2014 Vuelta a Espana, stage 7: Alhendín-Alcaudete (169 km)

[SeriousSam]

Haven't seen the stage, did Froome really drop them or were they caught out and didn't try to reel him in in time? I have a very hard time swallowing that Froome would be able to distance Valverde on a finish like this.

 

[Alcanelo]

Looked to be a complete shock to everyone. Contador was the only one who seemed to react which of course leads to everyone reacting when Contador goes everyone goes.

 

[cineteq]

Haven't seen the stage, did Froome really drop them or were they caught out and didn't try to reel him in in time? I have a very hard time swallowing that Froome would be able to distance Valverde on a finish like this.

Nobody expected Froome to attack the favorites after his crash.

 

[No_Balls]

Last kilometers of the race:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_dZZF_m1RY

Sky took advantage of the narrow streets leading up to the finish, had a good leadout and started sprinting. The surprise was total.

 

[ferryman]

Last kilometers of the race:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_dZZF_m1RY

Sky took advantage of the narrow streets leading up to the finish, had a good leadout and started sprinting. The surprise was total.

Thanks for the link. Jeez nothing to see here. Froome quite rightly again going for the seconds he lost in the TTT. Looking strong, but in a way a bit desperate at the same time.

Sooo much to look forward too

 

[Fzotrlool]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-nobody-pulled-in-front-when-froome-crashed

Based on Contador's comments, no one responded when Froome lauched his attack. They were being plain stupid. You don't let a man like Froome get any seconds.

"Perhaps anticipating such a move from the red jersey, Contador had opted to mark Alejandro Valverde’s rear wheel in the final kilometre, and he expressed surprise that the Movistar man had not responded to Froome’s move.

“I decided to take the wheel of Alejandro because I thought Valverde was going to close the gap that Froome had opened,” Contador said. “I was surprised that Alejandro didn’t go and I don’t know if we lost any time to him at the end.”"

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Hejsedal also hurt.

More pics: http://www.steephill.tv/2014/vuelta-a-espana/photos/stage-07/

 

[Krzysztof_O]

If you look at GC after 7 stages it's very impressive. In top4 we have Valverde, Quintana, Contador and Froome - best grand tour riders of this generation (only Nibali is missing). In top10 we also have Rodriguez, Gesink, Aru and Kelderman. Uran and Sanchez are also not far behind. I hope it will be a great fight! It's hard to pick a winner. Valverde is much stronger than I expected but I don't know if he keeps it for all remaining stages. Quintana's form is currently slightly weaker but I expect him to excel in the second half of the race. Contador looks really good and has a fair chance of winning the race. It's similar in Froome's case but he crashed again. My favourites are Contador and Quintana but podium still can be completely different!

 

[wwabbit]

5 GILBERT PhilippeBMC Racing Team12:17
6 MARTIN DanielGarmin Sharp,,
7 FROOME ChristopherTeam Sky2:18
8 BRAMBILLA GianlucaOmega Pharma - Quick-Step2:20

It has been corrected now.

Lots of people complaining about the split times, but I wouldn't worry about that, because of rounding issues. The actual times are measured in hundredth of a second, and the splits shown are rounded to the nearest second and are relative to the first place finisher.

So while the splits are accurate to +/- 0.5s when compared to the first place finishers, the error is +/- 1.0s when compared between two splits not involving the first place finisher. So the actual timings could have been something like this:

1. De Marchi 4:01:52.0
5. Gilbert 4:04:08.6 (2:16.6 rounded to 2:17)
7. Froome 4:04:10.4 (2:18.4 rounded to 2:18)
8. Brambilla 4:04:11.6 (2.19.6 rounded to 2:20)

While the actual difference between Froome and Gilbert is 1.8 seconds and difference between Froome and Brambilla is 1.2 seconds, the double rounding error may make it look like the differences are 1 second and 2 seconds respectively.