Vuelta a Espana
Comments
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Well, what can I say?
Full results in the morning, but as expected, today's stage really shook things up......more exciting in many ways than the predictability of the Tour de France recently.
Brillant effort by Contador, after yesterday's crash.
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Here are the standings after Saturday's stage:
1st Nairo Quintana (IanH)
2nd Alejandra Valverde (Pliers)
3rd Chris Froome (Kennine)
4th Esteban Chaves (TtDA 2)
5th Darwin Atapuma
7th Alberto Contador (TtDA)
8th Daniel Moreno (Nellie)
11th Simon Yates (despite the curse of Runrig still hanging over him)
143rd Tejay Van Garderen (Goldie) - oh dear!
Rtd Miquel Angel Lopez (Runrig)
Too early to get the CT prize ready? I think maybe yes......
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Todays stage starts with a climb up to the cat2 Puerto de San Isidro at 60km in. Then there is a long, long descent of about 50km and then the climbing starts again.
The final 50 km or so includes three cat3 and one cat2 climbs.....on already tired legs! The finish is at the top of the cat2 climb......there is no rest!!
And for the following day, they can look forward to......more climbing! With a Hors catagory mountain top finish.
Good job Tuesday is a rest day.....
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Another surprise winner, David de la Cruz, who also took over the Red Jersey. The GC contenders are still where they were yesterday time wise relative to themselves. It looked as if Movistar let the stage winner have sufficient time gap to take over the
Red Jersey, so that they don't have to defend it tomorrow on another hard mountain stage.Unforunately my man has dropped away somewhat, dropping down to 12th, after losing 13 sec to Contador.
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Here are the standings after Sunday's stage:
1st David De La Cruz (for one day only, I suspect!)
2nd Nairo Quintana (IanH)
3rd Alejandra Valverde (Pliers)
4th Chris Froome (Kennine)
5th Esteban Chaves (TtDA 2)
7th Alberto Contador (TtDA)
10th Samuel Sanchez (surprised there were no takers)
11th Simon Yates
12th Daniel Moreno (Nellie)
140th Tejay Van Garderen (Goldie)
Rtd Miquel Angel Lopez (Runrig)
It would seem that the GC contenders were saving themselves to today - when surely there will be some shake-up in the standings.
A cat1 climb after 148km, soon followed by a HC climb to the finish at Lagos de Covadonga. Brutal!
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Think there are some 'orrible 'ills on the 'ere race! Keep looking at the drops off the side of the road.
anyone think there dont seem to be many spectators?
There's never as many as one sees for the TdF, but there's not a lot of room on some of them on the sides of the climbs. I also think that the main holidays have finished over there, so less people about in total.
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A great ride by Quintana, winning the stage and back in the Red Jersey. Froome looked as if he'd missed the break but judged his climb nearly to perfection, losing only 25 secs to Quintana in the end, gaining time on all the rest of GC contenders and back to 3rd overall. Contador seems to getting back to his best as well.
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Sounds to have been a great stage today.
I am away in the van and the crappy Avtex failed to record today again, tried to find on catch up but to no avail.
That time trial is going to be hellish exiting. Quinana will no doubt do the TT of his life. Great stuff.
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Here are the results after Monday's stage:
1st Nairo Quintana (IanH)
2nd Alejandra Valverde (Pliers) at +57 seconds
3rd Chris Froome (Kennine) - by just one second!
4th Esteban Chaves (TtDA 2) +2:09
5th Alberto Contador (TtDA) +2:54
8th Simon Yates
10th Samuel Sanchez
13th Daniel Moreno (Nellie) +4:20
131st Tejay Van Garderen (Goldie) +1:33:08 (think he might struggle to make that up Goldie!
)Rtd Miquel Angel Lopez (Runrig)
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Well, today is a rest day but Wednesday kicks off again with a 168km stage and guess what? It's a mountain top finish!
Lets hope no-one allows their legs to stiffen up on the 'rest' day.
Just looking ahead a bit, the Time Trial stage is on the Friday before the finish. It's 37km long and relatively flat (not pan-flat, but reasonably so).
Stage 13 in the Tour was the same distance (but a bit more hilly) and Quintana lost 2:05 to Froome in that stage. Valverde lost 1:45 to Froome.
So I reckon that they both need over 2 minutes lead over Froome to beat him, before that get to stage 19.
