Vuelta Stage 3 *Spoiler*

Paul 8v

Oh yeah, he can move when he needs to, just got that pokerface confidence going on where he just slowly reeled him back in. I thought he was off for a moment he went round that last bend. Be good to see what he can do in the GC

Turfle

frenchfighter wrote:

A cpl of ppl have said this stage doesn't suit Froome - what stage does the ? He is one for the steeper and quick stuff rather than the Wiggins grind imo.

It's not that it didn't suit him, it just didn't suit him as much as it suited the other three (certainly Rodriguez and Valverde), who are all far more punchy on hills. I'd say deal for Froome would be a much longer climb, with probably a number of climbs before the final one. His big weapon seems to be his in-stage recovery.

cougie

Jeez. So many attacks. Not seen stuff like that for ages. Almost reminiscent of when pantani won his tour.
Oh Harmon has just counted up - six attacks.

Gazzetta67

cougie wrote:

Jeez. So many attacks. Not seen stuff like that for ages. Almost reminiscent of when pantani won his tour.
Oh Harmon has just counted up - six attacks.

Days like this remind you of how P**s Poor the TDF was. Like i said if anyone was gullible to believe the pish spouted by Prudhomme that this year the climbers would have to go on the offensive...prob 9 out 10 on here prefer the Vuelta/Giro for race action rather than that "Circus Sportive" around france now.

dougzz

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Days like this remind you of how P**s Poor the TDF was. Like i said if anyone was gullible to believe the pish spouted by Prudhomme that this year the climbers would have to go on the offensive...prob 9 out 10 on here prefer the Vuelta/Giro for race action rather than that "Circus Sportive" around france now.

I guess I'm the 10th then. It was good today, but it's being a bit oversold here. When I watch Valverde and Bertie I find myself wondering continually about things other than bike racing. Technically the coverage of the Vuelta simply isn't up to the standards of the TdF, and for me there's also just a little too much 'Home' team play.

Turfle

And this year's Giro was duller than dull.

oldwelshman

frenchfighter wrote:

Go hard or go home. Wiggins would get eaten alive here.

Contador has the legs as I expected. Big J Rod got the power. Valverde got the kick. Froome looking good.

Joaquim sta up a moment too early - not going to be happy about that one.

Contador's race face is just A++

Very hard Cat1 tbh. I'm surprised so many got shelled. Where the hell was Quintana? Cobo?

They were going ridiculously fast at the last 3km. Vuelta loves these short flattish downhills just before the finish - I like them too.

Nothing wrong with bonus seconds. And no Contador would not have dropped them previously.

Talansky is up there - keep a good eye on him. Real shame he lost time in the Garmin TTT crash.

FF you really do talk bollox sometimes. What makes you think Wiggo would get eaten alive? So druggie bertie attacks hard and opens a gap, then cant sustain it (obviously) and gets caught. By the end he was only 6 secs up on the average climbers after all that effort. I hope Froome does not try to respond everytime as he may pay for it later.
On the longer climbs think it may be more suited to froome not to chase every time and just use Uran and Haeno more efffectively.

Daz555

frenchfighter wrote:

Go hard or go home. Wiggins would get eaten alive here.

Bertie showed nothing today (early days of course) that Wiggins would not handle.

thamacdaddy

People spout a lot of nonsense about how great the vuelta is. Don't forget we have endless miles of motorways coming up. Last year's was a great race and I am sure this one will be too.

It's unfair to compare the races as everyone is doing because at the Giro you have people who peaked early, people working their way up to fitness and those coming down from the classics. At Vuelta you have those that didn't do the Tdf, secondary teams/team leaders or those who choose to do both and might suffer because of it.

The Tdf is the only place you will see everyone aim to peak their fitness and fight it out equal and sometimes as with big football finals or other big events in sport you end up playing it cautious or not taking so many risks. This can lead to less than amazing viewing and the parcours above all makes the difference. In the Giro they made it too hard and people simply refused to take the risks. Take the rose tinted off, each race has the potential to be good or bad. Remember when schleck vs contador didn't live up to the hype? well it's possible in any race.

And contador today I think tried to put a marker down and test the others, something tells me perhaps he might be a bit disappointed that it's going to take more than a few bursts off the front to crack some of his rivals here.

Vino'sGhost

Richmond Racer wrote:

mfin wrote:

Cal_Stewart wrote:

For me good racing, don't think froome's got 3 wks in him. Don't think piti looks to dodgie as roche as only a little behind. Will see how Bertie recovers.

