Epic suffer-fest (again). Ten summit finishes, tho three are short hitches but, seven are major climbs. Most of the big mountain stages will be in the last week. Contador v. Froome should be great racing. Cobo signing off on his defense - says he just doesn't have the legs this year. EuroSports: http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/6180
Indurain in the bullring @ Pamplona. Kinda cool place to finish? Spanish doing it up proper for a Classic.
With Contador's vs Froome, this might end up being the most exciting Grand Tour this year. the TdF was a dud this year, and the Giro was good thanks to Ryder. Too bad the retards at Univeral Sports make it so hard to watch. ( I'm on AT&T Uverse who doesn't carry Universal Sport. ) Now you can't even subscribe to watch it online. In order to watch it online at universalsports.com you have to be using a cable provider who carries their channel. I'd gladly have paid the $$$$$ to subscribe online but it seems they don't want my money.
I guess you're saying you can't pick up Cyclingfans.com on your portable device as well? I have Uverse & stream EuroSports for free. Tomm. should be a decent preview of the AC - Froome race. Three categorized climbs but, nothing major. Wouldn't be surprised if they just shadow each other & let someone else take it if they want it. The more I check the climbing stages in the last week, it makes me wonder if the first two weeks might be a fairly ho-hum standoff between the big hitters. The final week is some bigtime hauling even for AC, Froome and a couple others. Not sure they want to go full gas yet in that kind of heat - it was over 100 degs. today if I heard them correctly.
Froome takes 3rd and gets the 4 seconds time bonus. Don't know what to make of Contador in the final sprint - was he not able to match Froome or what? EuroSports mentioned AC's comments earlier in the race about how important time bonuses are - and then loses four seconds on his main rival...?? Too early/too close to make much of it but, it does look like Froome certainly wants to avoid a repeat of last year and wont be giving up any bonus seconds to AC if it comes down to a sprint between them.
Big heat (100 degs.) and cross/headwinds. Another day at the office for the peloton: 100 miles in 4'30" with a summit finish. Valverde's bummed about the crash but, it happened just after the wind hit and Sky spread out into a echelon. Just looked like racing to me. Nico Roche with a good ride today. Talansky's hanging tough too.
Juan Antonio Flecha said he didn't know Valverde had crashed but that nobody waited for him when the car hit him in the Tour. I thought 'but you weren't wearing the leaders jersey at the time.
Yea, Flecha & Johnny H. were nearly killed by those media wackos and nothing was done. Without a clearcut leader in the peloton it's hard for anyone to make those kind of calls to ease off. Valverde can have his day with the journalists and start a "what if?" whine but, from where I'm sitting, he'll be lucky to be within 10 mins. of AC, Froome, Purito and a couple other big GC guys going into the last couple of stages.. He's making a meal out of a pretty typical crash.
Stage 6 tomm. has an interesting summit finish. Short (4km) but avg. 8% with 14% sections - 'Fuerte de Rapitan' should be a good joust between the strongmen and the climbers. Purito says he's going to defend the red jersey so there should be some fireworks. Contador & Froome will probably go too as the short length overall shouldn't take too much out of anyone. Movistar/Valverde got put in their place by an informal poll of Spanish cycling journalists who thought the 'crash' was racing and not intentional. Real story that's been skipped over is that Movistar have been pushing the limits all season on this stuff (not waiting for leaders after a crash) and it's ridiculous for them to think anyone cares about what happens to them when their road captain takes a hit. Kelly and Kirby on EuroSports during the TdF mentioned more than a few times that Movistar had a bad rep in the peloton this year for their aggressive riding. Purito
Nasty climb at the finish - 100 degs. and Sky amped it up the final 2 K's. Brutal conditions. Froome put 13 secs. into Contador who looked uninterested/gassed? the last few K's. Purito with a nice win and keeps the red jersey. These guys are shattered after today. Roads were melting.
No changes, Degenkolb nails down a third stage win. Fairly odd looking stage - bleak, arid area that looked like a Sergio Leone western movie. The finish on the Motorway - with very few fans - looked like a semi-pro race on late nite cable from California Speedway. Big, big heat again. Attrition really takes it's toll after tomm.'s climbing stage. This week has been full-on Vuelta racing - HOT n' Nasty.
