Vuelta 2021 ????????

[TNT1]

17 minutes ago, eddy said:

Does anyone know how many missed the cut-off yesterday?

With 5 mins to go there were about 30 still out on the course..

 

Th results on cyclingnews have 2 dnf's and one HD. I dunno what HD means.

[eddy]

39 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

Th results on cyclingnews have 2 dnf's and one HD. I dunno what HD means.

HD = Ha Denough

[Frosty]

Meanwhile, back in the team convoy…

[Mountain Bru]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

Do you really think so?

I don't think he could ride himself into better form than Roglic over a longer time.  

I'm also a bit blown away by how ineffectual Ineos have been this season after completely lighting up the racing last year. 

Easy to forget that Bernal dominated and won the Giro in April, so not completely ineffective. Just ineffective when there's a Slovenian on the start list of a grand tour. 

And Porte won the Dauphine quite emphatically.

They were 1, 2 & 3 at Catalunya. Carapaz won Tour de Suisse, Thomas won Romandie.

Bernal is their best GC rider though, and he chose to do Giro - Vuelta rather than TDF, and got covid right after the Giro. I think there's a chance he'd be closer to Roglic if he hadn't had covid, but obviously there's no way of knowing. He seems to have  gotten stronger over the 3 weeks though. 

Their TDF was obviously not great, and they crashed every second km, but Carapaz still finished 3rd. But Porte and Thomas were completely useless in the tour and I think that hurt their strategy. 

[TNT1]

4 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Bernal is their best GC rider though, and he chose to do Giro - Vuelta rather than TDF, and got covid right after the Giro. I think there's a chance he'd be closer to Roglic if he hadn't had covid, but obviously there's no way of knowing. He seems to have  gotten stronger over the 3 weeks though. 

I think the X factor missing is Dani Martinez, not covid...

[Mountain Bru]

1 hour ago, eddy said:

Does anyone know how many missed the cut-off yesterday?

With 5 mins to go there were about 30 still out on the course..

 

OTL - Outside Time Limit

DNF - Did not finish

DNS - Did not start

[Mountain Bru]

2 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

I think the X factor missing is Dani Martinez, not covid...

Definitely. Doesn't help that both the Ecuadorians have pulled out. Narvaes looked strong on a few stages, and Carapaz should have been in the mix, but I think Bernal has really missed a reliable mountain super dom

[Dirt Tracker]

2 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

OTL - Outside Time Limit

DNF - Did not finish

DNS - Did not start

Shame for Matt Holmes. He'd got pretty sick on the last rest day and tried to keep going to the end. 

How many Movistars but be down to 5 riders now. Is the collective noun of Movistar riders a 'confusion'? 

[Jewbacca]

16 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Easy to forget that Bernal dominated and won the Giro in April, so not completely ineffective. Just ineffective when there's a Slovenian on the start list of a grand tour. 

And Porte won the Dauphine quite emphatically.

They were 1, 2 & 3 at Catalunya. Carapaz won Tour de Suisse, Thomas won Romandie.

Bernal is their best GC rider though, and he chose to do Giro - Vuelta rather than TDF, and got covid right after the Giro. I think there's a chance he'd be closer to Roglic if he hadn't had covid, but obviously there's no way of knowing. He seems to have  gotten stronger over the 3 weeks though. 

Their TDF was obviously not great, and they crashed every second km, but Carapaz still finished 3rd. But Porte and Thomas were completely useless in the tour and I think that hurt their strategy. 

Yeah.. I guess with all those wins in the bag and squad depth one would have expected a better showing at TDF and Vuelta.

I have no idea what Yates brings to the team at a GT. He is impossible to sit behind with his weird style of riding, he doesn't seem to have the big guns in the mountains and isn't quite powerful enough on the Classics type stages. It just seems a peculiar inclusion and one makes me wonder what their plans actually are.

Either way, the racing has been fantastic at this edition of the Vuelta, regardless of who has been pulling what strings. Storer, Magnus Cort, Bardet, seeing Meintjies look so confident.... The return of Jacobsen. Roglic flexing his muscles so soon after TDF disaster.

Absolute entertainment with more to come

[Dirt Tracker]

32 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Meanwhile, back in the team convoy…

VENGA, VENGA! Makes me smile every time. Man I hope they bring the venga boys back for a 3rd instalment of the MS doc. Love that series. 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Dirt Tracker

[Mountain Bru]

4 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I have no idea what Yates brings to the team at a GT. He is impossible to sit behind with his weird style of riding, he doesn't seem to have the big guns in the mountains and isn't quite powerful enough on the Classics type stages. It just seems a peculiar inclusion and one makes me wonder what their plans actually are.

I think his biggest thing he brings to the team is a British passport. They're a British team, and want to win with British riders. He's probably the best of the British GC riders (until Pidcock reaches full potential, or Thomas finds a new lease on life)

On his day, he can outclimb the best, but he's ridiculously inconsistent. At the UAE tour, he was the only guy that could hang with Pogacar on the climbs, but then he'll randomly lose time on a cat 4 climb and ship 20 seconds. I don't think he's really proved himself as a domestique yet either and seems to only really be able to ride as a leader (or only wants to).

So I think he's a super frustrating guy to have on your team as a DS. He has the ability to win, and will show phenomenal potential one day, but has way too many off days and will win time one day and throw it away the next day. Or refuse to ride near the front of the pelo and get tangled up in crashes.   

[Shebeen]

I hadn't realised that the combined classification and jersey had been scrapped for Vuelta. for those wondering roglic in 1,2,3 is way out front, but is in red so it would be on guess who's shoulders?

[Dirt Tracker]

54 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

I hadn't realised that the combined classification and jersey had been scrapped for Vuelta. for those wondering roglic in 1,2,3 is way out front, but is in red so it would be on guess who's shoulders?

I think Yates was the last holder of the Vuelta one back in '18 when it used to be the white jersey. Personally I used to love the old Tour combination one not sure why they ditched that. 

[Yyyy]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

Yeah.. I guess with all those wins in the bag and squad depth one would have expected a better showing at TDF and Vuelta.

I think Ineos has had a fair season. They did very well in the stage races leading up to the TDF.

By Ineos standards the TDF was unsuccessful (and likewise the Vuelta) but we in the era of the Slovenians and going up against Pogs or Rogs is almost like a battle for 2nd (or 3rd if both take part) 

Its like when Froome or Lance dominated the GC game. The only issue for Ineos is that those riders are not on their team. 

I thought we were entering the era of Bernal two years ago but it looks like that was just a stop gap  between two eras of dominance (like the riders between Lance to Froome).

[dsw]

1 hour ago, TNT1 said:

I think the X factor missing is Dani Martinez, not covid...

Martinez also had Covid and did not recover in time to do the Vuelta. They brought Carapaz back from holiday to replace him. 

[dsw]

8 minutes ago, YaseenEnos said:

I think Ineos has had a fair season. They did very well in the stage races leading up to the TDF.

By Ineos standards the TDF was unsuccessful (and likewise the Vuelta) but we in the era of the Slovenians and going up against Pogs or Rogs is almost like a battle for 2nd (or 3rd if both take part) 

Its like when Froome or Lance dominated the GC game. The only issue for Ineos is that those riders are not on their team. 

I thought we were entering the era of Bernal two years ago but it looks like that was just a stop gap  between two eras of dominance (like the riders between Lance to Froome).

I will not write a rider who has won 2 grand tours at age 24 off so quickly. If he can stay healthy there is no reason why he cannot win quite a few more grand tours in the future.