Vuelta Castilla y León 2011 **Spoilers**

frenchfighter

A 5 day stage race in Northern Spain, started on Monday and finishes tomorrow.



The startlist was not brimming with stage race talent although it did have Anton, Tondo, Mollema and Contador (3 time former winner).

Stage 1 and 2 were both bunch sprints and both won by Movistar's Ventoso.



Stage 3 was the Queen stage with two cat 1 climbs - 15km 6% av at 45km from finish and the summit finish 13km at 5.5% (the climb where Levi took overall behind Contador - same team).

The result was:
Stage 3 results
1 Filippo Savini (Colnago CSF Inox) 3:58:25
2 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) + 0:07
3 Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago CSF Inox)
4 Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) + 0:10
5 Xavier Tondo (Movistar Team)
6 Dario Cioni (Sky) + 0:15
7 Robinson Chalapud (Colombia es Pasión) + 0:24
8 Juanma Garate (Rabobank) + 0:28
9 Santi Pérez (Barbot)
10 Darwin Atapuma (Colombia es Pasión)

General Classification after Stage 3
1 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) 13:17:52
2 Xavier Tondo (Movistar Team) + 0:03
3 Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago CSF Inox) + 0:06
5 Dario Cioni (Sky) + 0:14

THe video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... N23lKnmtf4

Contador's explanation:
“My idea for the end of the stage was to keep an eye on Tondo and Igor Antón, who were the most dangerous riders, but at just under two kilometers from the finish line I punctured my front tire. I’d already noticed it before and tried to hang on, because I knew that if I stopped to fix it, the race would be over for me, but I had no other option. I had bad luck—tomorrow’s another day,” explained Contador.

“The team took responsibility from the beginning and we did really well in the race until the last climb,” said Alberto. “There, we were pretty close to the escape, but some 1,800 meters from the summit, I punctured the back tire. I changed it with Jesús Hernández, but we had problems with the chain and we lost a lot of time.”

Alberto topped the climb of the Peñón 40 seconds in arrears of the front group. “Then I waited for my teammates on the descent, and Richie Porte and Jesús Hernández caught up with me. Richie did a really great job and I congratulate him for it. Then Jesús did the same—to maintain the distance to the three riders who had attacked—while I waited for the attacks in the final kilometers. Unfortunately, that was when I punctured again and there was nothing I could do. After that, I preferred to finish quietly and see if I have better luck in the time trial.”



There was a nasty crash early on in the stage with hospital visits necessary:
http://www.steephill.tv/2011/vuelta-cas ... /stage-03/

frenchfighter

Today was a short 11km TT, the results of which are:

Stage 4 results
1 Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) 13:42
2 Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-Sungard) + 0:01
3 Xavier Tondo (Movistar Team) + 0:02
4 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) + 0:15
5 Alex Dowsett (Sky) + 0:19
6 Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) + 0:20
7 Juan Pablo Suárez (EPM-UNE) + 0:26
8 Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) + 0:31
9 Jerome Coppel (Saur Sojasun) + 0:32
10 Chris Froome (Sky) + 0:37

General Classification after Stage 4
1 Xavier Tondo (Movistar Team)
2 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) + 0:11
3 Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) + 0:17

Great ride by Tondo who can actually TT pretty well. He won the TT in Tour de San Luis earlier this year.

Tomorrow is most likely to be a bunch sprint with no changes in GC.

cal_stewart

prob back Domenico Pozzovivo for the giro on ptp as he has form and will have an extra pint of blood by then

Bronzie

Another great TT by Tondo.........continues to impress

stanislav

Cal_Stewart wrote:

prob back Domenico Pozzovivo for the giro on ptp as he has form and will have an extra pint of blood by then

what makes u think pozzovivo is going to be juiced up.

RichN95.

Good to see Alex Dowsett in the mix again (particularly just before World Haemophilia Day). So far he's been more visible than his contemporary, Tyler Phinney.

inkyfingers

RichN95 wrote:

Good to see Alex Dowsett in the mix again (particularly just before World Haemophilia Day). So far he's been more visible than his contemporary, Tyler Phinney.

Dowsett has ridden some good TTs already this year, his first senior win can't be too far away.

To be fair to Taylor Phinney, he's had a lot of injury problems so far this year...hopefully we'll see them head to head later in the season.

cal_stewart

stanislav wrote:

Cal_Stewart wrote:

prob back Domenico Pozzovivo for the giro on ptp as he has form and will have an extra pint of blood by then

what makes u think pozzovivo is going to be juiced up.

Italian, small team, only big race of the season for him.

stanislav

Cal_Stewart wrote:

stanislav wrote:

Cal_Stewart wrote:

prob back Domenico Pozzovivo for the giro on ptp as he has form and will have an extra pint of blood by then

what makes u think pozzovivo is going to be juiced up.

Italian, small team, only big race of the season for him.

He needs to be carefull he doesnt end up eating a CLEN infected PARMO and end up like contador,he may prefer pork rather than chicken though.

afx237vi

Swift wins the final stage.

takethehighroad

afx237vi wrote:

Swift wins the final stage.

I got excited then until I realised it's not in the World Tour so it doesn't count towards the Worlds

frenchfighter

Getty


Explanation behind the red glasses.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-sk ... philia-day

cal_stewart

stanislav wrote:

Cal_Stewart wrote:

stanislav wrote:

Cal_Stewart wrote:

prob back Domenico Pozzovivo for the giro on ptp as he has form and will have an extra pint of blood by then

what makes u think pozzovivo is going to be juiced up.

Italian, small team, only big race of the season for him.

He needs to be carefull he doesnt end up eating a CLEN infected PARMO and end up like contador,he may prefer pork rather than chicken though.

Clen PARMOs might stop 90% of woman in teeside having fat arses