Vuelta Stage 15 *Spoilers*

Richmond Racer 2

RichN95 wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Beautiful racing but that was a disproportionately harsh punishment for Sky and Froome’s misdemeanour in the first few km.

Its actually Movistar delivering 3 years late what they should have done on stage 9 of the 2013 when they had Froome on the ropes and mucked it up. Better late than never!

I'm not sure about that. Froome was always in the same group as them on that stage and decided to follow only their moves. It was an opportunity, but today was as much to do with Sky being asleep as anything.

Just my opinion but I think Sky laid the foundations for what happened at the beginning of that stage 9, by what they did on stage 8

Richmond Racer 2

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

I'm knackered.

'ave a lie down, Saddles

Maybe a drink. Take the edge off

The Tour of Britain should do that nicely.

Froome now in a scrap for 2nd with "El Grenado" and little Chaves.
Somehow, I don't think he'll enjoy his din dins tonight with the thought of that prospect.

Chef's food aint gonna taste so good fer shure

RichN95.

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Just my opinion but I think Sky laid the foundations for what happened at the beginning of that stage 9, by what they did on stage 8

And similarly Movistar wore Quintana out by sending up on the attack early on that stage 8.

The_Boy

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Beautiful racing but that was a disproportionately harsh punishment for Sky and Froome’s misdemeanour in the first few km.

Its actually Movistar delivering 3 years late what they should have done on stage 9 of the 2013 when they had Froome on the ropes and mucked it up. Better late than never!

I'm not sure about that. Froome was always in the same group as them on that stage and decided to follow only their moves. It was an opportunity, but today was as much to do with Sky being asleep as anything.

Just my opinion but I think Sky laid the foundations for what happened at the beginning of that stage 9, by what they did on stage 8

A proposition:

The foundation for today was laid yesterday when movistar got what's his chops in the BOTD.

No_Ta_Doctor

So, are we any closer to understanding exactly how all this happened?

Brambila atacked straight from the go? And?

blazing_saddles

bobmcstuff wrote:

You mean like stage 13?

Only a couple of days ago people were whingeing about how boring the Vuelta was because there hadn't been any massive action packed stages in the first week or so.

For me, this.

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Not me... I enjoyed this Vuelta, I enjoyed the drama of the Giro too

Not this, unless you really have seen all 21 stages.

IMHO, the Giro was a turd until late on, but ended up OK and this race had been dire, until this weekend.
Now and only now has it been redeemed.

Richmond Racer 2

RichN95 wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Just my opinion but I think Sky laid the foundations for what happened at the beginning of that stage 9, by what they did on stage 8

And similarly Movistar wore Quintana out by sending up on the attack early on that stage 8.

Rich, do we want to get into argufying about it? I think Sky laid the foundations for st 9 on the previous day for the mentalist attacks from the gun and the way Froome's domestiques were shagged out after Ax3 Domaines and couldn't handle it. And Movistar failed to capitalise on it (ditto Sexi-Tinki)

Fin.

The_Boy

No tA Doctor wrote:

So, are we any closer to understanding exactly how all this happened?

Brambila atacked straight from the go? And?

Contadot went with three teammates, quintana reacted with two of his. Froome got caught out, then main peloton split with most of sky behind unable to get back on their own.

Astana then oozed panache as they chased to protect 9th.

Prepared of be corrected on that though.

norvernrob

Great stage but that's the GC over as a spectacle. If it was Froome with 3.40 lead at this point everyone would be saying it's boring....

ugo.santalucia

Blazing Saddles wrote:

IMHO, the Giro was a turd until late on, but ended up OK and this race had been dire, until this weekend.
Now and only now has it been redeemed.

Man Vs man sometimes delivers, other times (like yesterday) it doesn't... it's important it is there... it wasn't there at the Tour

ugo.santalucia

NorvernRob wrote:

Great stage but that's the GC over as a spectacle.

True... if Froome was 2 min behind it would still be open, but now... well, you never know

The_Boy

NorvernRob wrote:

Great stage but that's the GC over as a spectacle.

Pish. Froome is worth 2 minutes in the TT. The rest is doable. Or at least doable enough to stay interested.

Besides, there's more to the GC than red.

blazing_saddles

No other Sky rider has finished yet.

RichN95.

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

IMHO, the Giro was a turd until late on, but ended up OK and this race had been dire, until this weekend.
Now and only now has it been redeemed.

Man Vs man sometimes delivers, other times (like yesterday) it doesn't... it's important it is there... it wasn't there at the Tour

I think time trials are man v man. Froome beat the GC competition easily at the Tour. And he didn't need his team to do it.

ugo.santalucia

RichN95 wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

IMHO, the Giro was a turd until late on, but ended up OK and this race had been dire, until this weekend.
Now and only now has it been redeemed.

Man Vs man sometimes delivers, other times (like yesterday) it doesn't... it's important it is there... it wasn't there at the Tour

I think time trials are man v man. Froome beat the GC competition easily at the Tour. And he didn't need his team to do it.

