Vuelta stage 9 *spoiler*

MrTapir

Moreno wins, nice attack early on the final climb on the steepish bits, i liked the gradient graphic increasing with each metre. Rodriguez, then Valverde followed by Roche and Sammy Sanchez (good to see he is still there or thereabouts).

Moreno takes the leaders jersey by a second from Roche. Nibs is 20 seconds back in third. Its quite an interesting gap from Moreno and Roche to Nibs and everyone else now.

MrTapir

1 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha 35:58:34
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:00:01
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:20
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:22
5 Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack Leopard 0:00:28
6 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha 0:00:56
7 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team NetApp-Endura 0:01:09
8 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack Leopard 0:01:10
9 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:01:24
10 Ivan Santaromita (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:01:26

MrTapir

Wow, I didnt realise Basso lost so much time!

frenchfighter

Gilbert 8th. Wow. Fiery form leading up to the WC and Lombardia.

Barguil 9th. Wow.

joelsim

Nibali's losing a handful of seconds to Valverde and J-Rod every stage

mechanism

Its interesting how some riders cope with these ultra steep gradients seemingly without any great difficulty.

I suspect Nibali will show his true form on the big mountain stages, possibly the time trial too - I could be completely wrong of course.

MrTapir

not sure what yesterday was like but it seems there havent been any 'proper' long climbs yet so he may be waiting for them. Although they both looked decent in the tour especially Purito.

knedlicky

Watched last 15-20 kms, good win by Moreno - he apparently does short turbo finishes because he once said, he can’t suffer for longer, unlike his mate and teammate Rodriguez (although I would say Rodriguez basically behaves the same too)

Basso has another good day! Sam Sanchez at last a good one. Considering how steep the last climb was, Gilbert did well too. Good performances again by young Barguil and by Santaromita (whom I don’t really think of as a climber, I wonder if he’ll fall back as the Tour goes on).

Konig, Zulbedia, and Uran lose ground to different degrees, as do Majka and Pinot (these two almost a minute), and Capecchi and Ten Dam (these two for the second day running).
Kreuziger came in next-to-last 17-13 back!

I liked the narrow winding roads with drop-offs where EBH gave it a go, I would enjoy them.
That last 100 m to the finish line looked really steep, some riders barely made it over the line.

alan_a

I'm only getting to watch the ITV4 highlights on catch up most nights, but I have to say this Vuelta has been great so far. Good fun close racing.

Like kendlicky I would love to ride those roads EBH soloed on.

Oh yeah and nice tribute to Sir david Frost with the use of TWTWTW theme tune.

davidof

Alan A wrote:

I

Oh yeah and nice tribute to Sir david Frost with the use of TWTWTW theme tune.

They've been quite clever with the music. The Undertones wasn't it yesterday?

Mad_Malx

davidof wrote:

Alan A wrote:

I

Oh yeah and nice tribute to Sir david Frost with the use of TWTWTW theme tune.

Missed that, but Imlach opened with 'Hello, good evening and welcome'

They've been quite clever with the music. The Undertones wasn't it yesterday?

'My Perfect Cousin'

Good efforts I thought.

mechanism

I think I heard Carlton Kirby say that the gradients given (like the 26% sections on these stages) are averages over 100 meters. I don't know where that information came from but does it sound right to you?

BR 1979

Alan A wrote:

Like kendlicky I would love to ride those roads EBH soloed on.

Yes, perhaps not quite as quickly though... And I'd probably want a pair of AG2R bibs to do it in! I was watching the highlights and kept finding myself wincing and sucking in air as Eddie flew down.