La Vuelta Espana stage 15- ALCALÁ LA REAL - SIERRA NEVADA 129.4 kilometres

Inquitus

RobFowl wrote: »

Sky are brutal, in every sense of the word.

I see Poels is also in the top 10 just despite his domestic duties!

not sane

The way I feel the sport of pro cycling just died today. Well Grand Tours anyway.

All My Stars Aligned

Lopez had me thinking back to the early 90's looking at him fly up those climes today. The speed at which he sought Yates was ridicules even given that Yates was cracking. And this after his performance yesterday. I'd love to see this time compared to previous years for that mountain.

MPFGLB

Lopez has been out some time after a crash ...so he is very fresh....but still a big talent

Poles is a great climber but next week he could lose a bucket load of time ....not very consistent


I think today stage was too hard and thus made most attacks ineffective

TheBlaaMan

All My Stars Aligned wrote: »

Lopez had me thinking back to the early 90's looking at him fly up those climes today. The speed at which he sought Yates was ridicules even given that Yates was cracking. And this after his performance yesterday. I'd love to see this time compared to previous years for that mountain.

Follow Ammattipyoraily of Mihai Cazacu on Twitter if you want daily climb times compared to previous years etc

https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily
https://twitter.com/faustocoppi60

REBELSAFC

Did Roche just lose time to go stage hunting later or was he just fecked today

dastardly00

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Did Roche just lose time to go stage hunting later or was he just fecked today

The smart option would have been to take it 'easy' today.
Then along with taking it easy on the TT on Tuesday, he should have something in the legs to go stage hunting Wednesday through Friday. 3 chances. Saturday is the Angliru stage so I'd rule that out.

D9Male

You can rule out Los Machuchos, too.

Inquitus

D9Male wrote: »

You can rule out Los Machuchos, too.

Aye without any doubt, unless he's in the break and it's weak on climbers.

dastardly00

I am presuming he will be in the breakaways

D9Male

It would be a peculiar breakaway composition that allowed Roche a chance on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday suit him more, but I fear he is dog tired. Lots of riders have been sand bagging the past fortnight while Roche has been fighting for GC.

MPFGLB

Nico didnt feel well today ...was feeing ill on 1st climb but rallied later

And Los Machuchos does suit him .... its 7 Km long

But Bardet , Majka, both Yates in break maybe better to wait for stages 18 and 19

buffalo

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Did Roche just lose time to go stage hunting later or was he just fecked today

He was fecked: http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/ill-have-to-change-my-goal-in-this-vuelta-to-a-stage-win-36096721.html

MPFGLB

I wonder why Roche has these days on long climbs where he loses the wheel of sprinters early on the stage and then rallies and rides well to the line


Happened before...can you just be ill for part of a stage ?

Can you feel so bad and then recover
Navarro is a good climber who couldnt get round him so his pace at the end must have been good...strange

Daroxtar

There's a section of Muchacos fir about 500m that's too narrow and too steep for anyone to pass. If the other teams work together they could block the road and launch someone off the front or isolate Froome from his team. Not very fair but not outside the rules.

Malari

Daroxtar wrote: »

There's a section of Muchacos fir about 500m that's too narrow and too steep for anyone to pass. If the other teams work together they could block the road and launch someone off the front or isolate Froome from his team. Not very fair but not outside the rules.

Each day while watching we come up with wilder ways that Froome and the Skybots could be vanquished.

It's really got so boring, with Contador (and His Nibs, occasionally) almost the only one willing to take the risk of attacking at all. Did anyone see the Orica Backstage Pass, where Chaves was joking-not-joking about Neil Stephens giving out to him for attacking and potentially losing his GC place? It's just a procession. They'd all rather hold on to their top 10 GC position than attempt to move up or get a stage win, and be bowled over by Sky and their spinning spider team leader who seems to have almost no visible tells. It's very negative.

neris

Any one know what nikki terpstra said or tweeted about the Colombian team that seems to have offended

TheBlaaMan

Dunno

Michael Rasmussen was tweeting about it but I didn't quite get the reference.......Terpstra posted an image on Instagram. Did one of the Columbian team have a security issue on a transfer flight? He seems to be suggesting something about a bomb...

https://twitter.com/MRasmussen1974/status/904572501220614144

Macy0161

All My Stars Aligned wrote: »

The speed at which he sought Yates was ridicules even given that Yates was cracking.

Yates also said he slowed up once he knew he was coming to try and go again when he came up, so relative speeds at the catch probably not a fair judge. Haven't looked at the times, but they were saying it was tailwind, at least when Nibali went.

Malari

Well it seems to imply that the Colombians are the reason for the additional security checks.

Lusk_Doyle

Malari wrote: »

Well it seems to imply that the Colombians are the reason for the additional security checks.

They were bringing over the last of the FARC weapons that the UN left behind.

irishrover99

Macy0161 wrote: »

Yates also said he slowed up once he knew he was coming to try and go again when he came up, so relative speeds at the catch probably not a fair judge. Haven't looked at the times, but they were saying it was tailwind, at least when Nibali went.

Something looks dodgy about yesterday's stage. They were hitting up to 40km on that climb in places and not on the downhill parts.

I see a lot of the cycling magazine today have had comments on it concerning Lopez breathing at the end, been hardly out of breath.

Macy0161

irishrover99 wrote: »

Something looks dodgy about yesterday's stage. They were hitting up to 40km on that climb in places and not on the downhill parts.

I'm as cynical as anyone, and wouldn't be surprised at any/ all of the top 10, but other things can effect speed. It wasn't steep (relatively), good road surface, tailwind, fresh rider...

neris

Macy0161 wrote: »

I'm as cynical as anyone, and wouldn't be surprised at any/ all of the top 10, but other things can effect speed. It wasn't steep (relatively), good road surface, tailwind, fresh rider...

one of the podcasts was saying that lopez time up the last climb was 4 minutes slower then chris horners a few years back

MPFGLB

neris wrote: »

one of the podcasts was saying that lopez time up the last climb was 4 minutes slower then chris horners a few years back

Not the last climb ...but rather Hallendas (sic?) ...which was the first of the 3 climbs on stage 15, 2017

The peloton rode it slowly in anticipation of what was to come, while it was the end of the stage for Horner & co ..so not a true comparison

neris

MPFGLB wrote: »

Not the last climb ...but rather Hallendas (sic?) ...which was the first of the 3 climbs on stage 15, 2017

The peloton rode it slowly in anticipation of what was to come, while it was the end of the stage for Horner & co ..so not a true comparison

Fair enough should listen properly in future