2015 Vuelta stage 16: Luarca > Ermita de Alba 185km

[Zoncolan]

Chavanel and Duque down.

 

[Flamin]

Chavanel taken down by Duque.

 

[woodburn]

Scary crash on descent involving Chavanel. Ended up under guardrail.

 

[markene2]

Ayy poor Chavanel, sometings broken there

 

[williamp78]

Re:

Dumoulin was going full gas in Utrecht. I doubt Majka and Rodriquez were doing that too. Such speculations are pointless unless we would know riders actual FTP and CdA. Also fatigue and form at the day of ITT are important, and those are impossible to predict. Dumoulin is most likely to gain time over other GT contenders but it is hard to tell if it will be 1 or 4 minutes

Which is why we all be watching on the edge of our seats duting the TT (or following the text updates while in work as is the case for me)

 

[TomLPC]

Brother Frank may as well just attack, the rest are soft pedalling

 

[Flamin]

Chavanel broke an important rule here: never ride behind a Colombian on a descent.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Have Team Colombia ever had a GT win before ? Off the top of my head I can't remember one. Torres maybe favourite here

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

If Tom limit his loses to 1 min today, I honestly think he will win. They need to take more time.

Opinions on this seem to differ greatly. Flecha just said they won't lose more than 1:30 in the ITT

Them losing only 1:30 is near physically impossible unless Dumoulin is very tired.

A big guy like Tom who is the second-best WT time trialist should easily be able to take minutes on tiny climbers in such a time trial. He was able to take more than a minute and twenty on Majka and Purito in a 14k TT.

If the climbers gain 1:30 or more on Dumoulin today, then the GC is not over yet. 1 min is not enough IMO.

This isn't a one week stage race.
In the third week of a grand tour it's quite normal for a climber to beat a specialist time trialist, especially when said TTer isn't used to going all out every day for GC. No offense, but not making the assumption of what will happen in a third week time trial is one of the basic rules of following a grand tour

That said, I'd quite like it if Tom won.

When TD was interviewed on telly two or three days ago, he said the gap could be 1 minute if he’s bad or three if he’s good. He might have changed his views since then.

The thing is, his views are irrelevant because he's never been in the situation he'll be in on wednesday.
Any rider can lose many minutes. It could be Dumoulin, or Rodríguez, or anyone else.

This is unknown territory and in the third week while fighting for GC every day, you can be great one day and crap the next. It's not like the GTs he did in the past where he would soft pedal every day to rest for the time trial.

On top of that, add that it's going to be the day after a rest day. The day after a rest day, at least one of the big names always has an awful day where the legs don't work. It's impossible to say who it will be.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Chavanel broke an important rule here: never ride behind a Colombian on a descent.

Rolf Sørensen actually just mentioned this on Danish television

 

[Velolover2]

Astana is finally setting some pace! Let's see if they can get rid of Dumoulin on this climb.

 

[damian13ster]

Everyone wheelsucking Schleck

 

[Bushman]

Come on Torres!!

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Cance, Uran is not a pure climber. I'd say he is closer to Dumoulin than Chaves. A strong tempo horse. Both on the flat and uphill.

He's a climber with a very good time trial, not a tempo horse. lol

 

[GuyIncognito]

Almost did a double take there. The dude on the front (Zeits?) looked like Thomas in Astana kit with that hair and sunglasses

 

[Carols]

Moto towing Frank LOL!

 

[Sasquatch]

lol Schleck is probably doing too much work here to win the stage.

 

[ice&fire]

Astana domestiques unable to grab time on old Schleck

 

[bajbar]

This looks just like the Giro - Astana train and 3 Tinkoffs behind.

 

[jsem94]

Peloton thinning out...

 

[Velolover2]

I feel bad for Schleck. The rest are just wheelsucking him.

 

[Sasquatch]

Re:

I feel bad for Schleck. The rest are just wheelsucking him.

He'll still probably win. The others may not be strong enough regardless.

 

[Gigs_98]

C'mon Frank. Drop them

 

[Rollthedice]

Dumoulin looking good.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

go Franky! How good/bad does this "Torres" descend?