Vuelta al Pais Vasco 2013 *SPOILERS*

edhornby

JTLs on his first season with Sky so he'll be working for other riders, no surprise he's not on GC

frenchfighter

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Having said that, I don't think the old Bertie would have been AWOL at the finish.

10 secs down on a 20% AWOL vs 3 Colombians, one who had a gap and Caruso who had a gap? Odd logic you have.

frenchfighter

Stage 3 Results
COL 1 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY PROCYCLING) 3:54:22
COL 2 BETANCUR GOMEZ, Carlos Alberto (AG2R LA MONDIALE)
ITA 3 CARUSO, Giampaolo (KATUSHA) + 5
COL 4 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 8
ITA 5 ULISSI, Diego (LAMPRE-MERIDA) + 10
AUS 6 PORTE, Richie (SKY PROCYCLING)
ESP 7 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (SAXO-TINKOFF)
SLO 8 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA)
ESP 9 ANTON HERNANDEZ, Igor (EUSKALTEL EUSKADI) + 16
ESP 10 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ, Samuel (EUSKALTEL EUSKADI) + 21
USA 11 STETINA, Peter (GARMIN SHARP)
ESP 12 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR TEAM)
FRA 13 PERAUD, Jean-Christophe (AG2R LA MONDIALE)
ESP 14 HERRADA LOPEZ, Jesus (MOVISTAR TEAM)
FRA 15 GADRET, John (AG2R LA MONDIALE)
NED 16 WEENING, Pieter (ORICA GREENEDGE)
DEN 17 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA)
ITA 18 CUNEGO, Damiano (LAMPRE-MERIDA)
FRA 19 BAGOT, Yohan (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS)
CZE 20 KREUZIGER, Roman (SAXO-TINKOFF)

General Classification after Stage 3
COL 1 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY PROCYCLING) 12:24:26
COL 2 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 8
AUS 3 PORTE, Richie (SKY PROCYCLING) + 10
ESP 4 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (SAXO-TINKOFF)
ITA 5 CARUSO, Giampaolo (KATUSHA)
SLO 6 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA)
DEN 7 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 21
NED 8 WEENING, Pieter (ORICA GREENEDGE)
ESP 9 HERRADA LOPEZ, Jesus (MOVISTAR TEAM)
COL 10 BETANCUR GOMEZ, Carlos Alberto (AG2R LA MONDIALE)
FRA 11 BAGOT, Yohan (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS)
ITA 12 ULISSI, Diego (LAMPRE-MERIDA) + 22
ESP 13 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ, Samuel (EUSKALTEL EUSKADI) + 26
FRA 14 PERAUD, Jean-Christophe (AG2R LA MONDIALE)
ITA 15 CUNEGO, Damiano (LAMPRE-MERIDA)
USA 16 STETINA, Peter (GARMIN SHARP)
ESP 17 ANTON HERNANDEZ, Igor (EUSKALTEL EUSKADI) + 28
CZE 18 KREUZIGER, Roman (SAXO-TINKOFF) + 31
USA 19 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) + 33
KAZ 20 DYACHENKO, Alexsandr (ASTANA)

Last 7km:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... NFgZAh0O1w

danlikesbikes

Does look like a Porte Vrs Contador TT showdown might be on the cards. Think Bert might not still have the form to pip Porte in a TT though? If it were later in the season and he had a few more miles in him and Porte perhaps on domestique duties then think if would swing in his favour.

Either way looks like another day of good racing to come

frenchfighter

If Contador has the legs he will attack and try and gain time tomorrow.

LeicesterLad

To be fair to Contador he has never been the best rider on 20% sprints to the finish.

danlikesbikes

frenchfighter wrote:

If Contador has the legs he will attack and try and gain time tomorrow.

Hope he does, but then again I think the same could be said of a few riders for tomorrows stage so lets bring it on

LeicesterLad

Tomorrows finish

http://www.inthegc.com/2013/04/vuelta-al-paid-vasco-alto-de-usartza.html

Abdoujaparov

Cheers LL, looks like another good stage.

