Vuelta Stage 7 Preview: Valencia ITT

Stage 7 :: Saturday September 5, 2009
30.0km :: Valencia ITT

Well, I'm stuck sitting in the passenger seat of my truck as my friend is driving us north to the Sacramento area today (Hi ZoeRochelle!), so as this is consuming both laptop battery life as well as Blackberry battery life, I will be keeping this brief.

And it's sort of a good stage to keep it brief with, because I couldn't figure out how to map this course for the life of me. Fail, Unipublic. Essentially, we have an ITT course that runs down from Valencia to El Saler using, at times, the Valencia Formula 1 route as a tribute to motorsports, as they did during the prologue at in Assen. To paraphrase the Horta, why type I, when Gav and Frinking are on the case.

Gav wrote this on the bottom of her surfboard while stuck underwater after getting Maytag'ed by Madre Pacifico

The course starts and finishes on the Av del Ingeniero Manuel Soto not far from the harbor in Valencia. The profile is flat for this time trial and the course follows wide roads. Though the course passes through several roundabouts, it is not especially technical.

After the start, the course takes a lap on the Valencia Street Circuit, which is used for Formula 1 racing. The circuit runs around a marina, where with sufficient funds, you can hire a slip and watch the racing from your private yacht. After exiting the Street Circuit, the course follows and out-and-back track toward El Saler, which lies southwest of central Valencia. The time trial finishes with another lap around the Valencia Street Circuit. The course should produce very fast times.

Courtesy of Gavia's Stage 7 Preview at Steephill.tv

Frinking has emerged from his monk-like isolation with both a stage preview, as well as deeper knowledge of kung-fu.

Zaterday's stage

The second TT of the Vuelta. Again over a TT circuit. Don't know how they are going to ride because the TT is 30,3 km long. Again of course flat as a pancake. You know.. Motors can't handle hills.. Overheating... Just saying.. But it will create gaps. It's again flat as a pancake so Cancellara, I'm not targeTTing this race,  eat your heart out. Also Samsan is perfectly capable of doing this btw.

For my part... I'm getting motion sick starting at the screen and typing while the truck is bombing along northbound on I-5, so, I'm out before I turn green.  Also, as I mentioned before, I couldn't find a way to map this worth a damn, so here's the best I could come up with.