2012 Vuelta a España: Stage 3: Faustino V → Eibar (Arrate) (155,3km)

[DominicDecoco]

It was a good finale, but I don't get all the enthusiasm. This is a celebration of YouTube cycling, and it's going to be the same for 3 weeks. It's a disgrace.

We got as much spectacle as we could get from this course, but don't go praising the Vuelta or things will get even worse in the future.

You are going to lose it completely when they reach stage 12 then. Now that's a ridiculous stage profile if there ever was one.

 

[LaFlorecita]

was it a good finale?i'd say yes,mainly because alberto is back and he pleases the fans.definitely not the most insane finale of the year though,far from that.
but it was great.

about alberto,he seems a little bit far from his best,those sudden accelerations a la peyresourde 2007 are insanely good to watch but just like then,he can't keep the watts going and going.on arrate in 2009,he had the resources to go for longer and stronger.his time for the climb wasn't beaten


i think alberto must be stronger than this if he wants to win this vuelta.definitely he will try a lot.froomy remains my favourite though.it's like he's remote-controlled,whenever you think he's cracked,he claws back in.

let's see what awaits us for tomorrow...

I agree Froome is the favourite now.

Tomorrow's climb is almost flat for the last 3 km (again) so there won't be any significant time gaps there either.

 

[airstream]

He gave Anton Zoncolan for christ sakes what more do you want.

loooool.


I agree toussuire was better. One preffers aesthetic attacks, others - gaps. I'm all for the gaps. and as for aestheticism they are zero compared to Andy. Naturally.

 

[Lexman]

Van der Broeck, de Gendt GC ambitions over. Froome was very good but I don't see him improving his current level, Contador seems short of form but at stage 3 with everybody not weary and only 3 riders stay with him it's not a bad omen.


For me the key is if Alberto regains his form in time, depending of that it will be Froome or Contador.

VDB and De Gendt claimed they went in the first place for stage win and would see from day to day what the GC might eventually bring...

 

[roundabout]

So Machado crashed according to his team.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

So Machado crashed according to his team.

That's a REALLY large crash then, with 49 riders involved!

 

[Carols]

animal has already been warned via pm that he would get banned if he kept posting like that. I just forgot to deleted his posts after i sent the pm

thank you!

 

[roundabout]

That's a REALLY large crash then, with 49 riders involved!

Don't know about the rest. More like the results people being sloppy to update with the final 50 finishers.

It is one of the idiosyncrasies of this race.

 

[The Hitch]

Well for a start he got banned for cheating, that's behind him now but still...his 2009 TDF was too good to be true, like LA's 1999 TDF, that makes people not like you...then the chaingate, etc...

Honestly I was not very impressed today, he seems to be racing like he did in the 2011 TDF, big attacks he can't sustain. He's going to lose a lot of time to Froome on the ITT.

So now we need some VAM to compare to PDBF.

I addressed the question specifically at another poster because that poster is pretty pro doping. It was not a general put up your hand of you don't like contador. As for chaingate, yawn might as well include him attacking in a race against lances orders and him riding a descent which Andy wanted neutralized.

 

[Arnout]

I addressed the question specifically at another poster because that poster is pretty pro doping. It was not a general put up your hand of you don't like contador. As for chaingate, yawn might as well include him attacking in a race against lances orders and him riding a descent which Andy wanted neutralized.

He shouldn't have apologized for that.

 

[airstream]

It was exactly like a Peyresourde saga. Ultra light gear kinda 39 21 at 6-7% and rabid frequency of pedaling! Only the result was different. Oh, unfortunately, we can not measure wattages of accelerations. that would be really interesting to recognize.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Don't know about the rest. More like the results people being sloppy to update with the final 50 finishers.

It is one of the idiosyncrasies of this race.

Yeah, that's more likely...Orica-GreenEDGE's facebook page has the D.S. talking about the stage, and says nothing about a mythical crash that took out seven of his nine riders...so presumably, it's just, well, mythical.

 

[The Hitch]

I say that's bs. Contador will say it's bull**** as well.
Anton was better that day.

I'm a bit done with the Contador was just fooling around during the 2011 Giro. Ofcourse if he really tried he would've won with 30 minutes.....

I disagree but another thread another time. On the subject who was the rider in what ls always mentions as greatest stage ever went.on.solo break in 50 c.for 200km then m.from the finish jallabert had the chance to past.him but eased off.

 

[Miburo]

I agree Froome is the favourite now.

You really have no faith in Contador?

Froome rode the tour btw, at some point he's going to feel it.

Contador will only get better and this climb wasn't suited for hugh gaps, and he showed he wants to attack so he must be feeling good.

