Recent content by Devil's Elbow

The flattest road stage of the race, barring the final parade. However, it might actually be an exciting day, as the route is really exposed and (as per the predictions at the time of writing on Thursday evening) the wind direction becomes more favourable the closer to Zaragoza they get...

The first 11 riders finished within his current 2:33 margin on Angliru in both 2020 and 2023. I think the odds of him keeping red there are way higher than those of losing it on an earlier stage.

Soler has picked himself in his fantasy team again.

Ayuso very close to climbing faster than the peloton, doing 3/4 of the climb solo, having already done a 25k climb solo. Joke of a stage, again.

If anyone other than Almeida, Vingegaard and Ciccone is really peaking for that third week, those three might live to regret their current refusal to work together.

Træen doing really well, will easily hang on to that GC top 10 by Madrid if he keeps this up.

It is the worst GT route since the 2012 Tour. Going by the racing so far, it may well become the worst GT since the 2012 Tour as well.

Ayuso taking time on the peloton, Vingegaard must be feeling terrible.

Ayuso has turned into Vuelta 2023 Evenepoel.

Yes, God forbid a meaningful stage race is won due to tactics rather than strength for the first time in forever.

He was third in the pseudo-MTT at Gran Camiño earlier this year behind Gee and Piganzoli, also setting the third time split on the climbing part of the route. It'll take a special effort to hold on here but I wouldn't write him off completely.

Do you want to know something depressing? In terms of elevation gain, this stage is 16 metres away from being the queen stage, and it’s on a day with nothing close to a cat. ESP and a MTF that could see very limited gaps if it isn’t raced hard. Do you want to know something less depressing? Big...

You might want to check if your sarcasm detector is still working. ;) And going by some of the other replies, you're not the only one...

Feel like we're about two more stages like this away from the UAE fanboys on here negatively polarising me into actively rooting for Vingegaard and Ayuso.

Six stages in and we're still waiting for the first real attack...