2015 Vuelta stage 15: Comillas > Sotres/Cabrales 175.8km

[dirkprovin]

IF Meintjes can hold on well tomorrow, do not be surprised if he consolidates a top 10 positon as he is a better time trialler than most above him. I suspect he's made a major mistake signing for Lampre but still has many years ahead of him.

 

[fungusbear]

Also Meintjes up to 10th in GC. This guy is serious talent

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re:

Lol. Ramirez wins combativity prize. How come?

No podium for Zubeldia.

Not Fair

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Lol. Ramirez wins combativity prize. How come?

No podium for Zubeldia.

Not Fair

I know, it's a disgrace.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Lol. Ramirez wins combativity prize. How come?

No podium for Zubeldia.

Special request of Zubeldia that his heroics go unrewarded.

 

[RedheadDane]

Zubeldia might have gotten more TV-time today than the rest of his career as a whole.

 

[Red Rick]

I wonder whether Dumoulin couldn't follow the group or just wanted to ride tempo from km 3 to 1.

 

[rm7]

Re:

How does JRod compare to Aru and Majkaa in a tt?

Majka
Aru + 25-35 sec
JRod + 40-45 sec

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Majka following wrong wheel again. Overestimated Aru. Hopefully tommorow he is more agressinve than that. But I am starting to believe he will put major time into Aru in TT

perhaps. However, had he jumped from Aru to Purito, which I think he could have done, he might aswell have killed himself trying to follow Purito

Possibly. I just think he should have jumped from Aru earlier. He didn't notice that Fabio was suffering. There was a moment when Aru did last acceleration, got within 5m of Rodriguez, Majka followed with ease. I was screaming to jump then since this is what Aru does before cracking, but Rafal didnt recognize it and went too late.
He is not a world-class tactician like Kwiatkowski, doesn't sound that intelligent. This is the only issue he has.

 

[May0maniac]

Really hard to predict the ITT, Aru rode a pretty good one in Poland, but this one is a 3rd week TT, who really knows what will happen?

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Lol. Ramirez wins combativity prize. How come?

No podium for Zubeldia.

Special request of Zubeldia that his heroics go unrewarded.

Such a humble guy.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Can Majka put 1:20 into Rodriguez/Aru double in the 40 km TT? He was very good in Romandie and Suisse TTs this year.

The perfect scenario would be

Purito and Aru s.t.
Majka at 1:00
Dumolin at 2:30

before the ITT - that would really make it interesting

Forget about Majka. He's too far back and not quite on the level of Purito. And in a TT, i don't see him winning more then 1 minute.

Please, he did tons of work in teh Tour (pretty much all mountain stages and there were many this year), got a stage from breakaway with solo ride from 50km. Hardly conserving energy.
Then goes to the Vuelta, and performs like that on a stage that doesn't suit him, with gradients he doesn't like, and the weather that is bad for him.
He might not win the race, but he can put over a minute into Purito in TT if recovered properly and if Dumoulin or Aru crack then he can get a podium spot. That is very impressive.

 

[Mr.White]

Grande Purito! He needs his team tomorrow to go hard on Cobertoria to drop Dumoulin, and then he has to finish-off Aru on the last climb. I think he can do it, it's now or never for Purito!

 

[70kmph]

1:25 its not enough for the ITT

 

[Rollthedice]

One more bullet left for Aru and Purito. Tom, the lone ranger will be ready.

 

[DFA123]

There are still plenty of mountains in the last week to drop Dumoulin on. Even if he did somehow manage to limit his losses tomorrow and take the red jersey in the TT, there is no way he would keep hold of it in the last week, given how weak his team is and how hard he has gone these first two weeks.

 

[damian13ster]

Re:

Grande Purito! He needs his team tomorrow to go hard on Cobertoria to drop Dumoulin, and then he has to finish-off Aru on the last climb. I think he can do it, it's now or never for Purito!

Exactly. Astana was riding slow so that Aru doesn't lose major time.
Dumoulin was up there for the taking. Katiusha has to drive hard from 60km from the finish and drop him on penultimate climb. Won't be surprised if Aru is pedaling squares on the last climb in that scenario.
Poljanski will be exhausted by today, but Movistar and Hansen should help driving up the pace to insane levels as well

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

Quintana biggest loser today

Quintana needs to win tomorrow to salvage this race

Quintana will go "loco" at Cobertoria tomorrow. That's the only way he can get a stage win

 

[hrotha]

Re:

Grande Purito! He needs his team tomorrow to go hard on Cobertoria to drop Dumoulin, and then he has to finish-off Aru on the last climb. I think he can do it, it's now or never for Purito!

Well they could easily have done that today instead of gambling on Dumoulin not having a better day tomorrow. Then again, Purito seems to be gambling on Dumoulin having getting worse as a time-trialist (he all but said so himself).

 

[Carols]

Re:

Lol. Ramirez wins combativity prize. How come?

No podium for Zubeldia.

Well that stinks

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Grande Purito! He needs his team tomorrow to go hard on Cobertoria to drop Dumoulin, and then he has to finish-off Aru on the last climb. I think he can do it, it's now or never for Purito!

Well they could easily have done that today instead of gambling on Dumoulin not having a better day tomorrow. Then again, Purito seems to be gambling on Dumoulin having getting worse as a time-trialist (he all but said so himself).

Dumoulin will be worse. He's tired.

Acutually, Dumoulin isn't the biggest rival for Purito now anymore. That's Aru.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Quintana biggest loser today

Quintana needs to win tomorrow to salvage this race

Quintana will go "loco" at Cobertoria tomorrow. That's the only way he can get a stage win

If you count for Quintana to ever animate a race unless its stage 20 and he is 5 minutes down in GC, you will be dissapointed.
But tommorow will be fun nevertheless. If they slowpedal, i will be shocked and dissapointed

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Grande Purito! He needs his team tomorrow to go hard on Cobertoria to drop Dumoulin, and then he has to finish-off Aru on the last climb. I think he can do it, it's now or never for Purito!

Well they could easily have done that today instead of gambling on Dumoulin not having a better day tomorrow. Then again, Purito seems to be gambling on Dumoulin having getting worse as a time-trialist (he all but said so himself).

Dumoulin will be worse. He's tired.

Acutually, Dumoulin isn't the biggest rival for Purito now anymore. That's Aru.

It's still gambling on factors beyond his control. As for Aru being his biggest rival, well, judging from Astana's pace, it didn't look like Aru was feeling that well either.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

If they ride on the Cobertoria, then Dumoulin could easily lose 5 minutes

I concur with this.
But I'm not sure there's any team willing to do it. Aru seems fading a bit so Astana probably won't. Purito normally wouldn't go before the last climb. Movistar is clueless as always.

Maybe Tinkoff.

 

[Flamin]

Re:

This was quite possibly the worst "mountain" stage I remember. I hope Dumoulin still manages to win this.

Embarassing indeed, but as is often the case, the lack of a dominant rider 'saves' this Vuelta and people will call it a good GT.