Vuelta - Stage 17, Wed Sep 11, Calahorra - Burgos, **Unmasked Spoilers**

Darkglasses

gordongekko wrote: »

How did betancur do?

Expected to finish in about an hour. Stopped for a coffee and a bun.

pelevin

gordongekko wrote: »

How did betancur do?

He went solo from a long way out, got nearly a half hour on the peloton, but then he stopped for coffee somewhere and got swallowed up.

pelevin

Darkglasses wrote: »

Expected to finish in about an hour. Stopped for a coffee and a bun.

Damn it! You got in there first.

gordongekko

so he still has a chance of overall victory. Happy days.

bob11

GC Updated now :

POS. NAME Nº TEAM TIME






1. ITA NIBALI, Vincenzo 31 ASTANA PRO TEAM 68h 50' 29''
2. USA HORNER, Christopher 184 RADIOSHACK LEOPARD 68h 50' 57'' + 28''
3. ESP VALVERDE, Alejandro 1 MOVISTAR TEAM 68h 51' 43'' + 1' 14''
4. ESP RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin 121 KATUSHA TEAM 68h 52' 58'' + 2' 29''
5. IRL ROCHE, Nicolas 205 TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF 68h 54' 12'' + 3' 43''
6. ITA POZZOVIVO, Domenico 11 AG2R LA MONDIALE 68h 55' 38'' + 5' 09''
7. FRA PINOT, Thibaut 101 FDJ.FR 68h 56' 37'' + 6' 08''

pelevin

gordongekko wrote: »

so he still has a chance of overall victory. Happy days.

"The legs are really good," he just said. "I'm going to go full gas from here to Madrid."

Bukman13

Betancur finished only 30 seconds down on the Pozzo group, so its possible he was working for Pozzo in the chase.

AnotherView

Great work by Saxo...they certainly know their echelons/wind stuff

But no one helped them....thought Netapp would help given that they (could have) benefited

Anyway I said it would be exciting and it is

Pity about last Saturday as I honestly believe Nico would be on the podium but for that terrible day ....ah well its still great stuff

Bukman13

AnotherView wrote: »

Great work by Saxo...they certainly know their echelons/wind stuff

But no one helped them....thought Netapp would help given that they (could have) benefited

Anyway I said it would be exciting and it is

Pity about last Saturday as I honestly believe Nico would be on the podium but for that terrible day ....ah well its still great stuff

Imagine he was still with Ag2r, no way he'd be in the position he is right now, he wouldn't have attacked on stage 15 and instead would have been looking over his shoulder at Pinot, and no way they would have tried to split it up today...

The final 3 mountain stages would've been all about defending his postion to Pinot/Koenig and Sanchez.

Paddigol

Yeah as others have said - shame about Saturday. Where would he be now if he hadn't lost any time then?

Still, lots of cycling left to go.

Darkglasses

Paddigol wrote: »

Yeah as others have said - shame about Saturday. Where would he be now if he hadn't lost any time then?

Still, lots of cycling left to go.

In third behind Horner I suppose.

Yeah, there's still a hell of a lot of time to be gained and lost on the Angliru alone.

wirelessdude01

The boyos behind him could end up attacking like mad now over the next three days.

D3PO

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

The boyos behind him could end up attacking like mad now over the next three days.

Pozzivivo has looked weaker than Nico all tour bar one day. Pinot and Sanchez are bigger threats in GC than him IMO but with the time he has in the bank I cant see either catching him.

AnotherView

Sanchez will be going for it on Friday ...his home town
And pinot is strong but it is a lot to make up


Want to see Nico up there for green jersey now......just needs a good placing tomorrow and Friday

donfers

you are nico:

green jersey and finish between 8-12th place

or top 5 and no green???

D3PO

TOP 5 not even a seconds thought of the green

wirelessdude01

donfers wrote: »

you are nico:

green jersey and finish between 8-12th place

or top 5 and no green???

Now there is a choice!!!

retalivity

id rather a jersey tbh...

but with the finishes that are left, to get the green jersey will require him to be up near the front so he wouldnt lose much time overall he is to get it.

D3PO

retalivity wrote: »

id rather a jersey tbh...

but with the finishes that are left, to get the green jersey will require him to be up near the front so he wouldnt lose much time overall he is to get it.

exactly. If Nico wins the green he will probably win the white aswell and will defo be in the top 5 in GC

AnotherView

Green jersey and top 5 are not exclusive ! in fact they are probably both necessary

I presume they will still race for Green on Sunday in Madrid ???

Or is that considered a no no

D3PO

AnotherView wrote: »

Green jersey and top 5 are not exclusive ! in fact they are probably both necessary

I presume they will still race for Green on Sunday in Madrid ???

Or is that considered a no no

Green is fair game right to the end.

