Weds 2nd Sept: Vuelta 2015 stage 11: Andorra la Vella – Cortals d’Encamp 138km

kerry4sam

pelevin wrote: »

In fairness, Roche has proven he is a high-level GC rider by coming 5th in the Vuelta 2 years ago. Here crashes scuppered him from doing what he could have - which is very realistically to have been top 10 anyway.

On other matters CN describe Landa as being Sky bound. Is that a known done deal now?

Even after the physical pain he has endured he is still an optimist! Love that! He is just a fighter.
Off all the cyclists we have in this country ; one, only one there now with the tri-colour on his arm. Not only is he participating but Nicholas Roche is actively competing.
It makes me, for me, just makes me smile when I see him cycle. Just Wonderful Optimism and Strength!
Sur just look what he said this evening after that battle on the mountains

5000m of clmbimg and two crashes has had the better of me.. Suffered today on the andora roads.
Still 11 stages to fight for.

Long may that fighting spirit continue by him,
kerry4sam

pelevin

Eamonnator wrote: »

And Aru would have had a bigger gap on GC

Landa had been I'd say pretty clearly the strongest rider throughout the race after Contador. He was less than 40 seconds behind Aru on gc whilst having on stage 20 a gap of about 50 seconds ahead of Aru, gained because he was as usual through that Giro, the strongest rider. Aru had only jumped ahead of him the day before on gc because, having lost a fair amount of time, he had been allowed some space to attack. Landa being his team-mate couldn't chase him down.

And here again on stage 20 with a certain stage victory there for Landa & being only 40 seconds behind a rider he'd consistently been stronger than, he was ordered to wait up & hand over all the glory to Aru again. If Aru had been the one in Landa's position up the road & only 40 seconds behind on gc I'd say it's pretty easy to guess what decision Martinelli would have made about him waiting up for Landa behind.

Lusk_Doyle

RobFowl wrote: »

Looking like an A4 the way he's climbing just now...

P1ss off you.

Lusk_Doyle

Anbody hear who designed the stage today?

Eamonnator

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Anbody hear who designed the stage today?

I heard it was some guy, who lives in Andorra. I heard the name, but it meant nothing to me.
I think Carlton may know.

letape

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Anbody hear who designed the stage today?

Purito. A Spanish rider on the Katusha team. He was a favourite for today's stage but it didn't work out for him. Also called Joaquim Rodriquez I believe.

Lusk_Doyle

Must have missed the one solitary occasion that it was mentioned so.

letape

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Must have missed the one solitary occasion that it was mentioned so.

Your very welcome!







That had been my effort at sarcasm btw...

Lusk_Doyle

letape wrote: »

Your very welcome!







That had been my effort at sarcasm btw...

As was my original question!

letape

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

As was my original question!

I got that!

pelevin

I think he should probably be retired from his role of stage or course designer. Someone earlier posted a photo of Quintana looking very much on the verge of death. That's taking it a small bit too far what's being asked of athletes. It also seemed to make it more of a slog-fest than a race.

Lusk_Doyle

letape wrote: »

I got that!

He gets me!

The tax man

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Anbody hear who designed the stage today?

I heard it was AstraMonti. Certainly looked like one of his creations.:)

dastardly00

From Cyclingnews:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/morning-mri-will-decide-froomes-vuelta-a-espana-fate/

Team Sky confirmed to Cyclingnews that Froome had undergone medical tests this evening with x-rays carried out – although they did not specify whether the tests related to his injured shoulder, which appeared to take the brunt of his fall.

Cyclingnews has learnt that Froome will rest up this evening before having a further MRI scan in the morning. Dave Brailsford told Cyclingnews that "Chris is in a lot of pain when weight bearing and we will take a final decision in the morning."

Dr. Bre

Basically froome will be a non starter

MPFGLB

I know Tinkov is threatening to sue ASO or UCI and maybe a load of other people over the 2nd moto bike incident taking a TCS rider out of the race...even threatening ot pull out of the race but can;t see that happen with Majka lying 4th


However if I was Darwin Attapuma I would consider suing Carlton Kirby for putting the hex on me big time since the start of the Vuleta and never leaving aminute go by without harassing me on TV. Kirby went on so much about Dawin today I wondered if he was his secret love child. Totally mental

lennymc

does anyone know why rodrigez is called purrito?

MPFGLB

And yes KerryforSam Nicolas Roche is a fighter , an optimist, an attacker & a grafter. He may not win a GT tour but he will always try his best ..who can ask for more

And I think he will be out there in the next stages attacking and going for a stage and hopefully he gets one

fat bloke

I dunno, all this 5000m in one day bleating and whining, pi$$ing and moaning.

