La Vuelta 2023: Stage 18:- Pola de Allande to La Cruz de Linares, 179km ***Spoilers***
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By default they've gone with my 'let them race to the top of L'angrilu, then call it' strategy
“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
I missed the Jumbo-Visma soigneur getting rough housed by the police after the stage yesterday.
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It's a pretty poor race this.
So uncompetitive we're reduced to semi-hysterical speculation on how one team is going to divvy up the podium, and the organisation is seriously suspect.2 -
I've known since I was a teenager not to touch Spanish police.andyp said:I missed the Jumbo-Visma soigneur getting rough housed by the police after the stage yesterday.
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.3 -
On holiday with my parents as a kid in the car, the Guardia Civil suddenly came steaming around the car from both sides, road block up ahead, pointing guns at the car > and not pistols either.pblakeney said:
I've known since I was a teenager not to touch Spanish police.andyp said:I missed the Jumbo-Visma soigneur getting rough housed by the police after the stage yesterday.
We had to all get out, arms above our head on the car, while they frisked the whole family and searched the car. Threw my portable CD player on the floor & scratched it.
From the dodgy translation I think it was because our hire car was an exact match for some ETA terrorists.
Honestly, they were so twitchy, I think if i'd have farted too loudly they'd have started shooting.0 -
Why did he shove the cop in the first place?andyp said:I missed the Jumbo-Visma soigneur getting rough housed by the police after the stage yesterday.
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It has been terrible. The GC has been among the least competitive I've seen and not many individual stages have been interesting. The only reason the Jumbo situation has arisen is that they haven't got a serious rival to focus on. Bahrain are the only ones who have even tried to break the dominance but don't have the firepower.rick_chasey said:It's a pretty poor race this.
So uncompetitive we're reduced to semi-hysterical speculation on how one team is going to divvy up the podium, and the organisation is seriously suspect.0 -
It's had its 'Nasty Nick' moment and now that the calls to resolve it have been heeded, we're all sat round saying it's a bit dull.================================
Cake is just weakness entering the body2 -
I think we were already saying it was a bit dull to be honest.0
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I don't think it's been dull, but it's definitely been bad.
The controversy caused by nobody being good enough to challenge for the red jersey has meant it's easy to forget that we've had a stage in the dark, two stages with two finish lines, a stage where they decided not to race, sprints without any decent sprinters, sprint finish crashes, a crash after the finish line.
Then once Remco fails in his GC, he destroys any excitement in breakaway stages, except when he didn't and people still weren't happy because Rui Costa won.1 -
This is just the pantomime edition.0
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Roglic needs to ride like the pantomime villain tomorrow, get into the break with Evenepoel and force TJV to chase it.2
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It's not been that bad - Remco was in contention until he wasn't and then we had all the Jumbo speculation.
For me Vingegaard letting Kuss win is the right call - Roglic is neither here nor there as he wasn't beating Jonas in a race. Let's not forget if Kuss is fatigued part of that is because he's riding 3 grand tours in a year.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]1 -
Felt jaded when it started ."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0
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Remco dropped out of contention on the first HC climb of the race. That's not a real challenge, I'm afraid.0
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The absurdity of the JV cleansweep has been compounded by the awful showing from the rest of the GC contenders. Remco obviously fell away on that one awful day, but Ayuso hasn't kicked on from his 3rd last year, especially as this was his only GT of 2023. Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all. Throw in that Ineos have had probably their worst GT ever (have they ever had a best placing lower than the 36th Thomas currently has?) and it's been a rubbish race.0
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Team Sky at the 2010 Vuelta would be worse.phreak said:The absurdity of the JV cleansweep has been compounded by the awful showing from the rest of the GC contenders. Remco obviously fell away on that one awful day, but Ayuso hasn't kicked on from his 3rd last year, especially as this was his only GT of 2023. Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all. Throw in that Ineos have had probably their worst GT ever (have they ever had a best placing lower than the 36th Thomas currently has?) and it's been a rubbish race.
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Chuck in the shambolic TV coverage.1
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LOLTheBigBean said:
I don't think that is true at all. I think a lot of people would have happily seen Kwiakowski win the Vueltatailwindhome said:Had Sky effectively neutralised a race under team orders to get their 3rd best rider in the winners jersey, as a thank you for being a good soldier, the internet would have absolutely shat itself
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
In races where the team actually finished though I can't think of a worse performance. It's especially bad as they can't really say that their main GC rider crashed out or anything.kingstongraham said:
Team Sky at the 2010 Vuelta would be worse.phreak said:The absurdity of the JV cleansweep has been compounded by the awful showing from the rest of the GC contenders. Remco obviously fell away on that one awful day, but Ayuso hasn't kicked on from his 3rd last year, especially as this was his only GT of 2023. Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all. Throw in that Ineos have had probably their worst GT ever (have they ever had a best placing lower than the 36th Thomas currently has?) and it's been a rubbish race.
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Harsh. It's pretty decent given that it's clearly done by a couple of guys with camera phones and quite slow 4g upload speeds.Pross said:Chuck in the shambolic TV coverage.
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That Mas started after his crash in the Tour was a surprise. He'd barely had time to prepare properly for this race, so finishing in the top six is a decent result considering.phreak said:Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all.
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"He's behiiiiind you!"rick_chasey said:
Oh no it isn't etc.TheBigBean said:This is just the pantomime edition.
Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
Yeah ..... ayuso is I'll too no?andyp said:
That Mas started after his crash in the Tour was a surprise. He'd barely had time to prepare properly for this race, so finishing in the top six is a decent result considering.phreak said:Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all.
UAE tactics have been utterly ineffective. Bahrain got coherent in the 3rd .
Jumbo crushed everyone in the second week."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
I think that the one crash he had on the double crash day did more damage than he has let on. They also lost their backup GC man the same day.phreak said:
In races where the team actually finished though I can't think of a worse performance. It's especially bad as they can't really say that their main GC rider crashed out or anything.kingstongraham said:
Team Sky at the 2010 Vuelta would be worse.phreak said:The absurdity of the JV cleansweep has been compounded by the awful showing from the rest of the GC contenders. Remco obviously fell away on that one awful day, but Ayuso hasn't kicked on from his 3rd last year, especially as this was his only GT of 2023. Both he and Mas should have been fresher than the JV riders, yet have not challenged at all. Throw in that Ineos have had probably their worst GT ever (have they ever had a best placing lower than the 36th Thomas currently has?) and it's been a rubbish race.
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Sky must have had GTs where they've done nothing on GC and not won a stage. Those would be worse than this. 2018 Vuelta maybe.0
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Other than the 2010 Vuelta the only other Grand Tour where Sky/Ineos have not won a stage and not had a rider in the top 20 was the 2014 Giro d'Italia. Five others with no stage or top ten - Tour '10, '14, Giro '11 and Vuelta '18,'19.
They should secure their worst top GC finish in this race though, beating Uran's 27th at the 2013 Vuelta.Twitter: @RichN950 -
Are you forgetting that they have won a stage? Ganna in the TT0
