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

[cineteq]

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 understand Alejandro made you eat your words, but you don't have to throw a tantrum. Please come back later when you feel calmer

 

[hrotha]

Giro had 3 epic mountain stages that came to nothing. Im all for great stgaes that last for hours, but this year has been a pretty boring year, even many classics were meh, like look at CS last week, so this kind of excitement gets met with positive reviews.

Also i kind of do prefer to see some action every day rather than dream on it for 2 weeks while sprinters and breaks conquer all, then finally get a stage that might turn out well, or might just have Scarponi attack 2k form the end.

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

This was the first MTF. Let's see what people think when we're on the 47th one, every day is the same and there's no terrain to try any tactics.

 

[sultanofhyd]

91 177 MACHADO, Tiago RNT + 55''
92 172 BAKELANTS, Jan RNT + 55''
93 171 MONFORT, Maxime RNT + 55''
94 175 GERDEMANN, Linus RNT + 55''
95 176 IRIZAR, Markel RNT + 55''

Can someone explain this?

You must be looking at the TTT results.

http://www.lavuelta.com/12/en/resultados/index.html?e=3

 

[LaFlorecita]

I can see where you are coming from.

His attacks were'nt sustained and were done in short little bursts which is understandable considering his absence for so long. I am sure we will see his sustained kick return in the future but whether will we see it in this Vuelta I am not so sure again. This race has maybe come too soon for that.

Yes this is my main concern I can't see him getting it back before the end this race.

 

[The Hitch]

La Toussuire stage was way better than this. And it wasn't "awesome".
You can't really compare six attacks (4 of which ended after like 5 seconds) and 15 minutes of entertainment versus Evans attacking (stupidly) at 60 to go, Van Den Broeck attacking on the last climb, Nibbles attacking twice, Froome accelerating and funnily stopping... 2 hours of entertainment. Sorry but there's no match. We're all pleased AC is back, but there's not a good reason to overreacting this way.

2 hours? More like 10 minutes split over 2 hours. I prefer the 10 minutes together so i know when i can do something else rather than stare at the screen half an hour between each attack

The gc was already made, and none of those attacks were ever going to make any difference.

Here it was the first climb of the race and everyone wanted to see who was on form. We saw on a number of occasions a small group get ahead of the leaders and any of those times the group could have made it, any of those times the riders behind could have cracked, any of those times Contador with Valverde could have flown away, maybe even Contador on his own, there was tension no one knew what would happen, and everyone wanted to know what would happen.

Evans attacking 60k out or VDB attacking ever, is never going to stick. Nice of Nibali to try something, he is a hero for cycling no doubt but Froome Wiggins always had it under control.

 

[Arnout]

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.....

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.

 

[theyoungest]

More than 6s damage:

Henao 47s (but a froome domestique...)
Kessiakoff 50s
Monfort 50s
Cobo 50s
Cunego 1m28
Menchov 1m52
De Gendt 2m07
Quintana +2m57
Van den Broeck +3m23s
Peterson +6m43

No Machado in after 9m

You're forgetting Greenedge's GC guy, the big climbing talent Cam Meyer, at nearly 4 minutes.

 

[Froome19]

Anton as expected just did not seem to have the acceleration required..

 

[Arnout]

You're forgetting Greenedge's GC guy, the big climbing talent Cam Meyer, at nearly 4 minutes.

Where did Daniel finish, that's way more interesting.

 

[The Hitch]

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

This was the first MTF. Let's see what people think when we're on the 47th one, every day is the same and there's no terrain to try any tactics.

Yes this giro was an abberation but it was this Giro which is why this year this stage is so great. 2 years ago it would have been nothing because of Mortirolo and grappa, last year no one would say its the best because of Gardeccia and Gailbier and next year if Nibali goes 3 mountains out on Marmolada descent, a 7k stage is not going to register much neither, but this year we had none of that so we rejoice on experiencing the GT emotions we have gone without for too long, too damn long.

 

[Kwibus]

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

It's ok. I could've just reported him as well instead of an easy comment in an comment packed thread.

 

[Arnout]

Anton as expected just did not seem to have the acceleration required..

Which he would've had, were he in his best form. But I'm guessing he's happy. He's turning into a Sastre after Tour victory, he's always happy and improving but never reaches the top of the curve. Worries me, but well, the Vuelta is still long and he should be fresh and still improving by the day.