Have they never heard of the Marmotte?:rolleyes:

pelevin

lennymc wrote: »

does anyone know why rodrigez is called purrito?

It's because he has lots of cats which purr a lot.

The tax man

lennymc wrote: »

does anyone know why rodrigez is called purrito?

Always wondered that myself.

From Wiki:

His nickname in the professional peloton is Purito, Spanish for little cigar, a name he was given in an early season training camp during his first year as a professional with ONCE-Eroski. When some of his teammates stepped up the pace on a small climb, he passed them making a hand gesture appearing to be smoking a cigar, suggesting he was climbing without much effort. The gesture was not welcomed by his teammates, who made him smoke a real cigar as a hazing ritual later in the evening.

retalivity

Now you've ruined it...

pelevin

dastardly00 wrote: »

DNFs today were Txurruka (Caja Rural), Hardy (Cofidis), Veikkenan (FDJ), and Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo).

And on the poster front apparently ROK ON with a closed account.

ThisRegard

MPFGLB wrote: »

I know Tinkov is threatening to sue ASO or UCI and maybe a load of other people over the 2nd moto bike incident taking a TCS rider out of the race...even threatening ot pull out of the race but can;t see that happen with Majka lying 4th

I'm not saying he will pull the team, but he's more likely to follow through than most other teams who would make such a threat as he wouldn't have to worry as much about upsetting team sponsors not being on display for the reminder of the race.

Daroxtar

pelevin wrote: »

I think he should probably be retired from his role of stage or course designer. Someone earlier posted a photo of Quintana looking very much on the verge of death. That's taking it a small bit too far what's being asked of athletes. It also seemed to make it more of a slog-fest than a race.

Thats La Vuelta though. The cyclists get to spend the Giro and the Tour enjoying all the best hospitality the Italians and French can offer them and then they get the sh!t kicked out of them by the Spanish.

pelevin

Though even if Tinkov was serious in his intent - which would be a pretty natural degree of anger after losing 2 riders to motorbikes - the possible repurcussions from the UCI to his team for that act I'd imagine would be potentially too serious for him to go through with the pull-out.

MPFGLB

pelevin wrote: »

It's because he has lots of cats which purr a lot.

Nay ...he on account him having a dodgy tummy and being only able to eat 2 types of food

purple sprouting broccoli
& doritos

The tax man

pelevin wrote: »

And on the poster front apparently ROK ON with a closed account.

FFS

MPFGLB

The tax man wrote: »

FFS

How do you know he closed his account and why would he ...was it something someone said ??

pelevin

MPFGLB wrote: »

How do you know he closed his account and why would he ...was it something someone said ??

I was just looking a few pages back & saw by his name 'Closed account.' Don't know anything beyond that.

lennymc

does anyone know who is in the dragon jersey today?

MPFGLB

Roche was only 3mnutes down ( and 4minutes ahead of Froome going in to the final 10KM climb) and yet he lost by 14 minutes. Even Juan Antonio Flecha said that was the easiest climb of the day

Spectacular blow even with Kiryenka & Henao dragging him along. How could he lose so much time ...a minute per kilometer. I guess he never does anything by half measures

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/i-had-nothing-left-and-took-a-beating-on-the-way-up-31498578.html

D9Male

That was even more surreal than the Atapuma stuff. Like WTF?

godtabh

https://twitter.com/SkySportsNewsHQ/status/639305441885978625

dastardly00

Some nice camaraderie in the peloton (from Nico's diary):

I'd been struggling for over 30km and the final 10km incline was the end. The tank was empty ...... while Maxime Bouet of Etixx-Quickstep, Mikael Cherel of Ag2r and Pierre Rolland of Europcar gave me a tap on the shoulder and a few words of encouragement.

MrMischief

Wonder did Froome and Roche do far too much on the rest day with 3000m of climbing!

pelevin

MrMischief wrote: »

Wonder did Froome and Roche do far too much on the rest day with 3000m of climbing!

Sounds crazy all right - though for Froome regardless of what went before, the crash did for him.

manwithaplan

Roche seems to struggle after rest days. The latest tactic seems to have been to pretend it wasn't a rest day. Back to the drawing board.

(Obviously his crash the previous day didn't help etc etc)

gordongekko

The first climb yesterday had around 5000 meters alone so 3000 wasn't much to do on a rest day.

manwithaplan

Maybe horizontally!

dastardly00

gordongekko wrote: »

The first climb yesterday had around 5000 meters alone so 3000 wasn't much to do on a rest day.

Eh... the first climb had an elevation gain of 567 m.