Impressive by Henao - surprised he beat Quintana so easily. To be fair, Sky's stage racers are pretty f*cking ridiculous.

frenchfighter

Battle of the braces

mididoctors

frenchfighter wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Having said that, I don't think the old Bertie would have been AWOL at the finish.

10 secs down on a 20% AWOL vs 3 Colombians, one who had a gap and Caruso who had a gap? Odd logic you have.

I think the lot of them are starting to get sick of being turned over by a sky pairing in every week long stage race

Richmond Racer

Sky have got a fight on their hands to keep hold of the leader's jersey till the TT, being 2 men down

mididoctors

Richmond Racer wrote:

Sky have got a fight on their hands to keep hold of the leader's jersey till the TT, being 2 men down

yeah if they pull it off its a real slap in the face to everyone else especially the accountant

RichN95.

It will be interesting to see how the other teams play this today. If they wait until the final climb to make a move then they are just doing Sky's job for them. They need to make significant attacks earlier (not necessarily with their very top guy, but someone within a minute on GC), like on that cat 1 climb with about 40km to go, to decimate Sky's numbers (already low) before the denouement. This worked for Dan Martin in Catalonia.
Sky, on the other hand, could turn the tables and have Henao attack at the same point.

mididoctors

RichN95 wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the other teams play this today. If they wait until the final climb to make a move then they are just doing Sky's job for them. They need to make significant attacks earlier (not necessarily with their very top guy, but someone within a minute on GC), like on that cat 1 climb with about 40km to go, to decimate Sky's numbers (already low) before the denouement. This worked for Dan Martin in Catalonia.
Sky, on the other hand, could turn the tables and have Henao attack at the same point.

thats a pretty sound take on it... a depleted team is easier to attack from a long way out.

getting henao in a break may be very difficult proposition and he basically writes himself off. they still have to ride for porte given the tt

alihisgreat

RichN95 wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the other teams play this today. If they wait until the final climb to make a move then they are just doing Sky's job for them. They need to make significant attacks earlier (not necessarily with their very top guy, but someone within a minute on GC), like on that cat 1 climb with about 40km to go, to decimate Sky's numbers (already low) before the denouement. This worked for Dan Martin in Catalonia.
Sky, on the other hand, could turn the tables and have Henao attack at the same point.

It only worked for Martin because Valverde crashed and the bunch slowed up for a few mins giving the breakaway more time.

My money is on a Henao attack though.

inkyfingers

The other teams have to try, but even with a weakened team Sky are in a good position. I think they'll follow the same tactic as yesterday, with Henao attacking, forcing others to work and hopefully giving Porte an armchair ride to the finish.

I can't see teams attacking on the penultimate climb, maybe just earlier on the final climb. Contador is bound to have a good crack, but i'm not sure he'd in that good a shape, but certainly wouldn't right him off yet. The climb today is not as steep as yesterday, though it does have a 3km section at 9%, but it also has a slight downhill finish, so to make an attack count for the GC they'll have to gain a significant gap before the top.

Hopefully we'll see some good racing.

FJS

mididoctors wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Sky have got a fight on their hands to keep hold of the leader's jersey till the TT, being 2 men down

yeah if they pull it off its a real slap in the face to everyone else especially the accountant

Absolutely. Until now this year Sky's dominance in stage races has been through battles between Sky TdF contenders against rival TdF contenders (Oman, Tirreno until that crazy wet stage), Sky TdF contenders against rival superdomestiques (Criterium International), or Sky superdomestiques against rival superdomestiques (Paris-Nice). All fine. However, if Sky superdomestiques start to beat rival TdF contenders, it's a different matter.

mididoctors

FJS wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Sky have got a fight on their hands to keep hold of the leader's jersey till the TT, being 2 men down

yeah if they pull it off its a real slap in the face to everyone else especially the accountant

Absolutely. Until now this year Sky's dominance in stage races has been through battles between Sky TdF contenders against rival TdF contenders (Oman, Tirreno until that crazy wet stage), Sky TdF contenders against rival superdomestiques (Criterium International), or Sky superdomestiques against rival superdomestiques (Paris-Nice). All fine. However, if Sky superdomestiques start to beat rival TdF contenders, it's a different matter.

