Vuelta stage 9 174km orohuela - cumbre de sol

retalivity

No fancy preview here...few hours of flat and a nice uphill finish.

Conor dunne is in the breakaway, 3mins ahead, 130km to go

MPFGLB

I bet the peloton are glad tomorrow is a rest day....unbelievably hard race so far

Cannondale up front driving the chase. Hopefully they get sorted with a sponsor.

CrowdedHouse

Must have been a stone in his sock....:D

https://twitter.com/lavuelta/status/901803109969735681

MPFGLB

Cannondale putting themselves in the shop window

neris

https://twitter.com/Ride_Argyle/status/901800232702418945

neris

Are cannondale going to be the I AM of 2017? Do feck all till p45s are threatened n then go win a load of races

MPFGLB

neris wrote: »

Are cannondale going to be the I AM of 2017? Do feck all till p45s are threatened n then go win a load of races

em...they were 2nd in the Tour

MPFGLB

what does "Riders are trying to smooth out the incline " ...Kirby says this with authority ...havent a clue what he is on about

rtmie

Be interesting to see how crowd funding goes. Yesterday they were talking about a 7 million defecit.

Be a good measure of popularity of the sport.

neris

C'mon bertie

Inquitus

Roche beat TJVG, good finish by him, not too far off the best 2 or 3.

neris

That was some accleration from Froome you drop contador

Inquitus

Stage



GC

neris

Carlton probably of changing his undies now Froome has won n he's gotten himself all excited

MPFGLB

Fantastic ride by Roche ...fought and fought

Very smart ride too ....waited for when the road suited him
Finished before Nibali, Aru, Van Garderen . both Yates

Decuc500

Balls to that anyway. Was really hoping for Woods there. Froome has a stranglehold on this race.

WinnyThePoo

I haven't been able to follow the veulta this year as I'd like. Seeing Roche riding well is so great to see. He does love this tour.

Inquitus

It seems fair the speculation that Froome decided to come into the Tour undercooked to be in much better Vuelta form than in previous editions is all but confirmed. This years rather poor TDF Parcours allowed him to execute on that tactic and win the TDF without particularly dominating at any stage, indeed highlighted by the fact he failed to win a stage throughout.

He looks leaner this Vuelta then he did at the tour, and he looks simply a different class, when the road goes up, to all the rest bar Chaves, who's season has also followed a strange path due to injury. Sadly Chaves inability to TT at Grand Tour level means the 40km flat specialist TT is going to cost him minutes that he will have to find elsewhere.

Contador's form is not bad at all but his jour sans with a stomach bug has cost him any real chance of a podium here.

Nibali needs to undergo some sort of miracle Giroesque change in fortunes to feature it would seem as he goes backwards, even if its not that far backwards, everytime the road goes up.

Aru is in a similar boat to Nibali.

Roche and TJVG both seem to be going very well and outperforming most of the GC rivals on a daily basis, so who knows whats possible there, top 3, top 5?

velo.2010

Like I said during the Tour, if you pinned down Froome he would admit the 2017 Tour was the least physically punishing he has done. That, along with his lighter spring campaign, means he is at the Vuelta in the strongest shape possible.

It could still all go wrong but he's on course to double up. I could see him winning by several minutes.

neris

Inquitus wrote: »

.
Roche and TJVG both seem to be going very well and outperforming most of the GC rivals on a daily basis, so who knows whats possible there, top 3, top 5?

I'd be happy to see nico take 3rd in Madrid. Stage win would be nice but 3rd behind Froome and Chavez be a great result for him just needs to put time into a few behind him though to give himself some security especially with angliru coming up

MPFGLB

neris wrote: »

I'd be happy to see nico take 3rd in Madrid. Stage win would be nice but 3rd behind Froome and Chavez be a great result for him just needs to put time into a few behind him though to give himself some security especially with angliru coming up

The TT is his best bet to put ime into alot of riders.... but Angrilu is really so hard for his size ...but stranger things have happened

dastardly00

I didn't get to see any of yesterday or today's coverage. Seems like very good performances from Nico, well done to him. Going great so far.

neris

For a bit of vuelta humour

https://twitter.com/ImlachHair/status/901905443529920513