Vuelta a Burgos 2023 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE – Team Time Trial]

August 16, 2023

Vuelta a Burgos 2023 🇪🇸 – Stage 2 TTT – Oña – Poza de la Sal : 13,1 km

Falling just before the Vuelta a España, this five-day stage race often serves as the ideal warm up event for those riders eyeing up a top result at the Spanish Grand Tour. With most of the Vuelta’s GC favourites on the startline, it’s also a great chance for onlookers to gauge each rider’s form and see who’s hot, and who’s not. This year, the race will host Primož Roglič’s return to racing ahead of the Vuelta. The format of the race has stayed largely the same since its inception in 1946, with each edition featuring five gruelling stages in and around the mountainous Burgos province of northern Spain. Over the past few years the race has typically started with a rolling stage around the city of Burgos, the capital city of the eponymously named province. The race has then tended to head north to the mountains that straddle the Burgos-Cantabria border for a mid-race summit finish, often on top of the monstrously steep Picón Blanco – an 8.5km-long climb with an average gradient of 9% and several ramps teetering on 20%. The organisers don’t just stop there with the climbing, after shuffling the GC on the Picón Blanco halfway through the race the organisers then throw in the classic summit finish to Lagunas de Neila on the final day to draw everything to a close. This particular climb has played host to the finale of the Vuelta a Burgos every year since 2015. At 11km in length, with an average gradient of 6% and ramps of 17% in the final 4km, it’s clear to see why the GC is often decided on this mountain.

“It was close to perfection,” Valter said afterwards, “we wanted to prepare for the Vuelta TTT by using this day’s race, and we did it really well.”

“I enjoyed it out there with the guys, I’ve done a lot of individual time trials but here as a team, it’s different, you have the support of the others, but they make you suffer too, and guys like Eduardo Affini and Primož put us on the limit too. Overall, though, we did really well.”

On a course that mixed smooth roads early on and then much rougher, more technical ones, in its last part, Spanish Pro Conti squad Kern Pharma set the benchmark early time of 15:25, and which would net them a notable seventh place in the final results sheet.

Bahrain Victorious were the first squad to overtake Kern Pharma at the top of the provisional results table with a time of 15:08. But the sight of the Jumbo-Visma squad powering along an early segment of the course on a broad well-surfaced highway at a speed nearly touching 70kph did not auger well for their chances of taking a definitive lead.

Despite losing one rider, Gijs Leemreize, to a possible mechanical before the midway time checkpoint after 6.8km, Jumbo-Visma were already 12 seconds faster than Bahrain by that point. In the end, only UAE Emirates, two seconds quicker, secured a better mid-race split.

Despite losing veteran climber Robert Gesink and then sprinter Eduardo Affini after the checkpoint, Roglič’s long turns at the front kept the pace of the remaining quartet of yellow-and-black clad riders at a sustained high. With times being taken on the fourth rider home, there was a moment of suspense when Koen Bouwman visibly struggled on the difficult ascent to the finish, but Roglič dropped back in person to give Bouwman the support he needed to remain with his teammates, and for Jumbo to secure the best time of the day.

While Movistar reached the final 2km ascent with all seven riders and then rapidly burned through the weaker elements to clock the closest time to Jumbo, Bora Hansgrohe veered perilously close to losing their key fourth rider, Anton Palzer on the last, crucial climb. Palzer hung on like grim death to ensure the German squad still retained the third spot, but the opposite proved true for UAE’s George Bennett.

UAE were the fastest mid-race, but the New Zealander struggled badly on the last climb. Dropped twice in the last two kilometres, Bennett’s teammates were all but sitting up as they approached the line and simultaneously to keep him in touch. But the result of their near disintegration at the finish meant UAE finally slumped to fifth on the stage.

As for Jumbo and the new race leader, when asked about his chances of staying in the top spot, Valter was pragmatic, saying “I think that’ll be really hard, we have one strong rider here called Primož and it’ll be hard to keep him away.

“I’m proud to have the jersey and it’s the first time I’ve been leading a race this year, but I’m happy to help him win here overall. My role in the team is unchanged: I’d hope to finish the race with Primož winning it.”

Results :