2011 Vuelta a Espana Stage 14:Astorga → La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo, 173km

[Scirea]

Menchov's only job should be helping Cobo anyway he can.

 

[Anonymous]

i was disappointed with nibbles today i admit but one thing is true. he always has 1 bad day in the mountains so maybe today was this days and tomorrow he pulls a performance like he did on the zoncolan. i wouldn't rule him out just yet even tho he kind of ruined his chances today.

+++
still hoping he would come good, today's dissapointment aside.

 

[Papparrazzi]

I hope there's no repeat of 1986 when Robert Millar was robbed of the Vuelta on the penultimate Stage by a Spanish conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NZg6Vx2kQ

 

[Anonymous]

closing stages (final 7km) of the final climb for those that missed it
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkuyqv_vae-stage-14_sport

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I hope there's no repeat of 1986 when Robert Millar was robbed of the Vuelta on the penultimate Stage by a Spanish conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NZg6Vx2kQ

Who are they going to rob it for, Cobo? On a stage with 50 flat km to the finish? The Spaniards really aren't especially competitive here, and the parcours in the last couple of days isn't conducive to GC changes. In the race radio era, when everyone knows where everyone is, the only way that that happens is if Wiggins and his team - and everybody else for that matter - is a complete blithering idiot, whereupon they'd deserve to lose the race anyway.

 

[Swede1]

Haha! I knew Cobo and Menchov would be good today! Menchov looked to be feeling good staying with Wiggins, he just didnt want to attack and then have mollema/wiggins use his attack to bridge up to Cobo. Tomorrow is Menchov's day to shine! Without the stupid mechanical on stage 3 he would be 53 seconds off the lead. I'd like to see Wiggins take this, but I want to see Menchov/Cobo put in some awesome attacks and make an exciting finale to the race!

 

[spalco]

I hope there's no repeat of 1986 when Robert Millar was robbed of the Vuelta on the penultimate Stage by a Spanish conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NZg6Vx2kQ

Do you know what documentary this clip is from? I'd like to the see the full thing.

 

[Benotti69]

I hope there's no repeat of 1986 when Robert Millar was robbed of the Vuelta on the penultimate Stage by a Spanish conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NZg6Vx2kQ

It is quite possible and Sky had better start making alliances with Garmin and HTC before the end of this race.

 

[meandmygitane]

Well... I suspected Nibali would attack on the descent before Angliru, now it's almost forced if he still wanna try to win the Vuelta. Could really animate the race!

Kessiakoff tried to attack on the descent yesterday, Liquigas-Astana alliance tomorrow?

Wiggins weakness is, so far, his descending skills. If Froome stays with his captain it could be a profitable venture.

 

[Winterfold]

Nibali losing ground today is pretty bad for Wiggins. .

Only in the bizarre world of CN forum illogic can it be bad to put a minute into your biggest rival on the GC

As for Cobo - he cant sustain a higher pace than Wiggins - the time he gains will be limited to the initial burst and depend on if he can then hold off Wiggins and Froome. He wont ride away from them at a faster sustained pace - they are clearly the strongest riders in the race and are not playing silly acceleration games with the grimpeurs, which deprives them off their only tactic against a stronger rival.

If he can get 30s tomorrow, and the win bonus, then it will be tight.

Mollema is just hanging on, but I dont think anyone really expected this from him this Vuelta - very impressive.

 

[hatcher]

Only in the bizarre world of CN forum illogic can it be bad to put a minute into your biggest rival on the GC

I was screaming at Wiggins to drop back with Nibali, but instead he kept going uphill faster than him. Crazy tactics.

 

[Tuarts]

Well that was a good stage, even if I had to watch it delayed!

Feel sorry for DDLF but they chose team and the 20s Cobo got may be pivotal, despite the "fail" tactics, he's shown he's the best climber at the moment but climbing Angrilu is whole different matter. Still tipping JRod there.

Impressive ride by Wiggins and Froome. If the majority non-July fans ) here now were non-Euro/dutch mafia you'd be calling Bauke a wh***s***er not "on his limit".

Wiggins may have been ******ed but how stuffed must those who got dropped feel? It wasn't like JRod or Nibali were riding thinking "oh its only a minute" were they?

It definitely seems like a 3 man race at the moment, GC has certainly opened up compared to how bunched it was previous.

 

[jens_attacks]

the problem with purito is that if he's gonna be dropped tomorrow then he's gonna be shelled way before the hard part of angliru begins.and unfortunately i think that will be the case.sky will go hard to prevent other guys attacks

 

[spalco]

I think Sky will attempt to do exactly the same thing tommorow they did today.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Was just watching, in the first 2 flat stage Poels lost 1:49 in total (1:23 stage 3 and 26 seconds stage 2)

Kind of a shame if you look to his climbing results

 

[Andy99]

we'll see in the future.i can tell you that for now this is a vino-kash situation and i think that it will end in the same way regarding their relationship.
froome was angry that wiggins didn't shook his hand at the finish.wiggins was angry because froome didn't do his job till the least breath and then he should have gone at the back of the group but no,our friend,mr froome even let wiggins do the work for himself a few times.
of course i may be totally wrong.anyway incredible riding by sky.
so awesome to see cobo so back in the business,if he wins tomorrow he will win the vuelta.today he was absolutely flying.goddamn what a finale.

Yeah, I think you read the situation completely wrongly!!

Wiggins Twitter; 'Another tough day today in the #Vuelta, Great effort from Team Sky and fantastic work from the legend that is Chris Froome!'

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Do you know what documentary this clip is from? I'd like to the see the full thing.

It's called "The High Life"

 

[jens_attacks]

epic photo from today:

but what about july?

the new kids on the block are bionic machines _o_

 

[ingsve]

It turns out that Kessiakoff had gastroenteritis during the night and hardly slept anything so they knew beforehand that he would be struggling today. When the attacks came at the end he decided to take his own tempo rather than try to follow the accelerations. Given those circumstances he did incredibly well today. Hopefully he feels better tonight so that he can eat and prepare well for tomorrow.

 

[jsem94]

Woah. That is horrible, I hope he is on fire tomorrow though, like in Austria.

 

[LaFleur]

My only comments from the stage of today come from a quote of David Harmon: "It's Rein in Spain but Nibali down the drain today."


That is all.

 

[zapata]

Cyclists and their gastroenteritis.

 

[theyoungest]

Was just watching, in the first 2 flat stage Poels lost 1:49 in total (1:23 stage 3 and 26 seconds stage 2)

Kind of a shame if you look to his climbing results

He lost the most time in the time trial.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He lost the most time in the time trial.

I know, but still without the lost time in the flat stage he would have been 10th jsut behind JvdBroeck...

the time trial is calculated loss, thats part of the race... losing time on flat stages is stupid

 

[Scirea]

If Kessiakoff really has gastroenteritis then he won't get that much better in one day, especially since he didn't rest today i'd say.