Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 30, 2024 2:13:16 GMT
Heatstroke, COVID, and Stampeding Deer: Vuelta a España Becomes a Race of Attrition - Published Aug 28, 2024
Reports that Mexican phenom Isaac del Toro is infected with COVID is latest in what's been a brutal, over-the-top Vuelta a España.
More riders are dropping out of the Vuelta a España in what’s becoming a brutal race marked by a Sahara-like heatwave, a fresh outbreak of COVID-19, and, yes, collisions with stampeding deer.
The end-of-season Vuelta is always a struggle for the race-weary peloton, but a triple-whammy of obstacles is slamming this year’s edition.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) is amongst the latest riders to be infected with the coronavirus, according to ESPN, in a series of high-profile riders who’ve been zapped by the latest strain.
Team officials confirmed Del Toro will stay in the race for now, but that helps explain why the Mexican phenomenon struggled in Sunday’s stage and tumbled out of the top-20.
Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty) was a non-starter Wednesday with knee pain. Also heading home are Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), both due to COVID-19.
How rough is this Vuelta?
Going into Wednesday’s 11th stage, the number of abandons and non-starters is on par with a typical edition of the race.
Some 156 riders remained in the Vuelta, which is inline with average attrition through the first half of the Spanish grand tour.
But more riders could run for the exit door in the coming days with four brutal climbing stages stacked up from Thursday to Tuesday across the unrelenting Cantabrian mountains.
During the past decade, the 2022 Vuelta saw the lowest number of finishers with 133.
Will this Vuelta see even fewer?
Heatwave taking collective toll
Near-record heat across the opening nine days of the Vuelta put the peloton on edge.
Budding UK star Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) and white jersey leader Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) did not finish Sunday’s scorcher across the Sierra Nevada.
“[Tiberi] felt unwell during stage 9 suffering from heat stroke, becoming lightheaded with a high body temperature,” a team note read Sunday. “Cooling methods helped stabilize him, and he is now in good condition, but sadly, he had to abandon.”
Medical staff treated Arensman at the finish line in Córdoba last week for symptoms of heat stroke when temperatures soared to 100°F.
“I had never suffered like this before. It was so hot out there,” said Sunday’s stage-winner Adam Yates. “I was suffering also but I knew I had to go. And from then on it was just suffering, suffering, all the way to the finish line.”
The impacts of the over-cooked peloton will keep playing out across this Vuelta, but at least for now the pack is racing in the cooler temperatures of Spain’s Galicia region in northern Spain.
Not only is the 2024 Vuelta the hardest of this year’s grand tours in terms of pure climbing meters, the daily grind of the racing is taking its toll.
Wild swings in the GC have already shaken up this Vuelta, and more are expected.
Long transfers and endless hours in team buses don’t help either.
One sport director told Eurosport that the team calculated more than 60 hours of transfers across this Vuelta route.
Riders flew a late-night charter from Granada to Galicia on Monday, but the bump-and-grind of the daily bus trips and bleating heat are adding up.
COVID not back in genie bottle yet
Anyone who thought that COVID-19 was back in the genie bottle is wrong.
There are currently no peloton-wide rules outlining COVID policy so every team makes its own call based on the severity of the infection.
Del Toro is reportedly feeling better and he finished with the GC group Tuesday. He is expected to start Wednesday’s stage.
Harold Martín López (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) did not start Tuesday due to COVID.
João Almeida, who was poised in a virtual podium spot, dealt a blow to UAE’s GC hopes by not starting Sunday’s stage 9 due to COVID.
Deer attacks? Only in the Vuelta
Even wackier was the incident in stage 8 when a herd of stampeding roe deer slammed into riders and an Euskaltel-Euskadi team car.
The day’s route was pacing through a natural reserve and the buzz of helicopters and the flash of Lycra spooked a herd of Spanish corzos.
One deer slammed into Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi). While the Basque rider remains in the Vuelta, Ciccone did not finish Tuesday’s stage.
“Sadly, Giulio Ciccone has been forced to abandon #LaVuelta24 after suffering with knee pain since his crash at the weekend,” writes an official announcement by Lidl-Trek’s social medial pages. “Speedy recovery Cicco!”
