vuelta a espana

papac

Nibali punctured. I think he looks tired anyway.

dastardly00

Roche is 1m 46s down at the 15km time point

ednwireland

roche only 11s down on schleck now 15km split

papac

papac wrote: »

Nibali punctured. I think he looks tired anyway.

Nibali leader on the road.
My money is on Roche to be third overall tonight. Hes catching Schleck slowly and Rodriquez is banjaxed.

Aoibheann

Peter Velits takes the fastest time!! Don't think that's great for Roche though..

buffalo

Aoibheann wrote: »

Peter Velits takes the fastest time!! Don't think that's great for Roche though..

Is that danger for Roche?

Morrisseeee

Oh Oh Peter Velits !!!!!!!!!!!!

Aoibheann

buffalo wrote: »

Is that danger for Roche?

Well, he's the man immediately behind Roche in the standings at 1'26" down on him.. So, I'd say so, unless Roche had an amazing last few km.

papac

Aoibheann wrote: »

Peter Velits takes the fastest time!! Don't think that's great for Roche though..

The wind seems to be helping more and more as time goes on. Hopefully Roche can take back some of that.

dastardly00

Velitis and probably Sastre will jump ahead of Roche in the overall standings, unless he goes extremely quick in the last 10km

Aoibheann

Roche finishes at 3'29" down on Velits. So he'll be 2'03" down, I think. Could leapfrog Schleck maybe to keep his 5th place?

Bluefoam

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

Aoibheann

Schleck in at 3'55" down so not enough for Roche to catch him.

Edit:

Mosquera impressive at only 2'13" down.

dastardly00

So it loooks like Roche will be 7th overall?

Aoibheann

dastardly00 wrote: »

So it loooks like Roche will be 6th overall?

Let's wait to see just how Rodriguez finishes, if he completely implodes you never know..

Edit

He finished 6'12" down compared to Roche's 3'29". There was a gap of 3'01" between them going into today's stage. Not quite.

papac

Aoibheann wrote: »

Let's wait to see just how Rodriguez finishes, if he completely implodes you never know..

Looks like Rodriguez has really blown.You have to feel for him.

Aoibheann

papac wrote: »

Looks like Rodriguez has really blown.You have to feel for him.

Really do. He's just not built for the time-trials! Might make up some time in the mountains but I don't think the riders now ahead of him will all crack that much. He'll be ahead of Roche still though.

ednwireland

ouch, roche down to 8th
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 71:19:49
2 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:00:39
3 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia 0:02:00
4 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:44
5 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:45
6 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team
7 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions 0:03:55
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale 0:04:03
9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:04:13
10 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:05:43

is that tondo in there right ????????????
nott he first time the provisional results were wrong this vuelta

dastardly00

ednwireland wrote: »

ouch, roche down to 8th

Velits and Danielson leap-frogged Roche, who else?

kilns

Tondo!

Only 19 seconds between Roche and Schleck in 4th however

papac

Saturday will be interesting.

buffalo

kilns wrote: »

Tondo!

Only 19 seconds between Roche and Schleck in 4th however

But Sastre's only ten seconds behind! I'm cancelling all other Saturday afternoon plans.

Bluefoam

From the Irish Times:

Roche leaves himself a mountain to climb

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/other/2010/0915/1224278961659.html

petethedrummer

Saturday will be very interesting. He has contained himself somewhat in the mountains and not gone on any crazy moves thus far. It would be great to see him do or die from a long way out to see can he leap frog a few places.

Hermy

What happened Thor?

dastardly00

Hermy wrote: »

What happened Thor?

he didn't start the TT today, as he wanted to give himself extra time to prepare for the world championships in a few weeks.

Hermy

Good. Was hoping he hadn't crashed.

