Thoughts on Vuelta week 1

moray_gub

Whats everybodys thoughts on the 1st week ? Personally i think it has been a bit of a yawnfest to be honest this is making week 2 of the TDF look all action, nothing to break up the race the cobbles were a non event and what hills there have been have made no impact .Other than that stage in the rain the other day nothing much has happened , most of the sprints have been scrappy affairs with only Greipel looking anything like top drawer (well apart from yesterday). Hopefully the race will burst into life tommorrow and Monday.

afx237vi

Every race needs a week of flat / transitional stages, and I prefer it when that happens in week 1 instead of week 2 or 3.

It's a shame that the Benelux stages were overshadowed by so many crashes, but I thought the finishes were interesting - no dominant sprinter makes the racing very different to what we saw in the Tour.

Yesterday's finish was quite good, too, with little hills and narrow roads. Gilbert has tried to liven things up in the past two days, as you'd expect.

Plus there have been several little splits in the peloton, with GC riders losing a few seconds here and a few seconds there.

I've liked it. Looking forward to Sunday and Monday, though.

deejay

Moray Gub wrote:

Whats everybodys thoughts on the 1st week ? Personally i think it has been a bit of a yawnfest to be honest this is making week 2 of the TDF look all action, nothing to break up the race the cobbles were a non event and what hills there have been have made no impact .Other than that stage in the rain the other day nothing much has happened , most of the sprints have been scrappy affairs with only Greipel looking anything like top drawer (well apart from yesterday). Hopefully the race will burst into life tommorrow and Monday.

I'm getting used to the yawnfest after the 3 weeks attempting to stay awake in JULY 2009 France. The writing was there when 1 guy decided to show Evans how it should be done in the first week and everybody complained.
At least something might happen here in the next couple of weeks.

FJS

I actually enjoyed the first week. This was not more of a 'yawn-fest' than any other 3-week tour's flat start. There were actually some very interesting stages.

The setting of the prologue was spectacular and original, and so was seeing a Spanish peloton riding over north-european roads: definitely more interesting than the endless straight roads through the desert you normally get with the vuelta flat stages.

The sprints were entertaining because they were unorganized; much better than a columbia train producing a clean predictable cavendish win every single time.

I have really enjoyed watching Vacansoleil taking advantage of its wild-card, always having someone in the breakaway and being very active in the sprint lead-outs, and taking a win with Bozic.

It's a shame they reduced the cobbles in the second stage to just one 600 meter stretch; there are many many miles that could have produced a real Paris-Roubaix; would have been exciting, but perhaps too much for fragile Spanish climbers.

takethehighroad

I liked the fight for bonus seconds, and the inclusion of a short prologue followed by a week of flat stages can be interesting for the sprinters, who can pass the jersey amongst themselves. It reminded me of the first week of the 2006 Tour, where Hincapie Boonen and McEwen were all in contention for the jersey at some point.

iainf72

I still maintain it's going to turn out to be the best GT this year.

Mind you, when you consider the competition for that title Eneco could probably take 'em.

But dull first week, fo' sure.

dave milne

Both TTs were awful, setting the prologue somewhere the spectators can't be at the trackside is a spectacular own goal. And what were they thinking about with yesterday's course? I know lets set it out so you go on roads completely out of the city centre with dead 180 turns and so on. Shambles

Looking forward to the mountains though should be some good stages

Brian B

Its been a bit slow but in the first week but so are most grand tours. Looking forward to todays Stage and the rest of the mountain sections. There are a few people in general contention for one reason or another that are out to win something 'big' in 2009. This could shape up to a good battle and might even be the best Grand Tour of 2009.

squired

It is fine saying that a dull week is standard in grand tours, but that isn't exactly what the sport needs to draw in new spectators. Maybe this is proof that grand tours should be a maximum of 2 weeks. The problem is that they'd then just include boring stages in the 2 weeks rather than focusing on having interesting stages.

If as a hardcore cycling fan I'm not bothering watching half of the stages, what is the chance that someone will have turned onto Eurosport (or any other channel showing the race) this week and thought, "wow, what an exciting sport"?

disquieting_museeuws

Personally I love the Vuelta, I hope they don't mess about with it. There has been some great racing on unusual, quirky courses over the last 10 years or so with wonderful scenery. The showcase stages always have to be balanced with the more mundane, but even the plains stages can be fantastically exciting if you get crosswinds & echelons.