La Vuelta stage 3:Prades Conflent-Andorra la Vella 158km

Those intermediate bonus seconds put froome in the red jersey.

letape

Nice that I predicted the correct winner in the poll!

Pity that Nico effectively lost time on the finish yesterday. In previous years at the Vuelta he was also at the very front in the early stages fighting for every second.

JK.BMC

Correct me if I'm wrong but did Roche not mess up that final sprint? Absolutely brilliant riding to get back in with 600m to go but he went to the front, then stalled and then didn't jump on Nibalis wheel; got swamped on both sides- loses the race lead due to bonus seconds. I was screaming at him to either keep going from 500m out or else sit on Nibali wheel onto the final corner as it was plain obvious that he has the best record of those contesting this type of sprint among non-sprinters. Ah well- that's racing. Easy saying it from the arm chair. But a bit of the 'club league sprint' about that last km which made it great to watch

neris

Id say Carltons off to change his jocks now Froomes in red.

Thought the Vuelta had done away with podium girls

MPFGLB

JK.BMC wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but did Roche not mess up that final sprint? Absolutely brilliant riding to get back in with 600m to go but he went to the front, then stalled and then didn't jump on Nibalis wheel; got swamped on both sides- loses the race lead due to bonus seconds. I was screaming at him to either keep going from 500m out or else sit on Nibali wheel onto the final corner as it was plain obvious that he has the best record of those contesting this type of sprint among non-sprinters. Ah well- that's racing. Easy saying it from the arm chair. But a bit of the 'club league sprint' about that last km which made it great to watch

Yeah Nico should have waited ....would have got one of the bonuses and be in Red now...always his problem of getting over anxious

Also yesterday he lost time owing to no help with positioning in the wind from BMC ...all day battling for position and got caught out at last 2km point...really disappointed

Would be in red now

but there are few easier stages coming with up hill finishes and he could get red by piping Froome & de La Cruz ...just needs to be 3rd and them behind him

Also Nibali owes Nico who did most of the chase on the flat/downhill

dastardly00

Teejay is Carlton's new favourite

MPFGLB

dastardly00 wrote: »

Teejay is Carlton's new favourite

Its only because he dissed him so much before that he must have gotten fed back from BMC to lay off

and now he is gone the other way

Thing is everyone Kirby backs fall by the way ...

Somedude9

Jaysus Bertie, what the hell?

Great to see Nico in the mix. Let's have some organised support BMC, at least no more cheap bonus seconds for Froome ffs!

dastardly00

Wow, it's the first time since 2011 since Froome has worn the red jersey. That's crazy considering he's finished in 2nd place twice and 4th place once since 2011.

Daroxtar

dastardly00 wrote: »

Teejay is Carlton's new favourite

Dunno, I heard his voice flutter when he said "Atapuma"

MPFGLB

Daroxtar wrote: »

Dunno, I heard his voice flutter when he said "Atapuma"

Nay ...yesterday he nearly died of ecstasy when Simon Clarke came to the front near the end of the stage

velo.2010

The way Froome dropped everyone apart from Chaves... jeez!

I think this is the first GT in a long time that there is no challenge to Froome from Quintana. I couldn't put my faith in the others to challenge him for the title. Orica should, in theory, go all in with Chavez but I can see the Yates duo keeping their free role. Nibali seems to need things to fall into place for him. Amazing the damage done behind. Guys like Kruijswjik, Zakarin, Kelderman etc. seemingly already out of the picture.

MPFGLB

Diary

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/nicolas-roche-its-a-great-feeling-to-win-my-third-grand-tour-stage-36051890.html

Daroxtar

Sky absolutely hammered everyone on the second last climb same as they do on the Tour but that's the 6-8% climbs they love. I still think that once the 10% stuff hits then Sky suffer. Froome completely blew up on Peyragudes and I think he's doing his best to nick seconds here and there to make sure he's got a lead going into the Muritos. There's also the risk of Tour fatigue in the third week against a fresher Chavez and Nibali.
Bertie is completely finished. However, I still expect him to go on some crazy attacks if at all possible and if he loses more time he might get let off the leash for a stage win but it's not lookin like he has the legs to do that

Somedude9

The first mountain stage often catches some guys out, this was exacerbated by it coming earlier then usual. Sky really know how to hit these stages hard, often to devastating effect. Shocking to see so many big names caught out, some even on the penultimate climb.

