Vuelta 2018 A bit shite?

Vino'sGhost

Pretty much what the title says is this years vuelta a snore fest?

bobmcstuff

Needs more choices... It's better than just the stage thread starters, but not "really gripping". I'd class it as decent light entertainment, worth following the highlights. Probably trying to watch the stages live would be a bit difficult.

DeVlaeminck

Been a decent enough race.

alanparsons

Vino'sGhost wrote:

Pretty much what the title says is this years vuelta a snore fest?

I think it is a far more interesting race than the TdF, far less predictable on a daily basis, there is no way yesterdays breakaway would have succeeded in France.
The GC is still very close and the real shake up stage is still to come tomorrow (sat), 6 categorized climbs in under 100km.
The absence of some of the big hitters (Froome,Dumoulin,Bardet) along with Quintana's lack of form/ability has made it far more interesting to me.
I have been watching the stages live most days, the only downside being Kirby's inane drivel.

OnTheRopes

I am quite enjoying it and generally prefer it to the TDF these days

davidof

OnTheRopes wrote:

I am quite enjoying it and generally prefer it to the TDF these days

#metoo

At least they have the courage to have decent finishes and stages that don't have to finish in some crappy ski resort or town just because the local mayor has greased ASO's palm with silver.

There are plenty of interesting climbs and roads in France, it is just that the TDF rarely takes them.

ddraver

Good thing about Vuelta - All (most of) the trolls are bored by September

Bad thing about Vuelta - a lot of genuine fans are too...

davidof

ddraver wrote:

Good thing about Vuelta - All (most of) the trolls are bored by September

Bad thing about Vuelta - a lot of genuine fans are too...

They should move it (back) to spring when the weather is nice in Spain and stop holding the Giro in blizzards but in the autumn when the weather is pleasant in Italy.

lettingthedaysgoby

I've really enjoyed this one. A few surprise stage winners, plenty uncertainty on the GC, some brutal climbs.... What's not to like?

blazing_saddles

Nope.

Too many similar, "wall" type finishes.
The concept of the uber-steep climb has lost it's sheen for me.
They are all about survival, very little about attacking.
So we get just a hard grind, with minuscule time gaps.
Which leads me to my other moan: why is it essential that time gaps between GC riders remain small?
They weren't small in the Giro and look what happened there.

ddraver wrote:

Good thing about Vuelta - All (most of) the trolls are bored by September

Bad thing about Vuelta - a lot of genuine fans are too...

Yup.
Have to admit to a touch of that, myself.

carbonclem

I'm liking it. Two days to go and the GC is still up for grabs and the main contenders are a perfect pantomime villain vs. a plucky British lad - proper racers both. Whats not to like?

craigus89

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Nope.

Too many similar, "wall" type finishes.
The concept of the uber-steep climb has lost it's sheen for me.
They are all about survival, very little about attacking.
So we get just a hard grind, with minuscule time gaps.

This sums up my feelings quite well.

One or maybe two throughout the race is plenty for me, it kills the stages as everyone is playing it safe knowing the end is crazy. Also when it's that steep the attacks don't look like attacks and a 15 second gap on the road looks tiny which I don't think helps the drama of it all.

Lanterne_Rogue

If coverage were available free to air I'm sure I'd be a little more involved, but I've struggled to get into it. There's no strong sense of narrative in this particular edition - other than Porte and Quintana disappointing we're still where we were before it started, and it's always felt like people are waiting for the next big stage to do something and then haven't.

It's all seemed just a bit mechanical compared to the Giro, and even the Tour - although as I've not seen it live perhaps that's an unfair reflection on the racing.

craigus89

underlayunderlay wrote:

...other than Porte ... disappointing.

As ever then.

gsk82

I always find it difficult to get in to a race when I know the top guys aren't there.

kingstongraham

gsk82 wrote:

I always find it difficult to get in to a race when I know the top guys aren't there.

Does that apply to the Giro most years?

bobmcstuff

KingstonGraham wrote:

gsk82 wrote:

I always find it difficult to get in to a race when I know the top guys aren't there.

Does that apply to the Giro most years?

I would have thought if you are going to set that high a bar you would be limited pretty much to the Tour and maybe the monuments (and potentially not even all of those).

Especially when you get out of WT level, there's plenty of good or great racing but obviously the top guys will never all be there.

carbonclem

Nibali, Quintana, Valverde, Aru, Porte, Kruijswijk, Kwia, Sagan, Yates x 2, Lopez, Uran, Pinot .... thats a pretty good selection of top guys Id have thought?

I accept they may not have all brought their 'A' game, but still.

kingstongraham

And Simon Yates is about to be one of the very top guys.

poptart242

I think it's been excellent so far, a whole host of likeable stage winners and a quite unpredictable GC as well as the absolute banter of the road book's lies.

poptart242

CarbonClem wrote:

Nibali, Quintana, Valverde, Aru, Porte, Kruijswijk, Kwia, Sagan, Yates x 2, Lopez, Uran, Pinot .... thats a pretty good selection of top guys Id have thought?

