Vuelta Stage 9 ***SPOILERS***

mulletmaster

Regardless of who is or isn't hurt this race keeps on delivering. Best GT of the year by a country mile even if it got called off tomorrow.

frenchfighter

RichN95 wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Rich was right - good tactic by Froome. If he had showed weakness they may have tried to take him out earlier and he would have lost more.

I'm not sure it was a good tactic. Sky, because they lead the peloton so frequently, have a massive "tell". You can judge Froome's form by how many team mates he has left at the 5km flag. If it's one, you're going to have your ars* kicked, if it's three of four, then attack ASAP.

Maybe yet the climb was a fairly short one and not that super steep.


I remember Contador doing this tactic when Andy then attacked like a boss. He would have attacked earlier.
Tried to find the photo but I have yet to tag it.

blazing_saddles

mulletmaster wrote:

Regardless of who is or isn't hurt this race keeps on delivering. Best GT of the year by a country mile even if it got called off tomorrow.

Huh?

iainf72

Reasonable stage.

When I saw Froome take a gel on the final climb I thought he wasn't great. I suspect he'd wanted to take it on the descent of the previous climb but when Tony went full gas he didn't get a chance.

Contador did well but he didn't look immense. Sort of like the 08 Giro or something when he's reasonable but rides cleverly to win.

frenchfighter

General classification after stage 9
1 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team 35:58:05
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:03
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:08
4 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre-Merida 0:00:09
5 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:28
6 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:30
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:06
8 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:01:19
9 Rigoberto Urán (Col) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team 0:01:26
10 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano

Macaloon

31st August. First MTF with Quintana, Froome & Contador this season? It's only happening because of Christopher's rectangular bending, and Alberto's miraculous mending. Something needs a tweak.

I think Quintana has these guys on toast even when they're fully fit. I doubt he's minutes slower than Froome over this TT distance.

Great point about the 5kylab signaling distress.

frenchfighter

Macaloon wrote:

It's only happening

Contador was 100% doing the Tour and Vuelta as was Valverde. Quintana was always Giro Vuelta. Froome was almost likely only doing the Tour (Porte for the Giro and Nieve for the Vuelta).

Glad to see that Gesink is still hanging in.

Oleg not paying too much attention to this race.

inseine

The_Boy wrote:

gsk82 wrote:

won't contador be in the lead due to 4 bonus seconds?

Bonus second were mopped up by remains of the break.

Contador came in 12th, just pipped by Dan Craven! Great day for him.
Didn't realise Cunego was third, good day for Lampre.

1 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre-Merida 4:34:14
2 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:45
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:50
4 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:04
5 Peio Bilbao (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:01:12
6 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:21
7 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin Sharp 0:01:33
8 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol 0:01:45
9 Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing 0:01:49
10 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 0:02:08
11 Dan Craven (Nam) Team Europcar 0:02:13
12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:02:16
13 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha
14 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
15 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:02:22
16 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:39
17 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
18 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
19 Rigoberto Urán (Col) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team
20 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp

blazing_saddles

Posted elsewhere by a rabid Contador fan, but this one obviously has a sense of humour.

frenchfighter

dsoutar

frenchfighter wrote:

Couldn't decide which was the best response.

This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YewVugPHon4

or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lbX7VxlrJQ

Macaloon

Tinkoff, a pioneer banker, has a lavish special effects budget. How many spotted Majka's CGI face in the Tour?

As for Contador always planning to ride, he's probably in better shape now than after emptying what was left in the tank against Nibali. So real prospects of fireworks.

RichN95.

Majka says that he is exhausted and rises from his bed to win two stages, KOM and the Tour of Poland

Contador breaks his leg but throws off his crutches to destroy the field.

If Mick Rogers catches the ebola virus in the next week, I'm betting my house on him to win the Worlds.

joelsim

RichN95 wrote:

If Mick Rogers catches the ebola virus in the next week, I'm betting my house on him to win the Worlds.

I'll be betting that he gets away with it.

dsoutar

There's a rumour going round that Oleg has been seen walking on water...

Pross

dsoutar wrote:

There's a rumour going round that Oleg has been seen walking on water...

S**t floats.

frenchfighter

Dsoutar, that's not very funny and poor taste.

Maca, you can google regarding Contador and the Vuelta - there are many solid references to it. It was always in his schedule.

blazing_saddles

frenchfighter wrote:

Dsoutar, that's not very funny and poor taste.

Maca, you can google regarding Contador and the Vuelta - there are many solid references to it. It was always in his schedule.

As it has in the past.................until after the Tour and then it always disappears.

I'm glad he's there. I'm very happy he's fit and racing for the GC. It's a big boost for the race in it's homeland.
It's the rest of it that leaves a big stink and hangs a big question mark over the team's moral compass.
(if they have one at all)

tailwindhome

Not convinced by Contador - looks like a man trying to make form happen.