Contre la montre... it's a man against a stopwatch... it's only TV that tries to make it look man Vs Man and it generally doesn't work.
Froome is the better TTist of the GC contenders, we know that even before he sets off

FocusZing

Somebody must have spilt the beetroot juice.

blazing_saddles

RichN95 wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

IMHO, the Giro was a turd until late on, but ended up OK and this race had been dire, until this weekend.
Now and only now has it been redeemed.

Man Vs man sometimes delivers, other times (like yesterday) it doesn't... it's important it is there... it wasn't there at the Tour

I think time trials are man v man. Froome beat the GC competition easily at the Tour. And he didn't need his team to do it.

What I find interesting and it will become the general consensus I am quite sure, is that today was all about the individual.
In reality, it was quite the opposite.

bobmcstuff

ugo.santalucia wrote:

bobmcstuff wrote:

I also enjoyed the Tour.

Including the so called battle for the GC?

No, because Quintana turned up off form, so there wasn't exactly a battle.

But I did enjoy Froome's racing nonetheless, a little bit different from his usual.

I didn't think Froome was going to be anywhere in this Vuelta, but then I did expect Contador to be better.

kleinstroker

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

blazing_saddles

kleinstroker wrote:

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

And those darling little Contador children on CN are demanding the removal of said 90, well the Team Sky riders at least, because they sat up and took it easy.
Conveniently forgetting the 82 riders who sat behind the Sky riders for over 40kms, while they chased alone, then refused to do a single tap.

Richmond Racer 2

Blazing Saddles wrote:

kleinstroker wrote:

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

And those darling little Contador children on CN are demanding the removal of said 90, well the Team Sky riders at least, because they sat up and took it easy.
Conveniently forgetting the 82 riders who sat behind the Sky riders for over 40kms, while they chased alone, then refused to do a single tap.

Or the Contador Cat Women, as I've heard them called

above_the_cows

Well that was exciting!

TheBigBean

The_Boy wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

So, are we any closer to understanding exactly how all this happened?

Brambila atacked straight from the go? And?

Contadot went with three teammates, quintana reacted with two of his. Froome got caught out, then main peloton split with most of sky behind unable to get back on their own.

Astana then oozed panache as they chased to protect 9th.

Prepared of be corrected on that though.

A bit more detail. Brambilla attacked on the first hill and so did Contador with team. Quintana followed with team. Froome was there or thereabouts.

On the short technical descent Contador and team pushed on creating a gap on Froome and others. At this point Froome was either too busy wondering where the rest of his team was or thought that the break was futile and his team would bring it back. Either way he probably lost the Vuelta in that moment. The rest of his team had probably been caught out by the sharp acceleration on the climb which split the peloton, but was off camera.

In the end, and he won't feel like it, Froome got very lucky as Astana chasing to protect 7th was odd. It should really have been OGE plus Sky against Movistar and Tinkoff. Based on numbers present he could have lost much more time.

He might not be on his best form, but Contador doesn't half liven up a GT.

Pross

Can't remember the last time we had two such good back-to-back in a Grand Tour. Going from watching yesterday's highlights straight into today's live action left me exhausted!

ugo.santalucia

kleinstroker wrote:

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

It would be interesting if they sent them home...

smithy21

Froome didn't have his magic wheels on today because he thought it would be a nothing stage apparently. You can guess where that came from.

TheBigBean

kleinstroker wrote:

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

I'm sympathetic when there are big sprinters trying (and trying hard) to get over massive mountains, but those 90 riders collectively don't have any excuse.

I know they won't throw them out but I do wish there was some more inspired punishment than an irrelevant fine, an irrevelevant time penalty or an irrevelevant points deduction.

ugo.santalucia

TheBigBean wrote:

kleinstroker wrote:

More than 90 riders missed the time cut today including all of Team Sky except Froome

I'm sympathetic when there are big sprinters trying (and trying hard) to get over massive mountains, but those 90 riders collectively don't have any excuse.

I know they won't throw them out but I do wish there was some more inspired punishment than an irrelevant fine, an irrevelevant time penalty or an irrevelevant points deduction.

yep... wasn't that a sub 3 hours stage anyway? It wasn't exactly an epic one

blazing_saddles

Riders Left if time-cut enforced
Movistar 8
Tinkoff 6
Cannondale 6
Astana 5
Lampre 5
Orica - GreenEdge 4
Caja Rural 4
AG2R 4
Trek, Katusha, Etixx, IAM, BMC 3
Dimension Data, Cofidis, Lotto-Soudal, Giant-Alpecin 2
Sky, FDJ, Bora Argon, Lotto NL-Jumbo 1
Direct Energie 0

I can't help but think that a number of teams wouldn't mind the order of the boot, but it isn't going to happen, even though it took the race jury sooooo long to make it's mind up.
Quelle surprise.

type:epyt

I mentioned years ago when Cavendish et al missed the time cut at le Tour that if not dq'd then all riders should forfeit any points gained up to that point for any competitions ...