Bukman13

I can't see Nico winning the green jersey, he would have to beat Valverde on at least 2 of the remaining 3 mountain stages to have a chance. Valverde looks stronger than him and is faster in a sprint than him.

His only hope is that there is a stall amongst the leaders and he gets a decent gap, Nibali will let him go in hopes he mops up the bonus seconds. Still hard to see it as Horner, Valverde, and Jrod need the bonus seconds in play.

Those free 4 points Valverde picked up on stage 16, makes it very difficult.

donfers

Bukman13 wrote: »

I can't see Nico winning the green jersey, he would have to beat Valverde on at least 2 of the remaining 3 mountain stages to have a chance. Valverde looks stronger than him and is faster in a sprint than him.

His only hope is that there is a stall amongst the leaders and he gets a decent gap, Nibali will let him go in hopes he mops up the bonus seconds. Still hard to see it as Horner, Valverde, and Jrod need the bonus seconds in play.

Those free 4 points Valverde picked up on stage 16, makes it very difficult.

I think Nico is a better sprinter than Valverde

Aoibheann

A lot of people (not necessarily here) have been giving out about Kreuziger's contribution to the team (and Roche) in the Vuelta, saying that as Roche helped him a lot earlier in the year, he was due some payback. I think it's fairly obvious that Kreuziger was off form this Vuelta, and I thought the below quote from Roche's diary today was a nice acknowledgement of his contribution (if purely psychological):

We've never had the TV on once at this Vuelta and Roman had also become my psychologist, giving me pep talks and distracting me from the race with chats about cars or everyday stuff before we'd fall asleep.

Given the amount Kreuziger sacrified himself for Contador in the Tour (he was definitely on decent form and capable of a better overall position) and reading the above has fairly convinced me anyway!

Was wary that Roche was going into a setup where he was going to be at best the No. 3 rider (and wary of Saxo/Riis in general!) and, while that may actually be the case, he's getting the help here that he never had on the AG2R team. I'm always glued to the Vuelta (favourite Grand Tour by a long way these days), but this year has been the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned.

dastardly00

Well fcuk you Eurosport. Vuelta highlights are meant to be on now, but unless the peloton decided to drive touring cars today, the highlights aren't on :mad:

mahoo

Eurosport have to be the most unreliable schedulers on the planet! they never stick to it

DaithiMC

Aoibheann wrote: »

Was wary that Roche was going into a setup where he was going to be at best the No. 3 rider (and wary of Saxo/Riis in general!) and, while that may actually be the case, he's getting the help here that he never had on the AG2R team. I'm always glued to the Vuelta (favourite Grand Tour by a long way these days), but this year has been the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned.

I think that they (Saxo) made an error not appointing an out and out leader from the start. The reports in the press quoted Riis as saying that they had 4 riders who could compete for GC effectively, IMO, leaving it open for them to fight to see who's form is good in the first five days or so and it turned out to be Roche. If he was given the leader's spot earlier on or right from the start I wonder if things would have been different. It has only been in the last few days where I saw the team really focus on Roche as the lead prospect and earlier on I couldn't help thinking that if they were more focused on him as leader they/he could have done a lot more damage.

Still better late than never but being the best overall team at the Tour was, in part, down to the fact that so many of the team had to ride at the front to support Contador as the exclusive leader.

carltonleon

DaithiMC wrote: »

I think that they (Saxo) made an error not appointing an out and out leader from the start. The reports in the press quoted Riis as saying that they had 4 riders who could compete for GC effectively, IMO, leaving it open for them to fight to see who's form is good in the first five days or so and it turned out to be Roche. If he was given the leader's spot earlier on or right from the start I wonder if things would have been different. It has only been in the last few days where I saw the team really focus on Roche as the lead prospect and earlier on I couldn't help thinking that if they were more focused on him as leader they/he could have done a lot more damage.

Still better late than never but being the best overall team at the Tour was, in part, down to the fact that so many of the team had to ride at the front to support Contador as the exclusive leader.

I don't think that is the case Daithi. As Roche won the second stage he has always been protected by his team, in my opinion.
The difference in having a good team around him solely focused on him as opposed to his time with AG2R has been incredible.In fact, if anyone has read Nico's autobiography, Bradley Wiggin's predicted that if his team was solely focused on him then he would attain the results in the Grand Tours.

Just what a pity about last Saturday !!! Still it has been the best season for Irish cycling in a long time and only need Dan to win the Worlds to cap it all off.

DKO

With regard to an out an out Saxo team leader, Riis is wiley, maybe the '4 possible GC' contenders was a smoke screen, Maybe this was said to take pressure off of Nico and maybe it left him in a position where he could snag that second stage. If Riis had said that he was going to be out and out leader maybe other teams would have been more wary of him right from the get go. Maybe maybe maybe.... :-) and opus dei were also in on it :-) Dan Brown style...