 

[theyoungest]

Which he would've had, were he in his best form. But I'm guessing he's happy. He's turning into a Sastre after Tour victory, he's always happy and improving but never reaches the top of the curve. Worries me, but well, the Vuelta is still long and he should be fresh and still improving by the day.

Come on, maybe this is just his best form. He's had a perfect preparation, no?

 

[Eshnar]

Giro had 3 epic mountain stages that came to nothing. Im all for great stgaes that last for hours, but this year has been a pretty boring year, even many classics were meh, like look at CS last week, so this kind of excitement gets met with positive reviews.

Also i kind of do prefer to see some action every day rather than dream on it for 2 weeks while sprinters and breaks conquer all, then finally get a stage that might turn out well, or might just have Scarponi attack 2k form the end.

how kms to the top of the climb AC attacked today? 4? That's epic
So the Cortina stage this year was insane with Basso attacking at the bottom of Giau at 25 to go...
Really, I agree this has been an awful year for GT, but I just cannot see this kind of stages as beautiful.

 

[The Hitch]

Anton as expected just did not seem to have the acceleration required..

What an idiotic comment. Here is another video for your "cycling before i started watching" catchup list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPADmm7ZzKQ

 

[iZnoGouD]

Where are you Tiago Machado?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Arnout]

Come on, maybe this is just his best form. He's had a perfect preparation, no?

2010 tells you otherwise. Even 2008 does.

He had perfect prep, except for collar bone in Romandie if I'm not mistaken, but that shouldn't be an excuse.

Still, he looked to be the fifth strongest guy in the race, he can still improve and I don't expect Valverde and Froome to be consistently strong in the mountains.

 

[Kwibus]

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.

Well I do think Contador did hold back during the last mountain stage atleast. The one Kirienka won, but before that he just rode hard. Anton was just better on the Zoncolan.
I really like Contador because he's an aggresive rider that respects all the races he competes in. I'm also sure he respects his opponents. He sometimes gets a bit clumsy though. Like the pat on Andys cheek.. that was a bit humiliating and I'm sure that wasn't Contadors intention.

 

[hrotha]

Yes this giro was an abberation but it was this Giro which is why this year this stage is so great. 2 years ago it would have been nothing because of Mortirolo and grappa, last year no one would say its the best because of Gardeccia and Gailbier and next year if Nibali goes 3 mountains out on Marmolada descent, a 7k stage is not going to register much neither, but this year we had none of that so we rejoice on experiencing the GT emotions we have gone without for too long, too damn long.

I get what you're saying, but the Vuelta has been going down this stupid route for many years now. That's why I can't treat it in isolation from previous years and compare it only to what we saw in other GTs in 2012.

 

[sultanofhyd]

Where are you Tiago Machado?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Looks like we are the only ones interested in the Machado mystery.

 

[Eshnar]

2 hours? More like 10 minutes split over 2 hours. I prefer the 10 minutes together so i know when i can do something else rather than stare at the screen half an hour between each attack

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.

 

[Kwibus]

Which he would've had, were he in his best form. But I'm guessing he's happy. He's turning into a Sastre after Tour victory, he's always happy and improving but never reaches the top of the curve. Worries me, but well, the Vuelta is still long and he should be fresh and still improving by the day.

Anton never really was the punchy climber. Well atleast as far as I remember.
Specially remember him winning the stage in Andorra. Where Mosquera, Purito and Nibali dropped Anton, but with 1km to go Anton had passed them all again and won the stage.

 

[Arnout]

Well I do think Contador did hold back during the last mountain stage atleast. The one Kirienka won, but before that he just rode hard. Anton was just better on the Zoncolan.
I really like Contador because he's an aggresive rider that respects all the races he competes in. I'm also sure he respects his opponents. He sometimes gets a bit clumsy though. Like the pat on Andys cheek.. that was a bit humiliating and I'm sure that wasn't Contadors intention.

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, which means he's a bit bland and, for lack of a better word, pathetic (which is a way too strong expression for this).

 

[cineteq]

Was Henao run over by motorbike?

"Otros que han perdido tiempo en la tercera etapa han sido: Henao, a 47", tras ser atropellado por una moto de los comisarios""

http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/noticias-ficha.asp?id=54601

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Have the riders who finished 149th-197th (I assume what qualifies as the grupetto) finished yet, and been posted anywhere yet?