Vuelta stage 11 *spoiler*

afx237vi

Pross wrote:

FJS wrote:

Still 10 riders within 2 minutes in the GC - the Angliru will be interesting

Who out of the main GC boys are likely to be strong on the Angliru? J Rod obviously loves the steepest stuff but do the likes of Scarponi and Nibs? As you say it will be interesting!

Nibali matched Mosquera on that insane Bola del Mundo climb last year, so he's not scared of the really steep stuff.

jonginge

Pross wrote:

FJS wrote:

Still 10 riders within 2 minutes in the GC - the Angliru will be interesting

Who out of the main GC boys are likely to be strong on the Angliru? J Rod obviously loves the steepest stuff but do the likes of Scarponi and Nibs? As you say it will be interesting!

Zoncolon results from the giro are quite telling I guess:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/giro-ditalia ... 14/results

FJS

afx237vi wrote:

Pross wrote:

FJS wrote:

Still 10 riders within 2 minutes in the GC - the Angliru will be interesting

Who out of the main GC boys are likely to be strong on the Angliru? J Rod obviously loves the steepest stuff but do the likes of Scarponi and Nibs? As you say it will be interesting!

Nibali matched Mosquera on that insane Bola del Mundo last year, so he's not scared of the really steep stuff.

Yep, Nibali.

And didn't Kessiakoff win on Kitzbuhl in the tour of Austria? That's pretty steep too

skavanagh.bikeradar

Given how tight the GC is there is a lot to play for still. Blimey the Vuelta is turning out to be a good race.

Tom BB

For me, its a case of whether J-Rod can put enough time into Nibs on the Angliru.....I can see him winning the stage, which gives him 20 seconds-will he put another couple of minutes into him though? I can see the Angliru being Brads undoing.......Nibs looks in a very strong position and I can see him putting time into Brad there.

Pross

I think, come a week Sunday, Sky will be rueing that TTT on day 1 and possibly being in the wrong place when Leeky Gas forced the split.

Looks like I'm getting my Leeky riders mixed up as I thought Nibs was another diesel type climber who preferred the long drags :?

blazing_saddles

Once again having to play a little bit of catch up.
Really impressed with Rabo's animation, today.
TGBM starting to look a true GC threat.
JRod was never going to get mush back on that climb into that exposed wind.
Glad Fuglsang couldn't suck all the way to the top. He's was starting to look like a handy replacement for Leipheimer, at Bruyneel-Trek.

Fred Kessiakoff is the new Dennis Menchov. Never seen, but no distance from the podium.

Moncoutie stamps his climbing class on another Vuelta stage.

So, Bradley gets into red off a MTF.
Busy times around here, I'd guess.
While Wiggins looks very strong, the team collectively look pretty mountain weak.

rozzer32

Scarponi might as well pack his suitcase and go home. His Giro climbing legs have decided to go walk about (see what I did there).

iainf72

I think Friday could be a dangerous stage. It looks like one where if you want to make it very hard, you could do.

The Angliru will probably be it's usual let down. These stupidly steep climbs are rarely "good" viewing.

gsk82

i dont see how sky are weak in the mountains. how many liquigas, katusha etc riders were up there with froom and wiggins? i'm starting to think wiggins might be able to do it, he's looked the best across the 2 big climbs so far out of the contenders

RichN95.

Tom BB wrote:

For me, its a case of whether J-Rod can put enough time into Nibs on the Angliru.....I can see him winning the stage, which gives him 20 seconds-will he put another couple of minutes into him though?

I'm not convinced Rodriguez will even beat Nibali up there. He's great at opening up 30-40 second gaps very quickly, but it doesn't really get any more than that and he tends to fade. If he was capable of the sustained efforts needed to open up a minute or two, he wouldn't be so crap at time trials.

In the Giro on the Zoncolan he was way behind Nibali, who knows exactly how to pace himself. He was behind the likes of Sivtsov too.

avoidingmyphd

Blazing Saddles wrote:

TGBM

Mixing your forums up?

Surely the Angliru can't be a let down with such small gaps? I kind of hope it is, but I can't see it happening.

luckao

Nibali will prevail on the Angliru. I don't rate anybody's chances of riding off the front with relative ease, but I do think he has it within himself to outlast the rest.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

The Angliru will probably be it's usual let down. These stupidly steep climbs are rarely "good" viewing.

Quite. All it serves to do is make the pros look amateur.

rick_chasey

avoidingmyphd wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

TGBM

Mixing your forums up?

Surely the Angliru can't be a let down with such small gaps? I kind of hope it is, but I can't see it happening.

Lets have a look at the time gaps in '08...

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 5.52.35 (35.65 km/h)
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.42
3 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.58
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 1.05
5 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.32
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 1.56
7 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 2.18
8 Oliver Zaugg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 2.28
9 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre 2.43
10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 3.01
11 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 4.08


So big, but not enormous.

avoidingmyphd

Rick Chasey wrote:

avoidingmyphd wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

TGBM

Mixing your forums up?

Surely the Angliru can't be a let down with such small gaps? I kind of hope it is, but I can't see it happening.

Lets have a look at the time gaps in '08...

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 5.52.35 (35.65 km/h)
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.42
3 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.58
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 1.05
5 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.32
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 1.56
7 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 2.18
8 Oliver Zaugg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 2.28
9 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre 2.43
10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 3.01
11 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 4.08


So big, but not enormous.

Perhaps - but big enough to upend the GC that year, and this year's even tighter...

coinneach

Does anyone think Wiggins made a mistake attacking there?
The two riders who have suffered most are Froome & Fuglsang.....both would be thrilled to bits with a podium finish...shouldn't Wiggo be making friends rather than enemies?
The main danger is so obviously Nibali, who didn't waste a watt of effort in the stage.
With Sky looking so much weaker than Liquigas, Wiggo needs friends, and fast!
Just ask Robert Millar!!

avoidingmyphd

coinneach wrote:

With Sky looking so much weaker than Liquigas

How so? On the uphill finishes, Sky have obviously been stronger than Liquigas. Neither have much depth, so it's basically been Wiggins + Froome v. Nibali. No Liquigas domestique has ever matched Froome. So Nibali is always isolated before Wiggins.
This race is not going to be decided by the relative strengths of Capecchi and Possoni or whether Löfkvist comes to the party.

coinneach

That's from what we see at the end of the race....

I bet you at another stage (which one, only Nibali knows, but he'll only need one stage to win now) there will be 5 Liquigas riders hammering along, and Wiggins will be on his own.

BTW I hope I am wrong![/quote]

avoidingmyphd

5 Liquigas riders hammering along and Wiggins isolated? You're playing fantasy cycling now. They didn't even manage either of those things on stage 6.