{"id":180323,"date":"2020-11-09T14:29:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T14:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=180323"},"modified":"2020-11-09T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T14:29:05","slug":"what-we-learned-from-la-vuelta-and-the-2020-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/11\/09\/what-we-learned-from-la-vuelta-and-the-2020-season\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Learned from La Vuelta and the 2020 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an old saying in Grand Tour racing (if not, there should be): he who lives by the time trial, dies by the time trial. Or vice versa. Just ask Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d who famously suffered a fatal defeat to countryman Tadej Poga\u010dar in the time trial on the penultimate stage of this year\u2019s Tour de France and has now won the Vuelta because of his ITT superiority.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Richard Carapaz of Ineos Grenadiers was clearly a better climber than Rogli\u010d in the 2020 La Vuelta but he was not better enough to make up for the 49 seconds he lost to the Slovenian in the 13th stage ITT. Carapaz and Ineos must be asking themselves what would the result have been if the Bolivian had taken off on the ascent of La Covatilla 1 km earlier than he did. Rogli\u010d was cooked as was his main man, Sepp Kuss, who had emptied his tank supporting his leader on the previous climbs. Did Carapaz have the legs to do a 3- or 4-km sprint up the mountain to the finish line instead of the 2-km breakaway he did? If so, he probably would have won the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

\"Rogli\u010d<\/a>
Carapaz proved to be a better climber than Rogli\u010d in the 2020 La Vuelta, yet Rogli\u010d claimed the victory. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like the Tour de France and the Vuelta, the Giro<\/a> was also won in the ITT when Ineos\u2019s Tao Geoghegan Hart broke a GC tie with Sunweb\u2019s Jai Hindley on the race\u2019s penultimate stage to take a famous (and unexpected) victory by 39 seconds. In fact, if there is one overall lesson to take away from this delayed, disrupted and ultimately exciting Grand Tour season, it is that the individual time trial has become the most important stage in a three-week race. The reason may be that all GC contenders are excellent climbers. While some are better than others, the differences are currently not big enough to make up for the disparities in time trials.<\/p>\n

Rivals who saw Rogli\u010d struggle on the two toughest climbs of the Vuelta, rescued from disaster by Kuss on the first and Lennart Hofstede on the second, will be feeling optimistic about their chances next year \u2013 if they improve their time trialling. Rogli\u010d is not yet the dominant rider he wants to be. Next year should feature a number of strong GC contenders, including three from Ineos: Carapaz, Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u0160koda ENYAQ iV delivers David Gaudu to the finish line of the 17th stage of the 2020 La Vuelta (November 7, 2020). \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And just how important are team support riders? They apparently were crucial to Rogli\u010d but Carapaz did most of the heavy climbing on his own as Poga\u010dar had done in the Tour. Certainly, it helps to ride in the slipstream of three or four teammates in the flat and over the hills and it\u2019s great to have someone bring you food and drink but currently (especially since the elimination of team time trials) a Grand Tour is won mano a mano, whether in an ITT or on the man-killing slopes of the Angliru.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the argument could be made that Kuss\u2019s help throughout the Vuelta and Hofstede\u2019s brief assistance on that final, decisive climb ensured the 24 seconds that separated Rogli\u010d from Carapaz.<\/p>\n

\"Rogli\u010d<\/a>
Rogli\u010d crosses the finish-line of the 6th stage of the 2020 La Vuelta. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of teams, what has happened to Ineos Grenadiers? They eked out a surprise victory in the Giro but they were almost invisible in the defining stages of the Vuelta. Chris Froome made a few attempts to help Carapaz on the mountains but he did not last long. It\u2019s too soon to tell from this performance if he will ever recover his best form. But Ineos should return better than ever next year.<\/p>\n

And will cycling ever recover its best form? While the Covid-19 epidemic disrupted the three Grand Tours, they were all run to completion, for our great pleasure. But the pandemic\u2019s real damage to cycling lies ahead as team sponsors who have been economically hurt by the pandemic end their funding. There will be fewer professional cycling teams in the near term, especially in the minor races, and therefore fewer paying jobs for young riders looking to break into the big time. The extent of the damage depends on how quickly the pandemic ends and potential sponsors recover from the economic downturn.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s probably a good idea for all cycling fans to cross their fingers \u2013 and wear face masks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an old saying in Grand Tour racing (if not, there should be): he who lives by the time trial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":180328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[4506,425,3945,4367,2718,479,4564,1221,3065,3487,3415,4515],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-180323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2020-la-vuelta","tag-chris-froome","tag-covid-19","tag-ineos-grenadiers","tag-jumbo-visma","tag-la-vuelta","tag-lennart-hofstede","tag-primoz-roglic","tag-richard-carapaz","tag-sepp-kuss","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tao-geoghegan-hart","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nLa Vuelta 2020: Things We Learned From the Race - We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"He who lives by the time trial, dies by the time trial. 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