2014 Vuelta al País Vasco, Stage 6: Markina-Xemein → Markina-Xemein, 25.9 km (ITT)

[analogue17]

Fantastic ride by Alberto. Looking forward to great fights in the Tour!

 

[Angliru]

Valverde and Contador seemed about equal in the mountain stages and now he manages to lose the podium? Damn.

He's a natural talent, but seems to take things way too easy.

From my memory Valverde's tt has been up and down overmost of his career and he's rarely been a match for Contador no matter what terrain. I did expect, considering his current form, a better performance. Simon Spilak was the big surprise for me.

 

[Rollthedice]

From my memory Valverde's tt has been up and down overmost of his career and he's rarely been a match for Contador no matter what terrain. I did expect, considering his current form, a better performance. Simon Spilak was the big surprise for me.

He had a bad day. The wrong moment to have one. But even if he would have been at the top of his game he could have maybe only kept his second place given the great performance by Contador.

 

[Kwibus]

Dumoulin is getting better and better. 5th in this crazy hard TT in this field. Nice.

 

[Angliru]

Valverde and Contador seemed about equal in the mountain stages and now he manages to lose the podium? Damn.

He's a natural talent, but seems to take things way too easy.

He did try to attack to give himself a buffer but just couldn't get away. The conditions and terrain wasn't tough enough for him to distance those riders that superior to him in the tt. Headwinds on climbs that stifled the chance of a successful attack and Contador's having an agenda that didn't correspond with his doomed Valverde. Well that and his falling for Contador's faking fatigue on the first stage, being a bit too confident in his stellar form.

 

[Angliru]

He had a bad day. The wrong moment to have one. But even if he would have been at the top of his game he could have maybe only kept his second place given the great performance by Contador.

I agree, bad days happen. I was rooting for him to do well.

 

[Cimber]

I must say that I am very impressed with Martin. This TT really did not suit him at all with all the climbing. Would have expected Kwia to win. Good ride by Berto too.

 

[del1962]

Brailsfords reacts:

That picture has more of a hint of Riis about it

 

[Angliru]

That picture has more of a hint of Riis about it

Nahh, I see a whole lot of Uncle Fester in that image.

 

[greenedge]

Great stage except for Evans

 

[Jspear]

Great stage except for Evans

Evans is one rider who I have a hard time understanding right now. Last year he was 3rd in the Giro and then had a very low par Tour.(yes I know he could have been tired and all, but still.) This year he did great in TDU, and then he bonks at tirreno, and then he breaks top 10 at this race. I never know how he'll perform. His results at this race weren't bad imo - at least in comparison to Tirreno. But who knows what he'll do in his next race....seems inconsistent right now.

 

[Angliru]

Evans is one rider who I have a hard time understanding right now. Last year he was 3rd in the Giro and then had a very low par Tour.(yes I know he could have been tired and all, but still.) This year he did great in TDU, and then he bonks at tirreno, and then he breaks top 10 at this race. I never know how he'll perform. His results at this race weren't bad imo - at least in comparison to Tirreno. But who knows what he'll do in his next race....seems inconsistent right now.

The Giro difficulty was downgraded due to the weather conditions otherwise I doubt Evans would've made the podium. Even with that less typical Girl in his legs I think it would've been extremely optimistic to think that he would've followed up with a contending ride at the Tour or even an impressive performance, especially at his age. He's been racing for a long time. His career is winding down.

 

[T-Nielsen]

So not only do I have to wait untill 3am to watch this stage on Eurosport but then they send it with the soundtrack of the foodball commentary from their previous show...

What the **** am I paying for?

 

[Fzotrlool]

The Girl difficulty was downgraded due to the weather conditions otherwise I doubt Evans would've made the podium. Even with that less typical Girl in his legs I think it would've been extremely optimistic to think that he would've followed up with a contending ride at the Tour or even an impressive performance, especially at his age. He's been racing for a long time. His career is winding down.

I don't know. If he's lucky he can repeat his third place.

The start list for the Giro looked superior in comparison with the one for Tour at the start of the year. But with the resurrection of Contador, Porte's exit, Uran's illness and the bad crash of the Vuelta winner, The Tour will be the march of the year.

The don't think you can find 10 GC riders in the Giro who are better than Evans.

 

[Fzotrlool]

The Girl difficulty was downgraded due to the weather conditions otherwise I doubt Evans would've made the podium. Even with that less typical Girl in his legs I think it would've been extremely optimistic to think that he would've followed up with a contending ride at the Tour or even an impressive performance, especially at his age. He's been racing for a long time. His career is winding down.

I don't know. The Giro lineup looked so strong in the beginning of the year with a lot of quality riders, but since lot of the favorites have either dropped out, showed bad form and/or crashed, he could perform very well.

But I'm sure you still could name 10 riders who have a better shot at GC than him. He is definitely in decline. A slow but natural decline.

 

[theyoungest]

Evans is one rider who I have a hard time understanding right now. Last year he was 3rd in the Giro and then had a very low par Tour.(yes I know he could have been tired and all, but still.) This year he did great in TDU, and then he bonks at tirreno, and then he breaks top 10 at this race. I never know how he'll perform. His results at this race weren't bad imo - at least in comparison to Tirreno. But who knows what he'll do in his next race....seems inconsistent right now.

The Giro basically had one strong contender last year, Nibali. The rest of the podium was really a fluke. It shouldn't be possible to get 30th or whatever in the mountain TT and still make the podium.

Evans' main weapon was always his tenacity, he still has that, but physically he's not a natural climber so it's getting harder for him.

 

[Peter von]

Evans is one rider who I have a hard time understanding right now. Last year he was 3rd in the Giro and then had a very low par Tour.(yes I know he could have been tired and all, but still.) This year he did great in TDU, and then he bonks at tirreno, and then he breaks top 10 at this race. I never know how he'll perform. His results at this race weren't bad imo - at least in comparison to Tirreno. But who knows what he'll do in his next race....seems inconsistent right now.

His preparations for the Giro call up last year was very last minute, so it won't tell us much about how strong Evans could have been last year, maybe he could have been stronger, but still behind Nibali IMO.
Evans took it easy between TdU and TA to avoid gassing out before the Giro even started. IMO, his form is coming along nicely, it'll be interesting to see what he can do with the proper preparation this time, i don't think he'll win or anything but he coould well do his best GT since he won the Tour.

 

[Jspear]

His preparations for the Giro call up last year was very last minute, so it won't tell us much about how strong Evans could have been last year, maybe he could have been stronger, but still behind Nibali IMO.
Evans took it easy between TdU and TA to avoid gassing out before the Giro even started. IMO, his form is coming along nicely, it'll be interesting to see what he can do with the proper preparation this time, i don't think he'll win or anything but he coould well do his best GT since he won the Tour.

Does that mean you think Cadel will get 2nd place at this Giro? I find that unlikely...