2016 Vuelta a España

[Gen]

Post race report from Tinkoff..

 

http://www.tinkoffteam.com/news/contador-climbs-to-4th-gc-stage-15-vuelta-with-6th-atop-formigal/

[Gen]

Quite a bit of a debate about the organisers not enforcing the time limit today.

 

 

They didn't even try and make the cut off time.

['Dale]

Quite a bit of a debate about the organisers not enforcing the time limit today.

 

 

They didn't even try and make the cut off time.

Over the years, I've seen some interesting deviations from the rule book in the Vuelta.

 

Doesn't surprise me.

 

Just can't think of another good example.

Tired from two days of superb racing ????

[HappyMartin]

It's not uncommon for them to look the other way when such a big group doesn't make it. It would spoil the race.

 

It's cycling. Not golf. The rules are a bit flexible. I would hate to see it change.

[Mntboy]

Yeah riding the TDF and RIO as opposed to riding on fresh legs will do that. El Dopo tried it with the Giro and TDF before and got slaughtered.

I never said that Froome is a bad rider or not deserving of the praise he has received for his TdF wins (this year's one was particularly good imho) or his performances in a number of other world tour races such as the Dauphine for instance. So that is your own inference Scotty. Beefy has served his ban, accept that he is a part of the peloton. His palmares is still something to be envied by his competitors.

 

Chris got slaughtered not just because of his race schedule, or because winning any double is hard (still in with a shout imho) but because he got found wanting when he got isolated and had to race without team mates. Badly so. Impossible to cover all the accelerations and he had very few to little friends in his group to help him counter Movistar and their stalling tactics. Which says more about Sky than Froome. I am sure he has learned from the experience because he is a good racer.

 

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[Gen]

It's not uncommon for them to look the other way when such a big group doesn't make it. It would spoil the race.

 

It's cycling. Not golf. The rules are a bit flexible. I would hate to see it change.

Yip

 

But I feel for the guys like Moser who had to fight all by his lonesome to make the cut off..

[andydude]

It's not uncommon for them to look the other way when such a big group doesn't make it. It would spoil the race.

 

It's cycling. Not golf. The rules are a bit flexible. I would hate to see it change.

Yip

 

But I feel for the guys like Moser who had to fight all by his lonesome to make the cut off..

Yeah agreed it's because of the big group, but still, they were not even trying to finish in time?

 

You get guys crashing and trying their absolute best, miss the time by a few seconds, and get cut. Now you have guys, including the strongest team, basically resting, and nothing happens.

 

Oh well, part of the drama I guess [emoji467]

[Gen]

Yeah agreed it's because of the big group, but still, they were not even trying to finish in time?

 

You get guys crashing and trying their absolute best, miss the time by a few seconds, and get cut. Now you have guys, including the strongest team, basically resting, and nothing happens.

 

Oh well, part of the drama I guess [emoji467]

Ja.. the groupetto only averaged just over 30km/hr today..Brambilla averaged just over 40.

 

If they had to have enforced it this is what the starting lineup would've looked like

 

[emoji23] [emoji23] [emoji23]

 

['Dale]

It's not uncommon for them to look the other way when such a big group doesn't make it. It would spoil the race.

 

It's cycling. Not golf. The rules are a bit flexible. I would hate to see it change.

True true

 

The big guys of the World Tour will be still feeling bruised after yesterday's queen stage ????????????

[dev null]

Yes, but tomorrow one of those cyclists that had a rest day in the peloton today will have fresh legs to go for the stage win.

[Gen]

Yes, but tomorrow one of those cyclists that had a rest day in the peloton today will have fresh legs to go for the stage win.

Yip

 

And a lot of Sky's riders ended up on a coffee ride today, they threw in the towel very early on.. only Lopez stayed with Froome for a while longer. Whereas Movistar and Tinkoff worked very hard.. it may catch up with them.

 

Only time will tell.

[Gen]

But my moment of the day...

 

['Dale]

"I wasn't extremely optimistic because the climbs weren't very hard. Yesterday evening, I was reading the race book, looking at the gradients of the climbs in order to see what we could do. I knew it it would be complicated, so I decided to start at full pace. I was aware I was making a dangerous gamble because I knew that if they were able to catch me in the finale they would be able to drop me from the group of favorites. It was a gamble and I think it led to a great result. Sometimes you don't win, like today. The final kilometers were tough."

 

Berto

['Dale]

"At the moment, I’m not too scared of anything. I’ve got a lot of respect for that time trial, although hopefully it won’t be too unfavourable and I will play a defensive game on the mountain stages to come.”

 

Quintana

[Sniffie]

How on earth did Sky allow a strong break containing Quintana to go up the road? Only a complete lack of concentration could explain that. I remember seeing one of the sky riders sitting right at th back of the peleton at kilometre 0. I thought Movistar's tactics the rest of the day was brilliant, especially upping the pace in the Froome group just enough so that the rest of team Sky could not rejoin the second group on the road. Awesome racing today!

[Gen]

For those of you who missed it.. here it is again

 

 

Check out @Eurosport_ES's Tweet: https://twitter.com/Eurosport_ES/status/772493499228909568?s=09