[Leadbelly]

Vuelta al Tachira 12th - 21st January



Stage 1  »  Bramon - Santa Bárbara de Barinas (182.6km)



Stage 2  »  Suripa - Borota (173km)



Stage 3  »  San Cristobal - Tariba circuito (117.6km)



Stage 4  »  San Juan de Colón - San Simón (147.9km)



Stage 5  »  La Fría - Tovar (147km)



Stage 6  »  Santa Cruz de Mora - La Grita (167.8km)



Stage 7  »  Umuquena - Michelena (104.8km)



Stage 8  »  Rubio circuito (124.8km)



Stage 9  »  Ureña - San Antonio del Tachira - Cerró del Cristo Rey (123.2km)



Stage 10  »  San Cristobal circuito (115.2km)



Details and profiles via @zciclismo.

All subject to change of course. Again for instance there is no Casa del Padre on the itinerary at this early juncture.

[Leadbelly]

http://ovaciondeportes.com/ciclismo-2/comenzo-conteo-regresivo-rumbo-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

From the top leadership of the ATC it was said that they have already specified the presence of runners from Switzerland, Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, while the ratification of Costa Rica, Gianni Savio Androni Giocattoli is expected and three Colombian teams, highlighting the almost certain presence of Manzana Postobón and JB Ropa.

Potentially nine foreign teams! Make that eight when the Swiss cry off again.

[LukasCPH]

Potentially nine foreign teams! Make that eight when the Swiss cry off again.

Ballet's allegations/accusations/report from the Vuelta a Colombia were lent additional credence by the recent 'octopus positive' ...

... so I guess that a race that doesn't want to attract scandal wouldn't want them there.

[Leadbelly]

https://notifalcon.com/v2/jonathan-salinas-buscara-la-reedicion-en-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

Salinas should be back to defend the title he won earlier on this year, this time with the other Tachira team - Loteria del Tachira (they ride under the same umbrella anyway). However due to the parlous existence of the teams and let's be honest the parlous state of Venezuelan Cycling or just Venezuela in general, nothing is guaranteed. The teams missed Venezuela the other month and from what Chacon says it seems a very hand to mouth existence.

"The team was dismantled and is getting up again," the director said. "We request some bicycles and sports equipment. We know that with the dollar as it is, it is difficult, but there is a commitment from the board and the government of Táchira to make that effort.

If he gets there though, he should have two very strong teams to help him and a potential rival.

Loteria:

Jonathan Salinas
Yimmi Briceno
Roniel Campos (5th this year)
Jorge Abreu (2nd in 2016)
Eduin Becerra (6th this year)
Gabriel Mendoza

Kino:

Luis Mora (has ridden Sibiu)
Freddy Vargas
Nelson Camargo (4th in 2015)
Daniel Abreu
+ ??

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/murillocasanova/status/939433801171775488

Probably the same story as last year. No Venezuelan team in Costa Rica = no Costa Rican one in Tachira.

[Leadbelly]

http://cyclingpro.net/spaziociclismo/continental/androni-sidermec-fatta-la-formazione-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

Raffaello Bonusi
Marco Benfatto
Matteo Malucelli
Mattia Frapporti
Ivan Sosa
Kevin Rivera

[Leadbelly]

https://lanaciondeportes.com/noticias/pospuesta-vuelta-a-bramon/

The Vuelta a Bramon is the usual warm up race for Tachira and was to have been held just after Christmas, but has now been postponed until 3rd January. They couldn't guarantee race security on the original dates due to gasoline shortages.

Anyway it will now finish only a handful of days before Tachira kicks off, so there's even less reason to expect fireworks from the real contenders.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/MatamorosEdwin/status/945809596458979328

The 2014 winner is back after his suspension. He's had a bit of a Damascene conversion.

However, far from hanging the bicycle, on the contrary, Carlos Gálviz has launched a campaign, called by himself "fair play", giving the appropriate advice to children and young people in schools and colleges that want to venture into road cycling, so that at all costs avoid falling into the temptation to use any illicit means for competition, coupled with healthy eating.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/zciclismo/status/946844249160650752

Five riders make their debuts for GW at Tachira. Ospina is the only returnee.

[search]

Serpa

[LukasCPH]

Serpa

Super Mario!
Is Rujano racing as well? Together they could party like it's 2005!

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/zciclismo/status/946897747403268097

Profiles of Bramon.

[Leadbelly]

A few small changes to the parcour. 30km knocked off stage 3 for example, but since that's a flat circuit it's of no great moment.

https://twitter.com/zciclismo/status/948038059605544960

No Anderson Paredes for JB Ropa.

[Leadbelly]

http://ovaciondeportes.com/ciclismo-2/comenzo-conteo-regresivo-rumbo-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

Potentially nine foreign teams! Make that eight when the Swiss cry off again.

http://nuevodia.com.ve/deportes/noticia220231.html?idCont=1,1,1,220231

Looks like it will just be six.