Id agree with that, can't see how Froome can do this for 3 weeks after TDF efforts.

At both last year's Vuelta and this year's Tour, Froome got stronger and stronger as the race progressed, but sure, without doing GTs back-to-back....

A twu champion never gets fatigued he just gets more I mean stronger

C'mon contador

Champion stuff.

Vino'sGhost

:roll: :roll:

Tom BB wrote:

simona75 wrote:

One gem was that apparently riders will pour water over themselves rather than energy drinks as energy drinks are sticky- revelation of the year for me.

Makes sense to me....cars do carry a mixture of plain water and energy drinks.....I can't comment on how sticky the energy drinks that they use are though!

:roll: :roll:

Vino'sGhost

afx237vi wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

As far as I can see, Contador was doing the same thing Andy Schleck gets criticised for - attacking, looking over his shoulder and then easing up.

It was showy but really achieved nothing.

Agree that it didn't achieve anything, but don't think there was much easing up going on. J-Rod or Valverde would have gone again otherwise.

Agree that was a proper race today. Thank the lord he's back

morstar

thamacdaddy wrote:

People spout a lot of nonsense about how great the vuelta is. Don't forget we have endless miles of motorways coming up. Last year's was a great race and I am sure this one will be too.

It's unfair to compare the races as everyone is doing because at the Giro you have people who peaked early, people working their way up to fitness and those coming down from the classics. At Vuelta you have those that didn't do the Tdf, secondary teams/team leaders or those who choose to do both and might suffer because of it.

The Tdf is the only place you will see everyone aim to peak their fitness and fight it out equal and sometimes as with big football finals or other big events in sport you end up playing it cautious or not taking so many risks. This can lead to less than amazing viewing and the parcours above all makes the difference. In the Giro they made it too hard and people simply refused to take the risks. Take the rose tinted off, each race has the potential to be good or bad. Remember when schleck vs contador didn't live up to the hype? well it's possible in any race.

And contador today I think tried to put a marker down and test the others, something tells me perhaps he might be a bit disappointed that it's going to take more than a few bursts off the front to crack some of his rivals here.

Well said.

People need to remember that in every sport the competition opens up more as you move away from the top events. The TdF has the most strength in depth, the Vuelta and Giro don't.
Exciting racing yes, pinnacle of achievement, no!

dsoutar

thamacdaddy wrote:

People spout a lot of nonsense about how great the vuelta is. Don't forget we have endless miles of motorways coming up. Last year's was a great race and I am sure this one will be too.

It's unfair to compare the races as everyone is doing because at the Giro you have people who peaked early, people working their way up to fitness and those coming down from the classics. At Vuelta you have those that didn't do the Tdf, secondary teams/team leaders or those who choose to do both and might suffer because of it.

The Tdf is the only place you will see everyone aim to peak their fitness and fight it out equal and sometimes as with big football finals or other big events in sport you end up playing it cautious or not taking so many risks. This can lead to less than amazing viewing and the parcours above all makes the difference. In the Giro they made it too hard and people simply refused to take the risks. Take the rose tinted off, each race has the potential to be good or bad. Remember when schleck vs contador didn't live up to the hype? well it's possible in any race.

And contador today I think tried to put a marker down and test the others, something tells me perhaps he might be a bit disappointed that it's going to take more than a few bursts off the front to crack some of his rivals here.

+1

As Harvey Keitel says in Pulp Fiction: "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet". That was just a few km out of thousands in this race.

I'd hazard a guess that any pro knows exponentially more than 99.999% of people on this forum about bike racing

Which GT does any pro want to win ?

That'll be the answer then as to which is the most highly thought of GT.

rick_chasey

Anyone else see the summery of the stage on bbc breakfast?

They even mentioned a rider who wasn't a Brit, though prefaced it with doping chat.

rick_chasey

afx237vi wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

As far as I can see, Contador was doing the same thing Andy Schleck gets criticised for - attacking, looking over his shoulder and then easing up.

It was showy but really achieved nothing.

Agree that it didn't achieve anything, but don't think there was much easing up going on. J-Rod or Valverde would have gone again otherwise.

Agreed.

Doesn't mean it's both boring though. I like Schleck's attacks .

Vino'sGhost

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyone else see the summery of the stage on bbc breakfast?

They even mentioned a rider who wasn't a Brit, though prefaced it with doping chat.

Mainstream now innit.

rick_chasey

Vino'sGhost wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyone else see the summery of the stage on bbc breakfast?

