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

[Red Rick]

This is a unique situation in that I like all 4 riders in the top 4 with the beset chance of reaching the podium.

I think a great lot depends on how the Cobertoria is raced. If Aru feels well, Landa will tear the race apart there. If nothing happens until the last climb, Dumoulin still may have a shot at this, otherwise Aru and Purito will fight for Rojo

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

I just hope I wont see LLS at the front for 5 kilometres at Cobortoria. God was that painful to watch today.

I hope Aru has some decent legs tomorrow and will use Rosa and Landa on Cobortoria. I dont know. If not, I hope Moreno and Rodriguez for once will go on Cobortoria. If not, I hope Majka realizes he has a shot at the podium. If not, I hope Quintana shows up like yesterday and goes for it. And I hope that either Katushe, Astana, Movistar or some other team will try to hold it together so we can have a battle royale for the stage as well.

I dont know what to expect. I have been disappointed a alot....

That's basically what Majka has realized, judging from the way he rides. He doesn't need to attack to get a podium. He needs to attack if he wants to win the race. That I'm not so sure if he's realized

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Oh look another backloaded stage with an absurdly steep finale. How novel.

At least this time there *is* room to move early. It's something.

Those last 3 climbs the other way around wouldve been better. Not possible with the profiles ofcourse.
Also descent finish instead of mtf.

Ehm just something different then all the other mtf wouldve been nice i guess.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

I just hope I wont see LLS at the front for 5 kilometres at Cobortoria. God was that painful to watch today.

I hope Aru has some decent legs tomorrow and will use Rosa and Landa on Cobortoria. I dont know. If not, I hope Moreno and Rodriguez for once will go on Cobortoria. If not, I hope Majka realizes he has a shot at the podium. If not, I hope Quintana shows up like yesterday and goes for it. And I hope that either Katushe, Astana, Movistar or some other team will try to hold it together so we can have a battle royale for the stage as well.

I dont know what to expect. I have been disappointed a alot....

That's basically what Majka has realized, judging from the way he rides. He doesn't need to attack to get a podium. He needs to attack if he wants to win the race. That I'm not so sure if he's realized

That's true if you think Dumoulin will lose 2-3 minutes to Majka tomorrow and Im not so sure about that..

Anyways, my point just being that I hope we can have some great racing at Cobortoria at least now. We deserve it after those last 2 incredible dull MTFs.

 

[WheelofGear]

Dumoulin's tactics seem to be working. Focusing on limiting his losses and riding his own pace instead of responding to the crazy accelerations and cracking completely. He could have lost more time today.

How much do you think Aru and Purito (and Majka) have to gain on him tommorow? They can't be happy about gaining only about a minute on such a hard stage.

 

[jsem94]

Re:

Valverde to attack on the descent after Alto de Cordal, catches the break which was kept under control by Astana and is just a few minutes ahead. There he has at least one teammate and he puts everybody to work. At the foot of Ermita de Alba he goes together with Zubeldia (which was again in the break) and gifts him the stage while he takes the red jersey.

I would LMFAO if anything close to this were to happen.

 

[Escarabajo]

Quintana is weak and so is everyone else. The only thing good about this finale is watching all those mountain goats watch each other just to see Dumoulin take gold. LOL. Imagine Dumoulin taking this with no team. If I were an organizer I would change the way I build these stupid parcours for the mountain stages.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Quintana is weak and so is everyone else. The only thing good about this finale is watching all those mountain goats watch each other just to see Dumoulin take gold. LOL. Imagine Dumoulin taking this with no team. If I were an organizer I would change the way I build these stupid parcours for the mountain stages.

Stages 11 and 16 have been better than any other stage almost the last 5 years, but yeah, pretty vague parcours this year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Last year to La Farrapona was a proper mountain stage, would've preferred Valle del Lago as the finish instead of La Farrapona.

Put this as a nice short climb on the end of the 2014 La Farrapona stage and we win.

 

[Billie]

someone will crash on the Cordal descent

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

I just hope I wont see LLS at the front for 5 kilometres at Cobortoria. God was that painful to watch today.

I hope Aru has some decent legs tomorrow and will use Rosa and Landa on Cobortoria. I dont know. If not, I hope Moreno and Rodriguez for once will go on Cobortoria. If not, I hope Majka realizes he has a shot at the podium. If not, I hope Quintana shows up like yesterday and goes for it. And I hope that either Katushe, Astana, Movistar or some other team will try to hold it together so we can have a battle royale for the stage as well.

I dont know what to expect. I have been disappointed a alot....

That's basically what Majka has realized, judging from the way he rides. He doesn't need to attack to get a podium. He needs to attack if he wants to win the race. That I'm not so sure if he's realized

That's true if you think Dumoulin will lose 2-3 minutes to Majka tomorrow and Im not so sure about that..

Anyways, my point just being that I hope we can have some great racing at Cobortoria at least now. We deserve it after those last 2 incredible dull MTFs.

I heavily rely on that. Especially after today, where he should have lost over 2 minutes, if the pace had been higher. Let's hope we see some real racing - that should shed Dumoulin off fairly quickly

 

[Ricco']

Since when there are 5010m of vertical climbing? In Unipublic dream world? The categorized climbs only account for 3780m and I don't see climbs in rest of the profile that give the extra 1230m.

 

[Velolover2]

Purito will win again. The last k is steeper so I hope he will get an even bigger gap. 20 seconds or so.

Moreno to get 2nd.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

someone will crash on the Cordal descent

I really hope not. Is it technical?

 

[Red Rick]

When does the coverage start?

 

[Escarabajo]

In this stage we will see real separation:

1- Purito
2- Majka @ 2"
3- Quintana @ 4"
4- Aru @ 6"
5- Chaves @ 7"
6- Nieve @ 8"
7- Valverde and Moreno together @ 10"
9- Pozzovivo and Landa @ 12"
11- Dumoulin will loose massive time @ 20"

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

When does the coverage start?

Same as usual: 16:00 CET. Enough to see the last 3 climbs.

 

[The Hitch]

So Murito actually has the chance to win a big one?

I can't watch. He's going to choke it somehow.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

So Murito actually has the chance to win a big one?

I can't watch. He's going to choke it somehow.

This is his only chance. Valverde already said that he is tired from the Tour and already happy with his podium.

 

[Ataraxus]

Re:

Since when there are 5010m of vertical climbing? In Unipublic dream world? The categorized climbs only account for 3780m and I don't see climbs in rest of the profile that give the extra 1230m.

I counted 4760 meters of altitude climbing.
Not referring to the site's official profile ofc.
Probably they take into account the discrepancies in GPS measurement as well, when they extrapolate that figure.

 

[manafana]

good climb charts, new last climb was a monster that confirms it, alot comes down to who breaks here.

on the climbing metres, sometimes you go up as well as down for short periods it all adds up, we can see after when we get the garmin files.

 

[Gaul 58]

Presumably the organisers called Rodriguez into a darkened room some time during the winter and hatched up a communal plan to ensure he won the Vuelta by letting him pick the entire route, or at least have a major influence.... or they placed bets at nice long odds before announcing the route. It's all rather wonderful.

 

[SafeBet]

Majka has a big chance here, possibily to win the Vuelta.

 

[Red Rick]

I think it's crazy to think it's all gonna go down in the last 2km. Everyone will be on their own on the last climb

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

I think it's crazy to think it's all gonna go down in the last 2km. Everyone will be on their own on the last climb

...watching each other's faces.