Androni



GW Shimano
Corplasticos
JB Ropa Deportiva



Arenas



National Selection

Paperwork problems for the Swiss and Dominican Republic teams.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/MatamorosEdwin/status/949707918462644224

Not a lot to report from Bramon as the course wasn't too tough and most of the big guns are keeping their powder dry for Tachira (Loteria didn't even run for example).

Quintero, along with the GC, won the first and last stages and Anderson Paredes (riding for Gobernacion Yaracuy for the time being) won the other one.

[Leadbelly]

Looks like it will just be six.



Androni



GW Shimano
Corplasticos
JB Ropa Deportiva



Arenas



National Selection

Paperwork problems for the Swiss and Dominican Republic teams.

Edwin Matamoros reports that neither Cuba or the Mexican team will be there. They are making efforts to get a fifth team so as to conform to UCI regs. Also Trepa Bikes will replace Corplasticos.

The team from Zulia barring any last minute miracles will also miss the race for the first time in 30 years.

http://concienciaesnoticias.com/2018/01/10/equipo-ciclista-del-zulia-no-participara-en-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

The team + mechanics etc are there already and have been for a while in preparation, but got a phone call from the local government saying there is no money. So not only will they not get to race, but they have to pay for the travel + accommodation + food out of their own pockets unless the Governor finds 90 million Bolivars down the back of his sofa.

[Leadbelly]

http://ovaciondeportes.com/ciclismo-2/llavero-de-favoritos-para-ganar-la-vuelta-al-tachira/

The favourites according to Freddy Gonzalez.

Monsalve - His backing this year won't be as strong as he now rides for Venezuela País de Futuro instead of JHS, but the absence of Casa del Padre should work in his favour.

Salinas - The defending champ. Not ideal prep with Loteria.

Paredes - The best young Venezuelan. Riding for Yaracuy.

Sosa - Burst onto the scene last year with his performance here. I'm thinking though that Androni may go with Rivera as the main man here as Ivan will be more focused on Oro y Paz.

Other names to watch out for include Quintero (Bramon winner and soon to join Aular at Start), the aforementioned Aular, Chacon and Torres (winner of Venezuela).

Hopefully there'll be a start list in the morning.

[Leadbelly]

Start list via zciclismo ( ):



No Yimmi Briceno on either of the Tachira teams (or any team for that matter). According to a tweet from several days ago, he is "not being full of conditions".

They got their fifth foreign team (where's there's a will, there's a way) and it's another Colombia one - Fundacion Hernan Buenahora.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/lavueltachira/status/951833487845273600

No KoM points on offer today, but the ol' meta volantes jersey could be a target of Talero's.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/lavueltachira/status/951854021668687872

Talero was joined earlier by Felix Baron. Cristian Torres and Bravo were chasing, but have been absorbed by the Androni led peloton.

Must be about 60-65 km left.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/lavueltadeoro/status/951880830925918210

Baron went solo, but Talero had done already enough to get the sprints jersey.

15km to go and lots of attacks from the peloton.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/zciclismo/status/951887401726734336



CQ update will be needed.

[Leadbelly]

Hmmmmm. Interesting times in Tachira as the peloton for whatever reason gave the break a lot of rope (16+ minutes worth!). Was it a case of "After you Claude. No, after you Cecil" between the teams? Androni weren't going to work as they had Chirico in the break. So it could now be between these thirteen (?) riders for the overall. There are mountains to come here in Tachira, but nothing like the Cerro de la Muerte stages in Costa Rica.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/MatamorosEdwin/status/952381210176745473

Here's the thirteen riders. It's between Ronald Gonzalez, Chirico, Reyes and Jose Mendoza I'd say (barring some Lazarus-esque comeback from the main players).

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/zciclismo/status/952619657394929664

Quite a cool sequence of photos.



Is Malucelli the new Mareczko? Well he's already got double the amount of wins in Europe that the Willier man has, so maybe he's the improved version.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/RobayoColombia/status/952966219736408064

Looks like he put in a lot of effort for those 16 seconds.

[Leadbelly]

Now that the full results are out we can see he got a little bit more than 16 seconds, but not much.

From the leading thirteen riders the other day, Chirico and Reyes were the biggest losers so we can remove them from the list of potential winners. We'll have to wait till tomorrow's stage for a real MTF to see who really has the legs from those that are left in contention.

People who definitely won't be winning after yesterday's stage are:

+1m33 Monsalve
+4m48 Salinas (!)
  DNF    Galviz

The Loteria problems catching up with Salinas, illness or deliberately losing more time to go stage hunting?

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/lavueltadeoro/status/953279309946544129

Talero and Malucelli picking up various points. Wouldn't surprise me if the break takes it again. Win #4 for Androni?

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/lavueltadeoro/status/953301000965763072

Malucelli and Ospina have been dropped.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/cycling_360/status/953329324479975424

No fourth win for Androni but second, third and fourth isn't too shabby.



Rivas lost a little bit of time to drop down to third in the GC. Big-ish day tomorrow on La Grita.