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I wonder if Quitana was joking when he said that he needed three minutes on Froome before the TT?
A bit of a shake up today, results to follow......
I saw the interview with Quintana after his stage win. For once, he seemed so relaxed. Seems to be a really nice guy.
3 mins before the time trial? Maybe 2!
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Did I miss it, but I never saw an interview with Froome after the finish.
No interview with Froome shown. Perhaps he was too kn***ered to talk!!
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Goldie, these are his comments after the stage,as reported in Cycling News.
“I just rode the climb at the best pace I felt was the efficient way to get up there and according to how I thought the legs were feeling,” Froome, third overall at 58 seconds on Quintana, told a small group of reporters later.
“Nairo is in great form and we’ve seen that over the last few days. I’ve got to be happy with where I’m at, just keep doing my thing and hope that over the next few days I find either an opportunity to go for it or defend my position that we’re in and wait
for the time trial.”Froome said that he had tackled the climb in a way that was “regardless of what was going on around me. I was just riding at the pace that I felt was most appropriate for a climb, for a 35 minute effort and I could see guys I was going past being blown from
the front and they maybe started off a bit fast, so I used my team-mates the best I could and they did a great job today.“It was good for the morale [to pass riders], but I knew that Quintana was a good 45 seconds up the road and that was pretty tough too, not having to chase after that and respond straightaway. But for this point in the season, after the Tour or the Olympics
, I'm just hanging on to what I have left and I'm trying to get through the best I can.”Hope this helps.
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Our two boys, Contador and Chaves, are lurking ominously!
Havent seen much of race to be honest, been a tad busy, hoping to watch highlights tonight.
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Cracking finish today.
Chaves went off on a break in the last couple of km and seemed to have taken it. But he was pulled back by the leaders, then Froome and Quintana battled it out for the win, wih Froome taking it (and well pleased he looked!).
They finished on the same time, so Froome gained 4 seconds due to the time bonuses.
The rest of the favourites didn't lose too much time, but every second is beginning to count now.
Quintana had a moan about the use of power meters and said they should try banning them. Froome disagreed.
Full results to follow. The CT prize is still up for grabs
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Now that was a proper race to the line!! The top two favourites battling it out to the finish. Froome just pipping Quintana, both finishing on the same time, and gaining a few seconds on the other main contenders. Froome now up to 2nd, at 54 secs behind Quintana, and Valverde down to 3rd.
Edit. Sorry Ian, you just did a Froome on me!
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Yet another surprise winner today, Jens Keukeleire of Orica, in a sprint finish. No change in the placings or the time differences. Bit of a different approach from Sky today with 2 rider out in a breakaway for quite a lot of the day. Was it to make
Movistar do more chasing than they would have liked to do today, instead of having a bit of a rest, I wonder. Another probable sprint finish tomorrow at the end of the longest stage of the event.0 -
Here are the results after Thursday's stage:
1st Nairo Quintana (IanH)
2nd Chris Froome (Kennine) at +54 seconds
3rd Alejandro Valverde (Pliers) +1:05
4th Esteban Chaves (TtDA 2) +2:34
5th Alberto Contador (TtDA) +3.08
7th Simon Yates
10th Samuel Sanchez
12th Daniel Moreno (Nellie) +5:38
108th Tejay Van Garderen (Goldie) +1:45:30
Rtd Miquel Angel Lopez (Runrig)
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Not sure that I agree that it will be a sprinter's finish today, Nellie. There are 4 categorised climbs and a number of uncategorised ones to get over.
I would say it will be a day for the break-away......question is, who will go in it today? It would have been a good day for Peter Sagan (if he were here)......Philippe Gilbert, anyone?
The run to the finish will give the GC bunch something to fight over and we may just see one of the main contenders trying to make a jump on the rest.
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You were partly right Ian, but I guess no-one would have picked the winner at the start. Good win for Valerio Conti of Lampre. The main bunch were just not interested, and all came in together nearly 34mins behind the winner. And not one of the GC contenders
tried to grab a sneaky few seconds. So all the same at the top of the leader board.0 -
Hopefullytomorrow's stage will be a lot more interesting with some proper racing from the GC contender. Saturday's 196km stage includes four categorised climbs in the Pyrenees and culminates with a 21km ascent of the Col d'Aubisque!!
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