Vuelta stage 6 ***spoilers***

milton50

Quintana much better at the longer mountains in the second and third weeks.

That was poor from J Rod. Relatively speaking.

I think it's pretty obvious that Contador's injury was exaggerated a bit but, credit where it's due, it is still impressive to reach that kind of level so soon after suffering the injury.

blazing_saddles

First the Majka make believe, now Bertie's busted bluff.
Team Tinkoff Tall Tales.

Novel approach from Valverde, today: setting tempo before sprinting away in the last 100m, rather than sitting on first wheel.
Spending July in France has put the edge back on his all year form, nicely.

above_the_cows

frenchfighter wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Saxo-Tinkoff

@olegtinkov · 2h
Please tell all of the people that call us Saxo-Tinkoff that they are ******* shallow idiots and mediocrity
@olegtinkov · 2h
French Eurosport @EurosportFrance keep calling my team Saxo-Tinkoff, how can you be stupid not remember the name for 6 months @tinkoff_saxo



Although likely that is why you did it

I keep calling it Tinko-Saxoff which I'm sure Uncle Oleg will just love!

above_the_cows

RichN95 wrote:

Macaloon wrote:

I also don't believe that was Quintana's best effort, btw. Or if it was, that he's not planning on being much better next week.

He's better on the longer stuff, isn't he. I can't remember him being that good on the the short steep climbs.

This. He's a wee scamp, +12% stuff can be hard for people like me and Nairo.

frenchfighter

So lots of you instead of commending a rider for his determination you just infer his injury was minor or he was completely bluffing.

Says more about you then anything else. Not good.

Yes big bean, nearly typed up earlier that the lead group was more or less my men. Race of champions.

Barguil 11th too. Uran same time as Yates - 1min or so down. Sicard and Elissonde placed well. Hesjedal binning over 3mins which is poor. Mtn nowhere. Talansky pumped which is not good at all. Arredondo way back - wasnt expecting that. Dennis 10mins back - poor. Cunego useless. Dat boy down 20mins.

frenchfighter

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Macaloon wrote:

I also don't believe that was Quintana's best effort, btw. Or if it was, that he's not planning on being much better next week.

He's better on the longer stuff, isn't he. I can't remember him being that good on the the short steep climbs.

This. He's a wee scamp, +12% stuff can be hard for people like me and Nairo.

Surely the lighter you are the easier?
Titchy Elissonde won on the Angliru last year - steepest proper climb used in pro cycling.

iainf72

frenchfighter wrote:

Surely the lighter you are the easier?
Titchy Elissonde won on the Angliru last year - steepest proper climb used in pro cycling.

Not really - I don't think those BS climbs are suited to real climbers. When the gradients get very steep it seems to be more about the ability to grind it out.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Surely the lighter you are the easier?
Titchy Elissonde won on the Angliru last year - steepest proper climb used in pro cycling.

Not really - I don't think those BS climbs are suited to real climbers. When the gradients get very steep it seems to be more about the ability to grind it out.

With steep stuff it becomes about max power per kilo rather than threshold power per kilo.

phreak

Froome sure does look peculiar on a bike. He looked to be a good few gears lighter than everyone else, turning a really high cadence. Fair enough to him, he managed to close the gaps well enough, but it kinda removes the option of getting out of the saddle doesn't it?

Nice to see the first real dust off between the favourites though, and all looking in reasonable shape.

Macaloon

frenchfighter wrote:

So lots of you instead of commending a rider for his determination you just infer his injury was minor or he was completely bluffing.

Says more about you then anything else. Not good.

He's gone from narrowly dodging surgery for a broken leg, to hanging with elite on a serious effort, via 'only going for 3rd week stages'. That's as ridiculous as Froome saying he has no chance this Vuelta. Both tales are complete BS and contemptuous of fans with a passing acquaintance with reality.

I can't stand this crap. With a bit of imagination they could achieve similar 'results' without lying through their teeth most of the time.

frenchfighter

Hahaha, do you know anything about Contador? Do you realise he has a huge fan base, tons of supportive messages and has referenced his fans and referenced what fans want from races throughout his career. He makes a bigger beneficial contribution to the Vuelta with his presence than any other rider.

What a cynic! Nothing wrong with being cautious...he hasnt raced since the Tour and has come through a bad injury, what do you want him to say? "Yes I am going to come in and smash my rivals. Who cares where my form is, I, Contador, will race with a guaranteed podium in the bag already." Makes me sense to say what he has been, taking it day by day, I have pain but its reduced on the bike due to the heat, I am managing ok.

Do you want me to repost close up photos of his gashed leg?

FJS

That was pretty good. Certainly sorted the men from the boys, and there's very little between the top 5; should stay close for a long time.

Good rides by Aru, Chaves, Barguil, and excellent to see Gesink fully back after his surgery. Kelderman perhaps dropped a little too early, but the very steep stuff doesn't seem his strength.