Reports that Mexican phenom Isaac del Toro is infected with COVID is latest in what's been a brutal, over-the-top Vuelta a España.
More riders are dropping out of the Vuelta a España in what’s becoming a brutal race marked by a Sahara-like heatwave, a fresh outbreak of COVID-19, and, yes, collisions with stampeding deer.
The end-of-season Vuelta is always a struggle for the race-weary peloton, but a triple-whammy of obstacles is slamming this year’s edition.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) is amongst the latest riders to be infected with the coronavirus, according to ESPN, in a series of high-profile riders who’ve been zapped by the latest strain.
Team officials confirmed Del Toro will stay in the race for now, but that helps explain why the Mexican phenomenon struggled in Sunday’s stage and tumbled out of the top-20.
Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty) was a non-starter Wednesday with knee pain. Also heading home are Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), both due to COVID-19.
How rough is this Vuelta?
Going into Wednesday’s 11th stage, the number of abandons and non-starters is on par with a typical edition of the race.
Some 156 riders remained in the Vuelta, which is inline with average attrition through the first half of the Spanish grand tour.
But more riders could run for the exit door in the coming days with four brutal climbing stages stacked up from Thursday to Tuesday across the unrelenting Cantabrian mountains.
During the past decade, the 2022 Vuelta saw the lowest number of finishers with 133.
Will this Vuelta see even fewer?
Heatwave taking collective toll
Near-record heat across the opening nine days of the Vuelta put the peloton on edge.
Budding UK star Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) and white jersey leader Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) did not finish Sunday’s scorcher across the Sierra Nevada.
“[Tiberi] felt unwell during stage 9 suffering from heat stroke, becoming lightheaded with a high body temperature,” a team note read Sunday. “Cooling methods helped stabilize him, and he is now in good condition, but sadly, he had to abandon.”
Medical staff treated Arensman at the finish line in Córdoba last week for symptoms of heat stroke when temperatures soared to 100°F.
“I had never suffered like this before. It was so hot out there,” said Sunday’s stage-winner Adam Yates. “I was suffering also but I knew I had to go. And from then on it was just suffering, suffering, all the way to the finish line.”
The impacts of the over-cooked peloton will keep playing out across this Vuelta, but at least for now the pack is racing in the cooler temperatures of Spain’s Galicia region in northern Spain.
Not only is the 2024 Vuelta the hardest of this year’s grand tours in terms of pure climbing meters, the daily grind of the racing is taking its toll.
Wild swings in the GC have already shaken up this Vuelta, and more are expected.
Long transfers and endless hours in team buses don’t help either.
One sport director told Eurosport that the team calculated more than 60 hours of transfers across this Vuelta route.
Riders flew a late-night charter from Granada to Galicia on Monday, but the bump-and-grind of the daily bus trips and bleating heat are adding up.
COVID not back in genie bottle yet
Anyone who thought that COVID-19 was back in the genie bottle is wrong.
There are currently no peloton-wide rules outlining COVID policy so every team makes its own call based on the severity of the infection.
Del Toro is reportedly feeling better and he finished with the GC group Tuesday. He is expected to start Wednesday’s stage.
Harold Martín López (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) did not start Tuesday due to COVID.
João Almeida, who was poised in a virtual podium spot, dealt a blow to UAE’s GC hopes by not starting Sunday’s stage 9 due to COVID.
Deer attacks? Only in the Vuelta
Even wackier was the incident in stage 8 when a herd of stampeding roe deer slammed into riders and an Euskaltel-Euskadi team car.
The day’s route was pacing through a natural reserve and the buzz of helicopters and the flash of Lycra spooked a herd of Spanish corzos.
One deer slammed into Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi). While the Basque rider remains in the Vuelta, Ciccone did not finish Tuesday’s stage.
“Sadly, Giulio Ciccone has been forced to abandon #LaVuelta24 after suffering with knee pain since his crash at the weekend,” writes an official announcement by Lidl-Trek’s social medial pages. “Speedy recovery Cicco!”