Vuelta 2018, Stage 20: Escaldes-Engordany > Santuario de Canolich - 97,3Km *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

As Kelly would say: "That's two turds for Lopez."

Now that, was what a Vuelta stage should look like. Excellent action.
None of the meh stuff those Spanish mur keep on delivering

Pross

Excellent stage that. Not quite sure what Yates was doing on the final climb, maybe he just went with them to just be certain of protecting his lead then decided to leave the two youngsters to battle for the stage on relative podium positions. Nice to see Lopez racing aggressively today, I wonder if he's regretting his apparent fixation with Quintana earlier in the race. Hopefully we've got some big battles in the future between Mas, Lopez and (hopefully) Bernal.

hypster

That's five GTs on the trot for the Brits and three different winners!

Pross

Kruijswijk giving a very good interview considering how disappointed he must be.

Vino'sGhost

Vuelta rescued on one epic stage. Banging.

RonB

Looks like everyone made the cut/ time limit as the autobus came in 32mins after the winner of today's stage.

RonB wrote:

No Movistar or Sky rider on the podium of a GC. Must be a while since that occurred

Not really Vuelta 2015 when it was 1: Aru, 2:J Rod, 3: Majka

DeadCalm

So the longest ever run (two years) without a Spaniard on the podium finally comes to an end.

I thought it was a very good stage but to class it as epic I'd have expected the red jersey to be in doubt, even if only briefly. I never thought Yates looked like he was in anything other than control. He is a thoroughly deserving winner in my book.

Although I had him for PTP, I'm disappointed Lopez knocked Kruijswijk off the podium. There's something about the way he rides that I don't warm to, even though he has ridden pretty aggressively on occasions during this Vuelta.

Mas looks to have a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see how he fares in the future and how QS deal with having a potentially genuine GC contender.

Overall, I think it has been a decent edition with plenty to enjoy.

richard_t._biscuit

I saw Valverde trending worldwide on twitter and figured something dramatic had happened: Turns out someone of the same name manages some football team or other.

Lanterne_Rogue

Enjoyed watching the highlights. Gary Imlach's introduction was worth the price of admission on its own.

TheBigBean

Lopez was a bit unlucky not to win the stage as it looked like he had the quicker finish until the barrier moment. Plus Mas didn't do much work.

jimmurray

larkim wrote:

Good point about the bike swap options there by Kelly. I bet their normal bike set ups are a little different, but would you send out Adam on a like for like bike today just in case?

They actually use different size frames according to the mechanic I was chatting to before one of the early stages. Simon uses an xs, Adam a s. Both of them have ‘sprint’ buttons on their handlebars and, from what I could see, were the only ms riders to have them.

larkim

So do you think they put Adam on an XS today then? Sprint buttons? I'll need to investigate that.

knedlicky

jimmurray wrote:

They actually use different size frames according to the mechanic I was chatting to before one of the early stages. Simon uses an xs, Adam a s.

Do you know what size in cms, xs and s are said to be? I can't imagine professional teams work with vague designations rather than numbers.

Anyway exact frame size may not always be the pertinent point - I imagine professional teams go into to detail about such, but at amateur level I see many riders who may have the right frame size, but the wrong saddle-handlebar relationship.

knedlicky

Blazing Saddles wrote:

If Mas was Bouhanni, he would be disqualified for that sprint. :P

TheBigBean wrote:

Lopez was a bit unlucky not to win the stage as it looked like he had the quicker finish until the barrier moment. Plus Mas didn't do much work.

Don't really agree either that Mas cut Lopez in their 'sprint' or that it was one-sided in their break or that Lopez might have had the quicker finish (in fact I really doubt that) – I suspect Lopez was just the more naive of the two when it came to the finish.
It would be interesting to know what they said to each other 1-2 km out – while watching I thought it might be Mas agreed that Lopez take the stage win if the time gap wasn't significant enough to alter their GC placings, but apparently I was wrong.
I think Mas will be the better bet for future GC winner than Lopez, whom I see more as as a good regular KOM bet.

RichN95.

knedlicky wrote:

It would be interesting to know what they said to each other 1-2 km out – while watching I thought it might be Mas agreed that Lopez take the stage win if the time gap wasn't significant enough to alter their GC placings, but apparently I was wrong.

Probably 'let's keep working and we'll both get on the podium, let's not wreck this'. The stage would just be a bonus.

jimmurray

knedlicky wrote:

jimmurray wrote:

They actually use different size frames according to the mechanic I was chatting to before one of the early stages. Simon uses an xs, Adam a s.

Do you know what size in cms, xs and s are said to be? I can't imagine professional teams work with vague designations rather than numbers.

Anyway exact frame size may not always be the pertinent point - I imagine professional teams go into to detail about such, but at amateur level I see many riders who may have the right frame size, but the wrong saddle-handlebar relationship.

No idea on cm size bit an xs would normally be about 49cm. He said that Chaves used the same size frame and that Simon used a positive angle stem and Adam a negative angle one.

Pross

jimmurray wrote:

larkim wrote:

Good point about the bike swap options there by Kelly. I bet their normal bike set ups are a little different, but would you send out Adam on a like for like bike today just in case?

They actually use different size frames according to the mechanic I was chatting to before one of the early stages. Simon uses an xs, Adam a s. Both of them have ‘sprint’ buttons on their handlebars and, from what I could see, were the only ms riders to have them.

Quicker and easier if they just swapped jerseys

joe2008

Pross wrote:

jimmurray wrote:

larkim wrote:

Good point about the bike swap options there by Kelly. I bet their normal bike set ups are a little different, but would you send out Adam on a like for like bike today just in case?

They actually use different size frames according to the mechanic I was chatting to before one of the early stages. Simon uses an xs, Adam a s. Both of them have ‘sprint’ buttons on their handlebars and, from what I could see, were the only ms riders to have them.

Quicker and easier if they just swapped jerseys

I wonder if they were doing this, giving Simon a day off every other day

mrfpb

Gary Imlach and David Millar were discussing how young the top three are - 26, 24 and 23. They seemed to think it was unprecedented for a grand tour. Anyone able to conform if this is the youngest GT podium ever?

DeadCalm

mrfpb wrote:

Gary Imlach and David Millar were discussing how young the top three are - 26, 24 and 23. They seemed to think it was unprecedented for a grand tour. Anyone able to conform if this is the youngest GT podium ever?

The youngest since 1936 apparently.

joe2008

"I don't know him from Adam"

From BBC comments, made me smile