Bad weather continues to wreak havoc at Vuelta a Espana - Riders arrive at team hotel at 3am after plane is unable to land in Valladolid
Cycling
Between stage end of stage 9 in Caravaca de la Cruz and Valladolid which will host stage 10, there are about 500 kilometers in distance. Hence the Vuelta a Espana organizers provided two charter planes to transport the riders, but one could not make it to the destination.
One of the two planes, which departed only 15 minutes after the first one, could not land in Valladolid due to torrential rain, wind and a lightning storm. This caused a new unexpected logistical nightmare for the race organizers who have already had to neutralize two stage finales - and face dark conditions in the early team time-trial. The plane had to be redirected to Madrid, and then be followed by a three-hour bus ride back to Valladolid.
“After a diversion we arrived in Madrid. It is now midnight and we still have a few hours to go to Valladolid. This is karma, I think. Airplane movements in a Grand Tour will no longer be of this time in 2023," Romain Bardet wrote, as a few riders shared the inconvenient incident on social media. The race is being given no break and even on the rest day the riders face big challenges.
Over this Sunday central Spain has been hit with a rare bout of brutal weather conditions, and the finale at Caravaca de la Cruz was neutralized after it rained for the first time in year and a half in the area, causing the road to be filled with mud from vehicles who had to make it up to the finish. A race that is typically facing severe heat is having the opposite be the case this year.
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- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling forRafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
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✈️RadioCycling understands that one of the two chartered #LaVuelta23 flights from Murcia to Valladolid had to land in Madrid due to heavy rain, wind and a lightning storm. They were then transported three hours by bus to Valladolid, not arriving into hotels until just before 3am.
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