2011 Vuelta a Espana, Stage 16: Villa Romana La Olmeda (Palencia) - Haro, 180km

[Tank Engine]

Although it's flat, I'll go for Sagan. Hopefully, there will be some crosswinds to liven up the stage.

 

[sultanofhyd]

Haussler want a flat sprint... here it is

Froome does not approve.

 

[jsem94]

Crosswinds would be fun. May be the only chance to snatch the red jersey from Cobo.

 

[Zoncolan]

1. Degenkolb
2. Petacchi
3. Sagan

 

[ParfaitAmour]

yes, this is his new bike:

Matches his socks

 

[roundabout]

wonder how many people will leave the race

 

[dlwssonic]

a guy like Ligthart is already faster, and he;s not top 5 material

Most likely GVA will get caught out and will finish uneventfully somewhere in the top 20

 

[Kopuliak]

1. Degenkolb
2. Petacchi
3. Sagan

1.Sagan
2.?Degenkolb
3.?Bennati

I doubt anyone of remaining sprinters has a really good chances beat Sagan.More so, I guess he has still a lot of energy in batteries after watching yesterday's stage...

 

[Anonymous]

Bennati to win just to suprise us.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

would be great to see degenkolb get one!

 

[Mellow Velo]

The mighty Angliru, followed by a rest day, followed by this turd of a stage.
Might as well talk a lot about Greg van Avermaet's extremely slim chances of finishing 3rd.
If nothing else, it will boost the stage post count.

Talking of turds, I see Eurosport are taking 2 hours of "live" Paris-Bruxelles.
I use the term, "live" in it's loosest sense.

 

[Tuarts]

Bennati
Sagan
Petacchi
Haedo
Boonen
Haussler
Sutton
Howard
Degenkolb
Van Avermaet
Mondory
Paolini
Ligthart
Veelers
Gavazzi
Reynes
Vigano
Gasparotto

Ligthart is a sprinter? Gavazzi?

 

[Tuarts]

He has a chance but BMC will fail.

He's not going to get a better chance, nearly all his competitors have "vamos"

 

[roundabout]

Ligthart is a sprinter? Gavazzi?

Yes. And yes. A convenient pileup needs to happen for them to have any chance though.

 

[icefire]

Wiggins to gain 12 seconds in the intermediate sprints.

No way. Tomorrow is Adrián Palomares breakaway day

 

[Tuarts]

Ah, that makes Ligthart's work yesterday quite impressive. I suppose they are more lead out men then designated sprinters, as you suggest. Be interesting how Veelers does stepping out of Kittel's shadow.

 

[ingsve]

I wonder how many teams would actually be interested in a sprint. Many sprint teams have lost their main sprinter so they might be content with letting a 15 man break fight it out for the win. I expect we'll see that quite a lot in the final week and if it will succeed depends on how many teams will bother working. HTC might not be able to stop themselves though since they seem programmed to sprint and don't really know anything else.

 

[The Hitch]

Madone, last week of gts already for the season.

Where did it all go.

 

[greenedge]

I think Howard should be HTC's man. He is better for the actual uncomplicated bunch sprints, whilst having a nice sense of positioning.

 

[Kwibus]

From Cyclingnews preview:

David López says...
"I know this area pretty well and the one thing that will make it really tough is the wind. It’s flat but there will be tension in the bunch if the wind does get up. It might not affect the overall standings but no one should think this will be an easy day."

Sounds like an opportunity for a train to make some splits and surprise people on the flats. Would like to see HTC, Sky, Leopard Trek and Liquigas cooperate to create a split where Wiggins, Froome, Fuglslgangalang and Monfort could gain a handful of seconds and allow Sagan and Degenkolb to fight out the stage victory.

Let's hope for heaps of wind. A big chance for Sky and Rabo to get their man back into the lead. The chance that Geox are good at it are very small. I have no idea what the weather is though. In NL there will be storm so I doubt there will be 1 in Spain.

 

[Kwibus]

Ah, that makes Ligthart's work yesterday quite impressive. I suppose they are more lead out men then designated sprinters, as you suggest. Be interesting how Veelers does stepping out of Kittel's shadow.

Tbh Ligthart is a rider with a good sprint. Not really a sprinter....someone that contends a bunchsprint. He's someone that survives climbs pretty well so mostly a contender in the not all too hard hilly stages where a group of 40 riders sprint for the win. Too bad Sagan will also be there in those stages

He won the dutch championship winning the sprint of a group of 7 riders and he won the Hel van het Mergelland when a group of 26 riders sprinted for the finish on a slightly uphill sprint. He beat riders like Samuel Dumoulin and Visconti there so that's not too bad.

Imo he doesn't really belong the previous mentioned shortlist of sprinters that are left.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Wind?

http://www.accuweather.com/en-us/es/castile-and-leon/palencia/quick-look.aspx?cityid=303119

says Winds ENE 6 km/h

could that be considered as a cross wind becoming a head wind,
at all?

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Tbh Ligthart is a rider with a good sprint. Not really a sprinter....someone that contends a bunchsprint. He's someone that survives climbs pretty well so mostly a contender in the not all too hard hilly stages where a group of 40 riders sprint for the win. Too bad Sagan will also be there in those stages

He won the dutch championship winning the sprint of a group of 7 riders and he won the Hel van het Mergelland when a group of 26 riders sprinted for the finish on a slightly uphill sprint. He beat riders like Samuel Dumoulin and Visconti there so that's not too bad.

Imo he doesn't really belong the previous mentioned shortlist of sprinters that are left.

yeah, I wouldn't label him a genuine sprinter.

He can be quick, but pretty much what you said.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

http://www.accuweather.com/en-us/es/castile-and-leon/palencia/quick-look.aspx?cityid=303119

says Winds ENE 6 km/h

could that be considered as a cross wind becoming a head wind,
at all?

Doesn't look like there will be much wind, no. From the Vuelta homepage

Don't know when it was updated last, though.

 

[Moondance]

Break seems likely, Geox have no real sprinter, and will want to save strength to control hard tomorrow.

If it comes down to a sprint I'll go random and say JJ Haedo.