Paul Kiernan

The Irish Times is spouting a load of nonsense! Roche is closer to both 4th AND 3rd place than he was this morning.

sy

I am a little suspicious of the eventual stage winner. He is a class act and won the worlds u23 a few years back, but after a tough few weeks and beating Menchov(who targeted this stage) and a very strong and determined Cancellara ? Questions i'm afraid

Chips Lovell

Just watched the stage now. Boy was I not expecting some of those results. Velits' ride was unreal. While Roche has lost ground, he has a reasonable expectation of clawing back the time on Tondo and Danielson on the Bola del Mundo, so sixth is still a reasonable target. Rodriguez and Schleck though maybe not. He's dropped Velits before, but two minutes is a big ask. Sastre though is breathing down his neck.

ednwireland

sy wrote: »

I am a little suspicious of the eventual stage winner. He is a class act and won the worlds u23 a few years back, but after a tough few weeks and beating Menchov(who targeted this stage) and a very strong and determined Cancellara ? Questions i'm afraid

and after a rest day ! anyone know if there team bus broke down anywhere ?;)

bad day for roche

says it himself in his diary, hopefully he can turn that anger into a great ride on sat

papac

sy wrote: »

I am a little suspicious of the eventual stage winner. He is a class act and won the worlds u23 a few years back, but after a tough few weeks and beating Menchov(who targeted this stage) and a very strong and determined Cancellara ? Questions i'm afraid

I have had serious misgivings about Nibali for a while but to be fair everybody's times were improving as the day went on yesterday.
You have to respect his descending ability also.Drugs don't help that.
Saturday should be great.There are so many who could get on the podium that it's got to be an attack fest.Yippee

.

NickDrake

God is there really a need for all the spoilers. It is getting ridiculas at this stage.

Don't want to know whats going on then don't read the thread.

Chips Lovell

NickDrake wrote: »

God is there really a need for all the spoilers. It is getting ridiculas at this stage.

Don't want to know whats going on then don't read the thread.

It's in the Forum charter. If you want to discuss a stage without spoilers, all you have to do is start a separate thread, with a spoiler warning in the title.

Bluefoam

NickDrake wrote: »

God is there really a need for all the spoilers. It is getting ridiculas at this stage.

Don't want to know whats going on then don't read the thread.

Agreed

buffalo

Rodriguez, Tondo and Danielson (and Sastre) all lost four seconds to Roche today. It's a little help. He's only 4" behind Danielson now.

ednwireland

aaaaw crap missed the finish too busy working, cavendish again !!!!!!

RobFowl

buffalo wrote: »

Rodriguez, Tondo and Danielson (and Sastre) all lost four seconds to Roche today. It's a little help. He's only 4" behind Danielson now.

Saw that shows how important correct positioning in the bunch is.

ednwireland

lovin roches diary

I feel drained tonight, probably more mentally than physically. Today was a very nerve-wracking day in the saddle and maybe the pressure of it all is getting to me. Somebody asked me if I use a sports psychologist to help me with the mental stress of racing. We have one on the team, but I only see him two or three times a year. What do a need a sports psychologist for when I can tell you guys my problems?

alfalad

Anyone watching this today and can give an update? Looks like a sprint but has there been any surprises?

snollup

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/406694.html

Durnish

Gosh, wasn't Mark Cavendish great in his post race/win interview yesterday, stage 18? It's wonderful to watch the joy of winning.

dastardly00

Roche got a flat tyre at 156km to go, but the guy doing the live text updates on the Eurosport website doesn't have any info on whether or not he is in the peloton. But i would assume that he made it back in pretty soon after.

Durnish

You can see Roche in position in a chasing group with Cavendish just behind the lead chaser, Moncoutier, all on the official race site, live up-date graphic.

http://www.lavuelta.com/10/en/online/pelidin.html

goldencleric

Durnish wrote: »

You can see Roche in position in a chasing group with Cavendish just behind the lead chaser, Moncoutier, all on the official race site, live up-date graphic.

http://www.lavuelta.com/10/en/online/pelidin.html

Wish I had have known of that link earlier in the Vuelta!!!

Durnish

My pleasure. Isn't that the interwoogie is all about?

I don't have it all figured out yet, there's probably more stuff in that site that I haveny worked out.

Hail 2 Da Thief

Roche up to 6th in GC

Edit:

He seems to actually be placed 7th in GC. Eurosport had him in 6th but that appears to have been wrong.

ednwireland

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

Roche up to 6th in GC

Edit:

He seems to actually be placed 7th in GC. Eurosport had him in 6th but that appears to have been wrong.

cycling news have him completely missing off the standings, la vuelta webiste has him in 7th 4:02 down, jumped danielson

goldencleric

The TV coverage had Frank Schleck completely missing for some reason hence Roche's apparent promotion to sixth ... anyway come on Nico!!

Hermy

Durnish wrote: »

...interwoogie...

There's a cool new word.:p