I accept they may not have all brought their 'A' game, but still.

Yeah I feel like that phrase has been adapted somewhat to mean "not Froome" (and Contador, to a lesser extent).

Pross

alanparsons wrote:

Vino'sGhost wrote:

Pretty much what the title says is this years vuelta a snore fest?

I think it is a far more interesting race than the TdF, far less predictable on a daily basis, there is no way yesterdays breakaway would have succeeded in France.
The GC is still very close and the real shake up stage is still to come tomorrow (sat), 6 categorized climbs in under 100km.
The absence of some of the big hitters (Froome,Dumoulin,Bardet) along with Quintana's lack of form/ability has made it far more interesting to me.
I have been watching the stages live most days, the only downside being Kirby's inane drivel.

Was the Tour predictable this year? How many people predicted that Froome's domestique would win? Even in the final week no-one was sure if Thomas would have the physical and mental ability to hold on and I doubt anyone expected him to win back to back mountain stages. It seems like a bit of stereotyping / confirmation bias to call it predictable.

joe_totale-2

Pross wrote:

alanparsons wrote:

Vino'sGhost wrote:

Pretty much what the title says is this years vuelta a snore fest?

I think it is a far more interesting race than the TdF, far less predictable on a daily basis, there is no way yesterdays breakaway would have succeeded in France.
The GC is still very close and the real shake up stage is still to come tomorrow (sat), 6 categorized climbs in under 100km.
The absence of some of the big hitters (Froome,Dumoulin,Bardet) along with Quintana's lack of form/ability has made it far more interesting to me.
I have been watching the stages live most days, the only downside being Kirby's inane drivel.

Was the Tour predictable this year? How many people predicted that Froome's domestique would win? Even in the final week no-one was sure if Thomas would have the physical and mental ability to hold on and I doubt anyone expected him to win back to back mountain stages. It seems like a bit of stereotyping / confirmation bias to call it predictable.

It was still a Team Sky procession as soon as we hit the mountains which nearly everyone predicted. Just so happens that a different Sky rider won.

Pross

Not really, no-one knew what the team dynamic was and who they were riding for. Whilst the Tour is often the least exciting of the GTs this year's was a very good race both in terms of GC and many of the mountain stages. The only thing dull and predictable was the green jersey 'contest'.

blazing_saddles

Pross wrote:

Not really, no-one knew what the team dynamic was and who they were riding for. Whilst the Tour is often the least exciting of the GTs this year's was a very good race both in terms of GC and many of the mountain stages. The only thing dull and predictable was the green jersey 'contest'.

I wouldn't bother, Pross.
All some folks can see is the hated Sky train, so the racing, however varied or unpredictable, becomes irrelevant.
They even ignore the fact that take Sky out of the equation and you would immediately have another team replacing it, as it always has been, these past 40 years or more.

Lanterne_Rogue

It's all very well saying that the GC competition is still really close with the real shake-up to come, but that does rather beg the question as to why bother with all the previous stages when they could have just had a one-dayer. Small time gaps are usually a sign that riders have been riding defensively with nobody really making any telling moves, rather than a sign that everyone is evenly matched.

Vino'sGhost

KingstonGraham wrote:

And Simon Yates is about to be one of the very top guys.

NOOOOOOOO dont say it yet

Vino'sGhost

i loved the Giro and thought the second two weeks of the tour were super but just haven't clicked with the Vuelta this year. I prefer the all or nothing of one day races and short week long races. The ToB i thought was good watching this year, that stage into mansfield was a corker.

DeVlaeminck

A week or so ago there was a discussion on here about whether Quintana already had this race in the bag - now we are discussing whether he should work for Valverde - so there have been GC changes it's just nobody has ran away with it.

What we need now is for someone with a minute or two to make up on GC to go all in today or tomorrow so we get some fireworks and it'll have been a pretty good edition. It's got to be better than watching Sky/USPostal or whoever having an iron grip of every mountain stage.

blazing_saddles

DeVlaeminck wrote:

A week or so ago there was a discussion on here about whether Quintana already had this race in the bag - now we are discussing whether he should work for Valverde - so there have been GC changes it's just nobody has ran away with it.

There was?
I must have missed it. :?

DeadCalm

underlayunderlay wrote:

It's all very well saying that the GC competition is still really close with the real shake-up to come, but that does rather beg the question as to why bother with all the previous stages when they could have just had a one-dayer. Small time gaps are usually a sign that riders have been riding defensively with nobody really making any telling moves, rather than a sign that everyone is evenly matched.

One of the reasons it is so close between Valverde and Yates at the top of GC is that, when one has gained time on the other (which has happened on multiple occasions) the other has fought back and regained the time lost.

Plus, it's only close between Valverde and Yates. How come all the other GC contenders have ceded large gaps to these two while they've supposedly been riding defensively?