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La Vuelta 2019


'Dale

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Today was *** hard - seriously the stage was next level.

 

Despite this next level of hardness the stage was won by a 39 year old.

 

Does that mean that the level of competition is not so hard at Vuelta 2019 or that age is just a number or that Valverde is the real superman of cycling?

 

Probably a combination of above ? 

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Saw some stats that Bennett was 6.4 w/kg for an estimated 16 mins and lost a minute to the top 4

 

These riders are next-level

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Hectic finish in the wet, well done N. Andt!

 

Was slightly funny how the camera motorbike went down with the live feed on it shortly after a rider went down. Hope none of the fallers got seriously hurt.

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Hectic finish in the wet, well done N. Andt!

 

Was slightly funny how the camera motorbike went down with the live feed on it shortly after a rider went down. Hope none of the fallers got seriously hurt.

Also saw that, the sound of metal meeting tar is never nice. Had to rewind to check it again, was a bit funny. Kudos to the producers for switching cameras relatively quick.

 

But ja, good stuff Arndt!

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Just saw the profile of tomorrow’s stage. How did I miss that beast? Looks like it could be an epic with all that built into 94lm. Ho-lysjeeet!

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Just saw the profile of tomorrow’s stage. How did I miss that beast? Looks like it could be an epic with all that built into 94lm. Ho-lysjeeet!

Andorra ????????

5 categorized climbs

3,400 m of climbing

94 kms

 

Don’t blink ????

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Despite this next level of hardness the stage was won by a 39 year old.

 

Does that mean that the level of competition is not so hard at Vuelta 2019 or that age is just a number or that Valverde is the real superman of cycling?

 

Probably a combination of above ? 

 

Had a good convo at breakfast this morning with someone over his result and knew this would be a question for the day.

 

But, if you look at his calendar there was no racing in May so he could recoup and build into Tour and then recover into Vuelta. You can say what you want about him being clean, not clean this or that but Alejandro is an incredible bike racer. He won lots in a very dirty era and he is winning in a much much cleaner era. He can read a bike race better than almost anyone I have seen, Pogacer is the person who can do that behind him.

 

Just cause he is 39 it does raise a eyebrow but he is part of that 1%, many others don't race to his age, they retire and go away. He is racing. 

 

The level at this Vuelta is high, I have analyzed data every night post stage and drawn up reports. When you stand roadside or in the follow car you see how hard this is.

 

I dont understand why sprinters come here.

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Had a good convo at breakfast this morning with someone over his result and knew this would be a question for the day.

 

But, if you look at his calendar there was no racing in May so he could recoup and build into Tour and then recover into Vuelta. You can say what you want about him being clean, not clean this or that but Alejandro is an incredible bike racer. He won lots in a very dirty era and he is winning in a much much cleaner era. He can read a bike race better than almost anyone I have seen, Pogacer is the person who can do that behind him.

 

Just cause he is 39 it does raise a eyebrow but he is part of that 1%, many others don't race to his age, they retire and go away. He is racing.

 

The level at this Vuelta is high, I have analyzed data every night post stage and drawn up reports. When you stand roadside or in the follow car you see how hard this is.

 

I dont understand why sprinters come here.

Interested to hear your views on the age thing..purely from a performance perspective. Is this really such a big issue? Do we really understand how much of this is mental and how much physical?

Most riders probably loose the mental battle long before they do the physical one..cycling is a hard sport and to punish yourself that much for that long is not generally sustainable.

I think if you take Valverde as an example..the gains/ adaptations from 20+ years of competitive racing and the training that goes with that joined with experience,calmness and racing smarts must by far outweigh the natural physiological decline??

 

When it comes to Valverde I have said it many times, look at HOW he wins before you criticize and pull the doping card. He is NOT and has never been a rider that Blows away the race..he never does anything magical..he almost always wins by meters..NOT minutes.

Consistency is what he does better than most and when it comes to raising doubts I will always question BIG highs and big lows more than consistency.

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Had a good convo at breakfast this morning with someone over his result and knew this would be a question for the day.

 

But, if you look at his calendar there was no racing in May so he could recoup and build into Tour and then recover into Vuelta. You can say what you want about him being clean, not clean this or that but Alejandro is an incredible bike racer. He won lots in a very dirty era and he is winning in a much much cleaner era. He can read a bike race better than almost anyone I have seen, Pogacer is the person who can do that behind him.

 

Just cause he is 39 it does raise a eyebrow but he is part of that 1%, many others don't race to his age, they retire and go away. He is racing. 

 

The level at this Vuelta is high, I have analyzed data every night post stage and drawn up reports. When you stand roadside or in the follow car you see how hard this is.

 

I dont understand why sprinters come here.

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

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Andorra

5 categorized climbs

3,400 m of climbing

94 kms

 

Don’t blink

 

they start up a cat 1... wakey wakey!! rise and shine... and rise and rise and rise....

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Epic stage ahead on my training roads as @lavuelta hits andorra. Watch out for the dirt section in the final. The possible rain will make it really tricky. 1 of those days I’m happy I am @DeineTour

 

Dan Martin, Tweetiebird ????

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The break is up the road

And with about 38 kms to go, Ash-tuh-naahh, applies pressure to dislodge Jumbo's Roggas and get some time advantage before the time trail

 

Pace - crazy 

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