In tour 2011 in luz-ardiden and plateau de beille he didn't even try to attack, prob couldn't attack. Now he did.

 

[The Hitch]

That's maybe what's annoying me most of all: the man-love (and, granted, woman-love ) for him has no bounds. If he wins by 2 minutes, he would've won by 6 if he would've cared, even though in the same post an argument is made that he at least always cares. And if he didn't win, he didn't care but could've cared in which case he would've won.

It's disrespectful to other riders.

Isn't the reason why I'm neutral to him though, I can filter this out.

Kind of like all those big mig fanboys claiming indurain could have won more stages or indurain could have won worlds. Totally without basis

 

[Carols]

Yeah, he gave the stages to Tiralongo and Kiryienka for sure, that's true. But that was also obvious and different.

You remind me why I didn't warm to him. He tries to be too nice and likable, too much caring about public opinion,

This is the one thing I don't care for about him...his need to be liked. Just ride their legs off and stop the nice guy routine! But I think it is who he is; a nice guy!

 

[No_Balls]

This year's Giro was an aberration, an anomaly. The worst GT I've ever seen. Sure, 7 km of racing are better than 2, like we got at the Giro, but it's still not much.

Nothing would have felt complete if not a little whining from Hrota. Ysterday about motorbikes. Todays issues? Not yet completed races. Heres what we do: take the first 7 km of racing action up a hill and compare those with the rest of Giro d´italias already finished stages and assume these are going to look like the rest of this Vuelta. Insane.

By celebrating this YouTube cycling, the chances of having true epic racing decrease

It sure does if one predicts everything will by default look like Giro d´italia 2012. By celebrating this Vueltas first 7 kilometers of action (the very first when going uphill btw) it sends a clear message that we, the fans, likes attacking-style of racing in the mountains. Everything cool with that?

 

[The Hitch]

You really have no faith in Contador?

Froome rode the tour btw, at some point he's going to feel it.

Contador will only get better and this climb wasn't suited for hugh gaps, and he showed he wants to attack so he must be feeling good.

In tour 2011 in luz-ardiden and plateau de beille he didn't even try to attack, prob couldn't attack. Now he did.

Flo is just using the classic defense.mechanism. Like when rabo fans post that apatuma is going to.win the stage when gesink passes him at twice the speed with 10m to go.

 

[LaFlorecita]

You really have no faith in Contador?

Froome rode the tour btw, at some point he's going to feel it.

Contador will only get better and this climb wasn't suited for hugh gaps, and he showed he wants to attack so he must be feeling good.

In tour 2011 in luz-ardiden and plateau de beille he didn't even try to attack, prob couldn't attack. Now he did.

No I don't have faith in him when I see he's not good. Though in a way this reminds me of last year's Giro, this stage being stage 7 there where Alberto almost lost time and yesterday's stage being stage 8 where he attacked for bonus seconds. Maybe stage 7 here will be like stage 9 last year..?

 

[airstream]

Are any comments from Froome, maybe Cobo, guys?

 

[The Hitch]

well then today there were 30 seconds of attacks split over 10 minutes, if you like it this way.

And all those things that could have happened today... they didn't happen. That's all.

The.point is the intrigue. Like how a book where you don't know the ending is more entertaining than 1 you do. When clearly weaker riders down on gc attack with no chance its not as exciting as if there is a chance. Might as well say the botd makes races suprrexciting as those guys are attacking 200k out, (or for.this vuelta 120k out)

 

[LaFlorecita]

"On the steepest part of the climb, first Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank's Jesus Hernandez put down the hammer and parked numerous riders on the ascent and then teammate, Daniel Navarro took over the pace-making. And when team leader, Alberto Contador tested his legs, only Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Chris Froome (Sky) were able to hang on"

http://teamsaxobanktinkoffbank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=3744&lang=uk

Told ya'll it was Jesus, I recognize my Spanish boys immediately

Though I can understand most people can't believe Jesus can ride that well

 

[step23]

AC aka the Boss (Bruce Lee)

and that's just the third stage ))

 

[LaFlorecita]

Flo is just using the classic defense.mechanism. Like when rabo fans post that apatuma is going to.win the stage when gesink passes him at twice the speed with 10m to go.

Lol maybe...

 

[Eshnar]

By celebrating this Vueltas first 7 kilometers of action (the very first when going uphill btw) it sends a clear message that we, the fans, likes attacking-style of racing in the mountains. Everything cool with that?

Problem is that Unipublic seem to be convinced that this kind of routes are the best. By praising this stage you're not telling them you simply like attacks, you're telling them exactly what they want to hear.