Uran, Martin and Moreno a bit disappointing, but close enough to stay in contention.

Evans, Poels, Vandenbroeck, Talansky: over and out
Cunego at more than 15 minutes; that Pais Vasco this year was a false dawn, wasn't it.

frenchfighter

Good comments from all my men. Here are Contador's:
http://cyclingquotes.com/news/contador_ ... e_so_good/

Anonymous

frenchfighter wrote:

Hahaha, do you know anything about Contador? Do you realise he has a huge fan base, tons of supportive messages and has referenced his fans and referenced what fans want from races throughout his career. He makes a bigger beneficial contribution to the Vuelta with his presence than any other rider.

What does this mean?

blazing_saddles

sjmclean wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Hahaha, do you know anything about Contador? Do you realise he has a huge fan base, tons of supportive messages and has referenced his fans and referenced what fans want from races throughout his career. He makes a bigger beneficial contribution to the Vuelta with his presence than any other rider.

What does this mean?

Just another old load of Frenchie rhetoric.
Blowing smoke over the fact that if the injury had kept him off the bike as long as it was supposed to, his conditioning would have gone out of the window and he would have gone out the rear, just as soon as the road went up.

No secret that he's been spotted on reckon rides on these Vuelta climbs, when he was supposed to be laid up.

durhamwasp

Haha came on here to have a laugh at what tripe FF would have written seeing as his main men didn't win, glad I came on

RichN95.

durhamwasp wrote:

Haha came on here to have a laugh at what tripe FF would have written seeing as his main men didn't win, glad I came on

How could they not win? He's got more men than the Grand Old Duke of York.

joelsim

I don't think we need worry about Quintana. Remember the Giro when he had been written off after 2 weeks' racing...

Also pleased to see Chaves doing well. Especially as I have a couple/few quid EW at 200/1 on him.

jam1e

I thought it was fairly clear that Contador wasn't badly injured in the tour but just knew he'd lost too much time on the cobbles and realised he couldn't gain in back in the Vosges so stopped for a bit of a cry after his crash.

"Teh fanboyz" talk about his first or nothing approach but whenever I see him race it seems more like he hasn't the bottle to fight back if things aren't going his way. He's well up for a fight he can win but whenever he's beaten there's always an excuse whether it be dropped chain, skipping gears etc etc.

Cycling will be better once he and his doping compatriot Valverde have retired/been retired.

Macaloon

^ Nonsense. That's the fastest-healer of his generation you're abusing.

Seriously, it's fantastic for the race if he can sustain this level. It's interesting that Froome and Contador seem stuck together.

dsoutar

Blazing Saddles wrote:

No secret that he's been spotted on reckon rides on these Vuelta climbs, when he was supposed to be laid up.

I suspect he popped over the border on some of those rides

I'm sure it won't be long before he's listed here http://en.lourdes-france.org/deepen/cures-and-miracles ;-)

dsoutar

Clearly we're not the only ones surprised with Contador''s performance. From the team's website:

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Steven De Jongh was surprised to see Alberto in the top-3 today:

“The goal was to put Alberto in a good position entering the foot of the climb and the boys did a very good job guiding him in the finale. From here, we didn’t really know what to expect after his crash during the Tour and the break from racing so I guess he took us all by surprise today and naturally I’m more than happy with this result. However, we still have to go easy and we take the race stage by stage and see how things are going. Tomorrow’s stage is probably going to be just as hot as today but I expect a bigger group battling it out between them and we obviously have to keep protecting Alberto,” said DS, Steven De Jongh after the stage.

Moontrane

Blazing Saddles wrote:

First the Majka make believe, now Bertie's busted bluff.
Team Tinkoff Tall Tales.

Novel approach from Valverde, today: setting tempo before sprinting away in the last 100m, rather than sitting on first wheel.
Spending July in France has put the edge back on his all year form, nicely.

I can't recall seeing Valverde set a pace and get the win in a GT mountain stage before today. Old dog new tricks? :P

milton50

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Surely the lighter you are the easier?
Titchy Elissonde won on the Angliru last year - steepest proper climb used in pro cycling.

Not really - I don't think those BS climbs are suited to real climbers. When the gradients get very steep it seems to be more about the ability to grind it out.

With steep stuff it becomes about max power per kilo rather than threshold power per kilo.

That's why Cancellara is good at Flanders.

Yellow Peril

It's nice and warm, there's no torrential rain or Roubaix cobbles so Messr's Froome & Contador will put on a show for us. Sit back and enjoy the ultimate pro racers in action

dish_dash

frenchfighter wrote:

Mtn nowhere.

Pardilla and Meintjes tried but couldn't last. Looked like Kudus had a nasty crash...

frenchfighter

Macaloon

Dude photo-bombs Kennnaugh's jersey. They kept getting in the way yesterday too. No class.

frenchfighter

Ten Dam still dripping

frenchfighter