Recent content by Helvellyn

As someone who also lives in Thailand, I feel you must be aware of the dual pricing that goes on here in general - the classic example being national parks charging foreigners 10x the amount Thais pay. It is annoying, but if the cost is insignificant, is it really worth having a big battle over?

Badzilla vs Mechabadzilla Nominate: Roberto Heras

This is what happens when you don't have a team. Katusha softened up Contador with attack after attack and then Froome dealt the killer blow, just at the right moment when Contador was recovering from an effort. Some of those attacks were not that strong, but Contador was having to cover them...

I'm not buying the propaganda ;) Here's my prediction for today along similar lines: 1) Sun will rise in the east. 2) Betancur will be dropped. 3) Stage will not be won by Contador. 4) Degenkolb will either do well, average or badly. 5) I will have a morning coffee.

I did get the distinct impression in 2013 that Froome was doing whatever he could to prevent Contador picking up any morale-boosting scraps such as stage wins. I think there's a bit of a psychological battle going on between them and I'm not sure that gifting stage wins fits into that.

Has he said he definitely won't do the Giro next year? Personally I'd like to see him try to trackle the Giro and the Tour.

Can't agree with either of these examples of "jack of many trades, but master of none". Valverde is a master of hilly classics finishing in uphill sprints. It's been many years since I paid attention to F1, but I seem to remember Prost won 4 world championships which makes him one of the...

The right tactic for Contador would seem to be to stop worrying about putting more time into Froome and to basically follow Purito and Valverde (and Froome if he attacks of course). Allow a slow pace up the climbs, which may allow the break to stay away and/or for the likes of Dan Martin or Aru...

I just tuned into Eurosport and the very first words I heard were "if less was happening, then nothing would be happening at all" :)

Is there anything on-topic left to discuss in this thread, other than whether Nacer wins by 1 bike length or 2?

I can't imagine those riders who are detached from their collarbones will be riding anywhere ;)

Contador and Valverde to duke out the sprint at 40k?

Didn't Navarro use to be a team mate of his? At one point I thought he wasn't attacking because he was giving Navarro a chance for the stage win - but in the end it just seemed like he wasn't on a great day.

Contador looked weak today - hopefully just post-TT legs. Aside from bonus seconds, I also wouldn't be surprised if Valverde claws back a few seconds in the final prologue style TT. Alberto will need to drop him at some point.

Nah, the Vuelta is definitely better than the Tour of California :P