MPFGLB

With Nico the problem is a bit more subtle in my estimation

There is no doubt the crashes effected him but he could cycle well enough to the last climb. Its no doubt the rest day wasn't good for him as seen previously he takes awhile to warm up. And there is an element of fatique after the first week and rest day training & the Tour de France

But I think what happened to him is what happened the day Dan Martin won in the Tour stage , and the wet day in the Dauphine this year (that Nibali attacked) and on other occasions. He has a spectacular blow out due to panic , worry & desperation

Chris Froome rode the stage with a broken foot , Alberto Contador rode the Giro with a separated shoulder and the Vuelta last year with a 'broken' leg. This is why these guys are champions ...not the extra watts on a mountain. As SKY know there is margins between all riders at the top. Its the will and sheer force of character that marks them out

Now I am not saying Nico can't take pain or push himself or work hard but I think when things start to go very wrong he catastrophises and panics and things go from bad to worse. So rather than ride with the same loss as Froome yesterday (which ironically he could have done if he waited with Froome) he probably wasted so much energy worrying and stressing that by the time he hit the last climb he had nothing left. I can only imagine what Kiryenka thought .I think those other riders must have seen how desperate and inconsolable he was on that climb

Anyway that's (amateur psychology ) my take on it

gordongekko

dastardly00 wrote: »

Eh... the first climb had an elevation gain of 567 m.

Where did he say his elevation gain was 3000m?

pelevin

gordongekko wrote: »

Where did he say his elevation gain was 3000m?

Where did you get the idea the first climb was ten times higher than it was?!

Melodeon

Perhaps this was their Rest Day training spin?:
https://www.strava.com/segments/9088725

MrMischief

MPFGLB wrote: »

With Nico the problem is a bit more subtle in my estimation

There is no doubt the crashes effected him but he could cycle well enough to the last climb. Its no doubt the rest day wasn't good for him as seen previously he takes awhile to warm up. And there is an element of fatique after the first week and rest day training & the Tour de France

But I think what happened to him is what happened the day Dan Martin won in the Tour stage , and the wet day in the Dauphine this year (that Nibali attacked) and on other occasions. He has a spectacular blow out due to panic , worry & desperation

Chris Froome rode the stage with a broken foot , Alberto Contador rode the Giro with a separated shoulder and the Vuelta last year with a 'broken' leg. This is why these guys are champions ...not the extra watts on a mountain. As SKY know there is margins between all riders at the top. Its the will and sheer force of character that marks them out

Now I am not saying Nico can't take pain or push himself or work hard but I think when things start to go very wrong he catastrophises and panics and things go from bad to worse. So rather than ride with the same loss as Froome yesterday (which ironically he could have done if he waited with Froome) he probably wasted so much energy worrying and stressing that by the time he hit the last climb he had nothing left. I can only imagine what Kiryenka thought .I think those other riders must have seen how desperate and inconsolable he was on that climb

Anyway that's (amateur psychology ) my take on it

Regardless of what Nico has said in the past I also believe he cant shackle the expectation that comes with the surname! That cant be easy and would be mentally draining to say the least. Now I wouldn't say its something he thinks about too much but its always there....

pelevin

I rmember a couple of postings from the SaxoTinkoff video-diaries during Roche's excellent Vuelta when he came 5th, & I'd say Riis was doing a very good job of handling Nico's temperament & frailties - helping pick up his mood from one very bad day, giving him something positive to focus on, specifically getting in some kind of break the very next chance to get some time back however little. That the boost in morale was very important to Roche's temperament so as not to wallow in the negative. In general the feeling it seemed Riis could be good that way - very authoritative but benevolent father figure. Very different of course than the kind of pantomime villain role the likes of Kimmage would very willingly foist on him.

godtabh

pelevin wrote: »

I rmember a couple of postings from the SaxoTinkoff video-diaries during Roche's excellent Vuelta when he came 5th, & I'd say Riis was doing a very good job of handling Nico's temperament & frailties - helping pick up his mood from one very bad day, giving him something positive to focus on, specifically getting in some kind of break the very next chance to get some time back however little. That the boost in morale was very important to Roche's temperament so as not to wallow in the negative. In general the feeling it seemed Riis could be good that way - very authoritative but benevolent father figure. Very different of course than the kind of pantomime villain role the likes of Kimmage would very willingly foist on him.

I think he did well in the TT that year and basically he said it was because his Dad and Riis were in his ear the whole time. He takes direction well but when left to his own devices I think it gets on top of him

MPFGLB

There is no doubt that Riis's father figure direction got the best out of an in form Nico Roche. But his own father can and has been very hard on him in the past ...I think its because they are quite differnt and Nico does not have that steel resolve (and maybe has a few of his mothers qualities) that his Dad would want him to have in cycling

Makes him more likable (in book) than his Dad but not as good a sportsman ...swings and roundabouts

manwithaplan

gordongekko wrote: »

Where did he say his elevation gain was 3000m?

Said it in his diary in the Indo.