They even mentioned a rider who wasn't a Brit, though prefaced it with doping chat.

Mainstream now innit.

Gutted.

frenchfighter

Re Vuelta vs Tour. I watch the sport for the excitement. So if the Tour is a bore-fest but the hardest race to win, but the Vuelta is brimming with excitement but has weaker competition and motivations then I would still prefer the Vuelta.

Same goes with other comparisons. I guess it depends what you want from watching sport.

rick_chasey

frenchfighter wrote:

Re Vuelta vs Tour. I watch the sport for the excitement. So if the Tour is a bore-fest but the hardest race to win, but the Vuelta is brimming with excitement but has weaker competition and motivations then I would still prefer the Vuelta.

Same goes with other comparisons. I guess it depends what you want from watching sport.

Yeah but with that you also want to have the feeling you're watching the world's best do it.

Some of the racing home at the back end of the club run is quite interesting. Doesn't mean it's worth watching, since we're all pig slow.

derbygrimpeur

Rick Chasey wrote:

Some of the racing home at the back end of the club run is quite interesting. Doesn't mean it's worth watching, since we're all pig slow.

frenchfighter

Rick Chasey wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Re Vuelta vs Tour. I watch the sport for the excitement. So if the Tour is a bore-fest but the hardest race to win, but the Vuelta is brimming with excitement but has weaker competition and motivations then I would still prefer the Vuelta.

Same goes with other comparisons. I guess it depends what you want from watching sport.

Yeah but with that you also want to have the feeling you're watching the world's best do it.

Some of the racing home at the back end of the club run is quite interesting. Doesn't mean it's worth watching, since we're all pig slow.

Yes and no.

LeicesterLad

frenchfighter wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Re Vuelta vs Tour. I watch the sport for the excitement. So if the Tour is a bore-fest but the hardest race to win, but the Vuelta is brimming with excitement but has weaker competition and motivations then I would still prefer the Vuelta.

Same goes with other comparisons. I guess it depends what you want from watching sport.

Yeah but with that you also want to have the feeling you're watching the world's best do it.

Some of the racing home at the back end of the club run is quite interesting. Doesn't mean it's worth watching, since we're all pig slow.

Yes and no.

This years tour didnt have the worlds best though. It had Wiggins, Nibali and VDB.

tailwindhome

@FF

What's your thoughts on J Rod as a rider?

greasedscotsman

afx237vi wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

As far as I can see, Contador was doing the same thing Andy Schleck gets criticised for - attacking, looking over his shoulder and then easing up.

It was showy but really achieved nothing.

Agree that it didn't achieve anything, but don't think there was much easing up going on. J-Rod or Valverde would have gone again otherwise.

Valverde and Rodriguez were more interested in the 20 second time bonus. Think it was pretty clear after a couple of Contador's attacks he wasn't going to get any sort of gap. Both Valverde and Rodriguez both rode a much smarter race yesterday.

mroli

Hate dopers. Therefore anti-both Contador and Valverde.

But, thought the top 4 made it exciting - but for the WIN only, not for putting serious time into oppo though. They only put 6 seconds into that second group of riders which are (respectfully) third tier riders.

Nice and showboaty, but nothing more.

Interesting to see how they all go today.

FJS

An exciting TdF beats an exciting Vuelta.
But an exciting Vuelta beats a dull TdF.
Exciting Tour of Poland or dull TdF?
Dull Eneco Tour or exciting Rick's Club Run?
Choices choices

greasedscotsman

FJS wrote:

An exciting TdF beats an exciting Vuelta.
But an exciting Vuelta beats a dull TdF.
Exciting Tour of Poland or dull TdF?
Dull Eneco Tour or exciting Rick's Club Run?
Choices choices

I do wonder why people watch bike racing, with it being so dull most of the time...

inkyfingers

greasedscotsman wrote:

FJS wrote:

An exciting TdF beats an exciting Vuelta.
But an exciting Vuelta beats a dull TdF.
Exciting Tour of Poland or dull TdF?
Dull Eneco Tour or exciting Rick's Club Run?
Choices choices

I do wonder why people watch bike racing, with it being so dull most of the time...

The truth is that it is boring most of the time. However, when it's good it's very very good and makes up for the many hours spent watching them ride around in a big group, eating gels and throwing bottles into the hedge.

frenchfighter

TailWindHome wrote:

@FF

What's your thoughts on J Rod as a rider?

Really like him. He can hold his own in the GTs as well as the one dayers. Got a ton of photos of him. Great style.