Yeah looks like Sky's plan is to make hay while the sun shines.

pelevin

Saw little of this today so impressions could be a bit sketchy. The end result has to be fantastic obviously for Nibali particularly given he was looking in trouble at times. I'm guessing here it more likely the guys with the recent Tour in their legs would at this stage still have the expected advantage over the guys trying to build from the Giro, & so it especially positive for a rider like Nibali to have even gained a stage win & a few seconds here over Froome, particularly with Sky obviously having gone so hard in trying to make gains today.

Maybe that notion is right & Nibali will strengthen comparative to the rest as the race continues but I'd not be going over the top regarding conclusions as Froome obviously was very strong today & it'd hardly be surprising if he ends up proving on a different level to the rest. Maybe Chaves is on the up though again it's not much more than guesswork at this stage. Still barring accidents already I'd struggle to see any realistic winner outside of Froome & Nibali, though with Chaves then as very much an unknown given his season so far & a bit of a surprise given his anonymous Tour. But then maybe he switched season's focus to the Vuelta & didn't go too deep in the TdF given the way his season & condition were going.

Edit: To add I saw a no commentary bit of the coverage after twas over on ES, & I was wondering why Froome was attacking 12 kms from the end, it turning out to be bonus seconds. Total mickey mouse stuff that there's be bonus seconds on the flat at such a point just before the real action. Just watching ES now & it brought it back to mind. Total joke imo. What the hell has that got to do with proper racing in a grand tour?! Just belittles the stature of their own race with such stupid gimmicks. Winning a stage in a grand tour is deserving of a bonus. Being ahead 12 kms from the end is not. Farcical.

Oh & to add, great to see Nico Roche putting in a strong ride. Afraid we all know he's not a great finisher in terms of knowing how to or being cool enough to win but that's the way it is & we could also point at Froome's big effort to win at the end being a hopelessly ill-judged burst a km from the finish to try distance everyone. If that was Nico . . . Anyway hopefully this Nico's biggest performance since the Vuelta with Tinkoff's team a few years back.

Diarmuid

Anyone care to explain the BMC tactic in the final km? Two riders from the same team, (the only team with that advantage in the final), one with a semi decent gallop in a group of climbers, and they end up 7th and 8th out of 9? Really?

JK.BMC

Diarmuid wrote: »

Anyone care to explain the BMC tactic in the final km? Two riders from the same team, (the only team with that advantage in the final), one with a semi decent gallop in a group of climbers, and they end up 7th and 8th out of 9? Really?

My point exactly... sometimes it just doesn't work out but that finale was disappointing from BMC

Eurosport only seem to have Laura and Juan and only on the ground there?

Have to say I miss Jonathan Edwards at the start and end more so for a little build up at the start. Vuelta always feels like the bridesmaid of the grand tours in terms of the coverage.

Was going to ask why no Brian Smith but his twitter and isntagram show him on holiday , work a look actually as he was stuck on his spin by a tree across the road

neris

they have ashley house there aswell but they dont seem to be a pre & post race analysis show

MPFGLB

Diarmuid wrote: »

Anyone care to explain the BMC tactic in the final km? Two riders from the same team, (the only team with that advantage in the final), one with a semi decent gallop in a group of climbers, and they end up 7th and 8th out of 9? Really?

Can you not guess from my post earlier about Nico in the wind alone yesterday


One rider would need to sacrifice and that seemed to be the one with the gallop

Anyway BMC seem to be a commune (with favourites) rather than a SKY model

D9Male

Somedude9 wrote: »

Jaysus Bertie, what the hell?

Great to see Nico in the mix. Let's have some organised support BMC, at least no more cheap bonus seconds for Froome ffs!

It looked to me than Roche will be working for TJ

Somedude9

Grand tour fatigue, even more so after this years extended le tour coverage.

Somedude9

D9Male wrote: »

It looked to me than Roche will be working for TJ

Looks more a case of every man for himself to me

dastardly00

What I think we should all be asking is... when are poll results going to be shown... they are still hidden :pac: :pac:




(I didn't vote for Nibbles in case you think I just want to gloat!)

dastardly00

dastardly00 wrote: »

What I think we should all be asking is... when are poll results going to be shown... they are still hidden :pac: :pac:




(I didn't vote for Nibbles in case you think I just want to gloat!)

Neris had one job today /shakes head

Keeks

Somedude9 wrote: »

Looks more a case of every man for himself to me

Stage 5 will decide which one Will be workng for the other.....