Itzulia Basque Country 2021 ***Spoilers***

amrushton

Very good and funny analysis of the stage here. Horner talks about all the points on this forum and a couple of other observations as well. The JV rider sitting adjusting his jersey 5km to to the line for instance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L9MXywRCZg&t=620s

kingstongraham

Very good (by which I mean he says everything that I thought).

Mad to think that Valverde was already 33 when that guy beat him to win the Vuelta though.

yorkshireraw

kingstongraham said:

Very good (by which I mean he says everything that I thought).

Mad to think that Valverde was already 33 when that guy beat him to win the Vuelta though.

Horner's Vuelta win is probably the strangest GT result (Cobo aside, which has since obv been DQd) of the past 10, if not 15 years.

RichN95.

yorkshireraw said:

kingstongraham said:

Very good (by which I mean he says everything that I thought).

Mad to think that Valverde was already 33 when that guy beat him to win the Vuelta though.

Horner's Vuelta win is probably the strangest GT result (Cobo aside, which has since obv been DQd) of the past 10, if not 15 years.

I think Tao's Giro may end up viewed as an oddity too. Different circumstances of course.

amrushton

JV had pulled out of that Giro so in theory a strong or strongest team had left but a win is a win and those who were left werent also-rans

kingstongraham

Very average break again seemingly not being allowed more than a couple of minutes. Wonder who is pulling in the petition- if it's anyone other than ef today I'd be surprised.

blazing_saddles

They have just gone over that uncatagorised hill, so they aren't hanging about.



My guess it's Astana pulling the bunch for Aranburu, but could be EF for Magnus Cort or maybe Bike Exchange for Dion Smith.

kingstongraham

Looked like ISN for Impey as well.

kingstongraham

Brian Smith trying to defend himself against being called a knucklehead.

blazing_saddles

kingstongraham said:

Brian Smith trying to defend himself against being called a knucklehead.

He's not wrong though, Horner was off the mark.
You would think a guy who has ridden the Tour, where the guy in 8th place will stick men on the front to protect his position would realise that teams not in the GC battle would want to go for a stage win.
Higuita was the fastest guy in that group.

The giving up the jersey line was boll0cks though.

kingstongraham

blazing_saddles said:

kingstongraham said:

Brian Smith trying to defend himself against being called a knucklehead.

He's not wrong though, Horner was off the mark.
You would think a guy who has ridden the Tour, where the guy in 8th place will stick men on the front to protect his position would realise that teams not in the GC battle would want to go for a stage win.
Higuita was the fastest guy in that group.

The giving up the jersey line was boll0cks though.

He's wrong about them being happy to give up the lead, and he still thinks vingegaard should have been left up front to go for bonus seconds. Didn't like being called out by Horner one bit!

Obviously nothing wrong with ef working though.

blazing_saddles

kingstongraham said:

blazing_saddles said:

kingstongraham said:

Brian Smith trying to defend himself against being called a knucklehead.

He's not wrong though, Horner was off the mark.
You would think a guy who has ridden the Tour, where the guy in 8th place will stick men on the front to protect his position would realise that teams not in the GC battle would want to go for a stage win.
Higuita was the fastest guy in that group.

The giving up the jersey line was boll0cks though.

He's wrong about them being happy to give up the lead, and he still thinks vingegaard should have been left up front to go for bonus seconds. Didn't like being called out by Horner one bit!

Obviously nothing wrong with ef working though.

Yeah, that's why I said the giving up the jersey line was beyond dumb.

In fairness, I ultimately don't think Vinegaard being pulled back would have achieved a lot.
Tobias Foss would have done a better given he's a big engine. A pity it was Antwan Tolhoek, who is 60kgs soaking wet!

You can tell by me talking about this, that Kirby has stolen my interest in yet another stage.

rick_chasey

Blazing - no way to watch other feeds? I get the impression English isn't your only langauge?

yorkshireraw

RichN95. said:

yorkshireraw said:

kingstongraham said:

Very good (by which I mean he says everything that I thought).

Mad to think that Valverde was already 33 when that guy beat him to win the Vuelta though.

Horner's Vuelta win is probably the strangest GT result (Cobo aside, which has since obv been DQd) of the past 10, if not 15 years.

I think Tao's Giro may end up viewed as an oddity too. Different circumstances of course.

Yes wasn't really including that due to circs. Horner beat Nibali who was prob at his peak in 13 & 14.

blazing_saddles

rick_chasey said:

Blazing - no way to watch other feeds? I get the impression English isn't your only langauge?

I tried the Dutch, French and Italian feeds the other day but I think everyone has their “B” team here and the “A” team doing the classics.
The Dutch feed worked a treat for Flanders, even if Kirby sets such a low bar

blazing_saddles

Amazing effort from Joseph Czerny.
The peloton can’t make any impression

rick_chasey

blazing_saddles said:

rick_chasey said:

Blazing - no way to watch other feeds? I get the impression English isn't your only langauge?

I tried the Dutch, French and Italian feeds the other day but I think everyone has their “B” team here and the “A” team doing the classics.
The Dutch feed worked a treat for Flanders, even if Kirby sets such a low bar

Fair enough.

Do keep up the posts - not a race I watch but obviously helpful to follow for form etc.

kingstongraham

Ha fell asleep and missed it - only woke up for the last 3km.

Did the chase think it was going to happen or did czerny just tt it?

Pross

So who was it Horner criticised, Smith or Kirby? I heard Kirby wittering on about 'loaning' the jersey to McNulty. My thought was that this is near the end of a week long stage race not stage 4 of the Tour

mididoctors

Odd stage

blazing_saddles

Pross said:

So who was it Horner criticised, Smith or Kirby? I heard Kirby wittering on about 'loaning' the jersey to McNulty. My thought was that this is near the end of a week long stage race not stage 4 of the Tour

Both, but unsurprisingly only Smith felt the need to respond. I suspect that Kirby would be pleased just to get a mention.

blazing_saddles

Tomorrow's circuit is short but sharpe.



If Jumbo can't come up with a successful tactic ( a bit of a stretch I know) and wait for the final climb, I cannot see a scenario whereby they win the race. The final climb being the traditional Arrate ascent.



However, if they can somehow come up with a worthwhile ploy that allows Roglic to attack from 50kms to the finish, then anything is possible.
Also the Arrate, but from the opposite side:



The weather could also factor as it is forecast to change.

DeadCalm

blazing_saddles said:

Tomorrow's circuit is short but sharpe.



If Jumbo can't come up with a successful tactic ( a bit of a stretch I know) and wait for the final climb, I cannot see a scenario whereby they win the race. The final climb being the traditional Arrate ascent.



However, if they can somehow come up with a worthwhile ploy that allows Roglic to attack from 50kms to the finish, then anything is possible.
Also the Arrate, but from the opposite side:



The weather could also factor as it is forecast to change.

I imagine their plan is for Vingegaard to be the one attacking early in the hope of breaking McNulty. If they can crack McNulty (I'd say they have a decent shot), they're back in pole position and Roglic merely needs to mark Pogacar.

gsk82

I imagine Roglic will fancy his chances of taking back the time on McNulty on the final climb. He needs to avoid going too early and giving Pogacar chance to counter him though. I'm still expecting a Roglic overall victory

phreak

There's zero chance of Roglic attacking from distance.

kingstongraham

I can see any of the four winning overall. (Bilbao not so much.)

blazing_saddles

Live coverage has started and we have 85kms to go so most of the stage.
Aru already dropped

blazing_saddles

The peloton is already very small

kingstongraham

This race looks so much nicer when it isn't raining all week.

mrb123

Mark McNulty is a golfer Carlton...