Quintana has this race in his pocket.

Can't remember the last time Froome rode well in the rain.

iainf72

I've decided today that for some reason I don't like Quintana. He's a great bike rider but I'm not a fan.

I really like that the stage winner's name was supposed to be Winnen (after Peter) but spelling mistake on birth certificate. And second name Andrew, after Hampsten, as his dad is huge cycling fan. via Inrng

mroli

All this - was Contador really injured, was he lying etc is just so much crud. Do you think anyone would have prepared less hard for the vuelta thinking - oh, its ok Contador isn't fully fit, he won't be a challenge.

Balls. If Contador lines up on a start line, he's there to win and everyone knows it. I don't particularly have any fondness for him or Valverde with their history, but the one thing I will say for them is no matter what they say, they turn up to race and win.

All this "was he wasn't he injured" is a) tedious and b) pointless. He fell off of his bike in the tour and had to quit. Bike riders like Contador don't do that unless they are badly injured. He may have tried to lower expectations, but the first time he is up the front, those expectations rise again. End of.

pinno

The race wouldn't be as half as interesting as it is without AC. He lit it up today and I don't think Quintana will be in red after the TT on Tuesday TWH.

RichN95.

mroli wrote:

All this "was he wasn't he injured" is a) tedious and b) pointless. He fell off of his bike in the tour and had to quit. Bike riders like Contador don't do that unless they are badly injured. He may have tried to lower expectations, but the first time he is up the front, those expectations rise again. End of.

It's not that he wasn't injured. More that he's greatly over egged it. Like a man who claims he has flu when it's just a sniffle.

Mad_Malx

+1 (Mroli) - would anyone really expect Bertie to turn up saying 'I'm in the form of my life, I'm going to wipe the floor with them all'? Both he and froome had significant injuries, neither of them (never mind us) really know what form they are in.

Really enjoyed this stage - first real indicator and given the unknowns about recovery the race is very finely balanced IMO.

takethehighroad

RichN95 wrote:

mroli wrote:

All this "was he wasn't he injured" is a) tedious and b) pointless. He fell off of his bike in the tour and had to quit. Bike riders like Contador don't do that unless they are badly injured. He may have tried to lower expectations, but the first time he is up the front, those expectations rise again. End of.

It's not that he wasn't injured. More that he's greatly over egged it. Like a man who claims he has flu when it's just a sniffle.

I love it, Bertie's the polar opposite to the Black Knight from Monty Python.

"'Tis but a scratch, but I'll tell everyone it's broken"

davidof

I liked Contador's post race comments (from memory) "the sky boys were going really fast at the end, too fast even for Froome it seems"

joelsim

pinarello001 wrote:

The race wouldn't be as half as interesting as it is without AC. He lit it up today and I don't think Quintana will be in red after the TT on Tuesday TWH.

Maybe not, but he won't be too far off and if you remember how he was in the last week of the Giro then he will walk it in the 3rd week.

milton50

No doubt in my mind that Quintana is the best climber in the world when it comes to the longer, harder climbs in the second and third weeks. But Contador is a wily old fox and I'd never count him out if he is in contention.

I don't think anyone expected Contador to come up with anything other than the usual platitudes before the Vuelta. You know, "I don't know where my form is", "I'm just taking it day by day" etc blah blah.

What rankles is the fact that he specifically said "goodbye Vuelta" because he couldn't even ride his bike when in fact he already was training.

frenchfighter

“I’ve seen the opportunity so I took it," Contador said. "When I realized that Froome was a bit behind, I felt like trying to drop him off. I lack condition to be able to maintain my rhythm at the maximum but I’m very happy with where I am now. I don't know exactly what the differences weere but the important thing is not to catch a cold and to rest."

“Whenever you have the legs, we have to try”, said Alberto Contador to explain his attack. “I don’t know what the differences were but I have not prepared the Tour of Spain as a target but came here to get back into competition and very late, without a good condition. I hope to improve day by day, but I'm aware that there are other riders that have prepared the race with great care. Perhaps they hadn't a good day today but the Vuelta has just begun".

--

Valverde seemingly found it harder to understand the way Team Sky had ridden on the climb, powering up the pace then seeing Froome drift out of the back. “I’m not sure what they were doing, their leader was clearly racing well, but not that well.”

Macaloon

The Valverde interview at the end of ITV highlights was funny:

Interviewer: "Sky set an infernal pace on the climb. Were you scared?"
<pause to retract serpentine fangs. smiling...>
Valve: "Yeah. But not as scared as Froome who had already shown some weakness. Why would they ride like that?"
<reveals fangs and horns>

By the way, now that Bjarne Riis is 50 years old, the atoms from his birth cries are uniformly distributed through the atmosphere. Every breath you take contains about 100 of those atoms.

(Obviously applicable to any demagogue or "other")