gravel" appeared to be somewhat swept off....  a hardpack dirt for the most part.   A breakaway was almost caught by  Pogarcar's UAE team by the time they got to the steep gravel section.   Pogacar attacked and took the lead and appeared invincible....  BUT,  Enric Mas actually caught up to Pog and much to his suprise slipped by him at the KOM banner.   The descent was very tricky.  Mas was in the front at first and put his down to indicated to Pogacar "let's be careful".   Pog paid no heed and passed Mas and promptly overcooked a turn.  Luckily he as able to unclip and not crash.   He smartly decided to stay behind Mas until the finishing flat.   He and Mas worked together to stay clear and then sprinted for the finish line with Pog taking it.   So, now that 3 stage victories!     Mas moves to 2nd place overall.   

Stage 7:   Mtn stage -   At the start Visma's Wout vanAert immediately sprinted away from the peloton to establish a breakaway of five riders.  This group would stay clear the whole stage.   Two of the five are Norwegian teammates and wore black armbands to dedicate the ride to King Harald V, who passed away earlier that morning.  Eventually it was just three at the head of the course. With about 4 miles to go Leknessund took off.  His teammate Johannessen stayed on the wheel of VanAert who was desparately trying to reel in Leknessund.  When it was clear that Leknessund was winning, Johannessen took off to take second place...  a 1-2 finish for the Uno-X team.

Stage 8:  Saturday-   Most likely a sprinters race....   I won't reveal anything more since it just finished as I am writing this.

Sunday Stage 9 is considered the Queens stage.   17000 ft of climbing !!!     The overall is very tight from 2nd through 9th.   Tomorrow could see a reshuffling of the overall placements.  

Brian

Director de la Crono

315-727-1458