I'm guessing porte is no slouch over 3 weeks if needs be. He has stepped up something serious

LeicesterLad

mididoctors wrote:

FJS wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Sky have got a fight on their hands to keep hold of the leader's jersey till the TT, being 2 men down

yeah if they pull it off its a real slap in the face to everyone else especially the accountant

Absolutely. Until now this year Sky's dominance in stage races has been through battles between Sky TdF contenders against rival TdF contenders (Oman, Tirreno until that crazy wet stage), Sky TdF contenders against rival superdomestiques (Criterium International), or Sky superdomestiques against rival superdomestiques (Paris-Nice). All fine. However, if Sky superdomestiques start to beat rival TdF contenders, it's a different matter.

I'm guessing porte is no slouch over 3 weeks if needs be. He has stepped up something serious

He's also bookied favourite for todays stage...

frenchfighter

Samu has won this stage for the last three years. Contador won before that. In each year the time gaps were pretty small. In 2009, Contador attacked with 5km to go and 2nd place was Evans, Samu and Colom at 9secs with the next bunch at 28secs.

frenchfighter

JTL and Dombrow are smoked on GC. Odd given they are 'climbers' and Sky have less support then they are 'used to' in the finale.

Rujano down 6mins - not sure why he still isn't up there.

Gilbert is only 2.48 down on GC. Riding himself into decent form...

Watch out for Weening and Kreuziger knows how to attack from range.

RichN95.

frenchfighter wrote:

JTL and Dombrow are smoked on GC. Odd given they are 'climbers' and Sky have less support then they are 'used to' in the finale.

Sky have only got six riders in this race and those two are neo-pros, so I would have thought having less support is full expected rather than odd.

frenchfighter

'Climbers' Elissonde and Barguil smoked on GC.

Andy doing ok - only down 4mins.

inkyfingers

frenchfighter wrote:

JTL and Dombrow are smoked on GC. Odd given they are 'climbers' and Sky have less support then they are 'used to' in the finale.

Rujano down 6mins - not sure why he still isn't up there.

Gilbert is only 2.48 down on GC. Riding himself into decent form...

Watch out for Weening and Kreuziger knows how to attack from range.

Gilbert went straight out the back when they hit the final climb yesterday, if his form is building then he's hiding it well. Ardennes classics start in less than 10 days, I think he has a lot of work to do and very little time.

Rujano is simply being Rujano. If we're lucky he'll magically find some form and win the queen stage in the Giro, or he might not, I doubt even he knows.

frenchfighter

2mins down on GC for a non climber is excellent. Really very good.

-

In his first year in the PRT, Porte came 7th in the Giro d'Italia. Removing the time gained in the big split he would still have been top 15.

Domrbowski has won the Giro Bio.

mididoctors

frenchfighter wrote:

Samu has won this stage for the last three years. Contador won before that. In each year the time gaps were pretty small. In 2009, Contador attacked with 5km to go and 2nd place was Evans, Samu and Colom at 9secs with the next bunch at 28secs.

that flat finish would suit him at the top.. if they take henao and porte into the final climb they would be daft.

could see the stage being won by a break here to be honest

DeadCalm

RichN95 wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the other teams play this today. If they wait until the final climb to make a move then they are just doing Sky's job for them. They need to make significant attacks earlier (not necessarily with their very top guy, but someone within a minute on GC), like on that cat 1 climb with about 40km to go, to decimate Sky's numbers (already low) before the denouement. This worked for Dan Martin in Catalonia.
Sky, on the other hand, could turn the tables and have Henao attack at the same point.

Agreed. If I were Movistar's DS I'd have Herrada attack on the penultimate climb. AG2R and Katusha could also attack with riders in the top 10 of GC (Betancur and Caruso) in the hope of benefiting Peraud and Spilak.

frenchfighter

They started a short while ago and it is raining.

Turfle

Hoping Stetina can be right up there again today.