"Now I'm not sure if that was in the plan book for Sky to have one of the skinniest climbers in the race as the final leadout man, but it certainly didn't work in any case." - Pez Cycling Good catch from Pez today. I was thinking how cool it is that Froome gets out and takes the final leadout - not too many big GC guys always willing to do that. I think it's more on Swift - not a pure sprinter - to get it done. The kid just doesn't have the jump of a Degenkolb or Viviani. He's more like Sagan - give him 400 meters uphill to the finish and he'll bury the quick twitch guys. Kirby on EuroSports thought Swift looked overgeared for the final sprint too. Kid's pretty strong. Ian Stannard is the beast up front for Sky in that train. When he kicked it up to 40 MPH (with about 3 pedal strokes) from 32, Sky looked like they had it clear. Props to Argos and Liqui for fighting back. Degenkolb can hold his own in that race - good looking sprinter. 'Wide' leadout guy prototype: Ian Stannard/Sky
Saturday looks like a good one. Steep sections, punchy shortish climbs stacked together at the end of the stage. Nice fast descent off the Cat 2 climb too. This should be a burner for the last hour. Purito looking for some time and maybe another stage win: "On Saturday, stage 8 will take the peloton along a mountainous route from Lieida to the the summit of Gallina in Andorra, and race leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) can’t wait. 'I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s stage,” he said. “I know La Gallina very well because I live in Andorra. It doesn’t matter if we start climbing in first position or a bit further as it isn’t hard at the bottom. The last four kilometers are difficult and very straight with ramps between 15 and 20 percent. It’ll be beautiful to watch!'” Andorra:
"Today was another insanely fast day, there were people in the bunch yelling that we should slow down, but nobody did. Every day it seems like we’re going faster,” Rodriguez said" Purito nearly pulled that off at the end - great climbing by all four big GC contenders. He later admits that his chances for the overall are nil unless Contador and Froome crack on some point. TT is on Wednesday and Purito has lost Tour titles too often in the TT. Valverde (from Cycling News): "Equally important, though, was that Valverde played his cards well when Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) attacked close to the finish. Rather than rise to the bait and try to follow the Madrileño, he opted to stick with Rodriguez, the ‘home boy’ who lives in Andorra for part of the year and who has trained on the Collada frequently. “I knew that Joaquim knew the climb really well, so I sat on his back wheel for as long as possible. He told me there was no way Alberto could maintain that kind of pace all the way to the finish, and he was right. It was a very tough climb, with constant changes of rhythm." Great looking country Andorra....where EuroSports said "...the roads are wide and smooth." Never been there but it looks like the southern version of Switzerland. Sky is working the peloton, Kelly mentioned a few times that pushing the race at +30 MPH for over 2/3 the stage is wreaking havouc on the lesser teams. I guess you come out of this tour either a stronger man (Talansky's words) or sober about what the Vuelta is these days - Major Sufferfest. The catch:
Very exciting Vuelta so far. It is unusual to have 4 legitimate contenders so close in time. The third week will be key. Contador hasn't raced in a while. Maybe he will gain form as the racing progresses. Froome may pay the price of having worked very hard during the Tour. Rodriguez is looking strong. He has lost the last 2 grand tours in the final TT, but this years TT is not very long. Maybe this will be his year. Valverde seems to struggle with 3 week races. He won the Vuelta a few years back, but he was not facing the competition he is facing this year. But then, maybe his body is fianlly ready to maintain for for the whole 3 weeks. At this point, it is anybody's game... For all of you road racing "aficionados", if you are not watching, you are missing some fun stuff...
Really. One week in and the racing is getting more and more intense. Last week is going to rock. Here's to Tours with one short TT and 10 climbing stages.
Has any rider finished TdF & Giro this year and in Vuelta? I figured if they haven't mentioned it by now, then no one in for the crown. Hideous to contemplate after you've already finished TdF & Giro this season: the Vuelta goes into volcano-heat mode, your DS wants you taking more pulls...and Sky says, yes, this will be fast. Very fast.
Sunday: Andorra –Barcelona Distance: 194km Highest point: 885m Category: Rolling Olympian finish " It's 13 years since the Vuelta finished in Spain’s second city and it reappears with an intriguing run-in not unlike the one that featured in the 2009 Tour de France, when Thor Hushovd stormed his way up the final drag to victory. It’s a surprisingly long stage considering the race will transfer across the country after it. Starting in Andorra, it drops into Catalonia, crossing a cat 3 climb on the way. The route then drops steadily all the way into Barcelona. The riders then have to negotiate the steep ramps of the famous Montjuich climb, before the run-up to the finish outside Barcelona’s Olympic stadium" Rolling up, through Barcelona is a really great stuff. Hoshovd made the most of this in '09 - perfect finish for a great one-day strongman. BMC could really make something out of this one. Gilbert (28'), Ballan (28') and Van Summeren (36') all could roll this one - they collectively aren't on best form this year but then again they're hanging around and could see a chance to steal an impressive win in front of major crowds. Not sure what the odds are yet but, if I were near the front heading into town I would be looking for Sky to launch Flecha.
