2015 Vuelta stage 2: Alhaurín de la Torre / Caminito del Rey

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Quintana the strongest of the favorites today. Valverde will crack big time at some point.

Amazing how you see it so differently. For me Quintana looked weak. No way that Quintana on top form would have even made that attack, let alone then get dropped and blow up in the last km.

Indeed. Quintana was rather weak. The strongest were Purito and Froome (especially him). Landa also good. These 3 guys look the best atm.

If Bala is really good, he will always try to win on a finish like this. He just isn't that good at the moment. And it's illogical to think he will peak in the hardest mountain stages. Likely he will lose more time there to the likes of Froome and Landa. He always loses time in the big mountain stages.

Landa was behind Aru so why did he look better than him?

Because Aru is a more explosive rider for these kind of finishes. This is not Landa's terrain. That will come on stage 11 and 16, for example.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Dumoulin lol... Well at least that proves he would have had Yellow on huy without that fall

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Quintana the strongest of the favorites today. Valverde will crack big time at some point.

Amazing how you see it so differently. For me Quintana looked weak. No way that Quintana on top form would have even made that attack, let alone then get dropped and blow up in the last km.

Indeed. Quintana was rather weak. The strongest were Purito and Froome (especially him). Landa also good. These 3 guys look the best atm.

If Bala is really good, he will always try to win on a finish like this. He just isn't that good at the moment. And it's illogical to think he will peak in the hardest mountain stages. Likely he will lose more time there to the likes of Froome and Landa. He always loses time in the big mountain stages.

Landa was behind Aru so why did he look better than him?

Because Aru is a more explosive rider for these kind of finishes. This is not Landa's terrain. That will come on stage 11 and 16, for example.

Has Aru ever been good on short but steep finishes. No example comes to my mind (although that shouldnt mean there is none)

 

[BigMac]

And Orica continues to to rock the first days of GT's. Assuming Chaves can keep red for a couple of stages more.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

It's the only way to do it.

It's the only way to do it without risk.

 

[vedrafjord]

Quite a few people upthread treating "rider A finished a couple of seconds ahead of rider B" as "rider A is stronger than rider B" which is nonsense considering it wasn't a time trial.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

It's the only way to do it.

It's the only way to do it without risk.

I don't think he will make a 2nd mistake like this.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

It's the only way to do it.

It's the only way to do it without risk.

And why would he risk on stage 2?! He rode good race and seems one of the strongest

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Froome got given a second on the GC over Valverde and Moreno. It's pretty meaningless as Valverde got those two bonus seconds, and the screencap is slightly misleading as Froome sat up a bit at the line, but I wouldn't be surprised if the race jury give the all three the same time by the time they roll out tomorrow.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Where's Schleck, anyone saw him?

Someone posted here that he won Vattenfall

Virenque won Paris Tours so...

Vuelta site has him as 37 with 2 min + behind

Trek posted on twitter that he had a mechanical at the bottom of the climb. 2:07 back with a mechanical is quite respectable on that climb

Robbed of a previously inevitable victory.

 

[BigMac]

Vuelta site has Zé Gonçalves as the day's most combative, but it wasn't him on the podium from what I grasped.

 

[HelloDolly]

So TMP402 & Arredondo Nicolas Roche is past it/has gone backwards and should be riding for Nieve

I told you you were talking through your hat. Roche may not win stage 11 or come 3rd but he is still a better prospect than alot of riders in this Vuelta including Nieve

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

It's the only way to do it.

It's the only way to do it without risk.

And why would he risk on stage 2?! He rode good race and seems one of the strongest

To win the stage. He could crash out tomorrow.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

I think Froome needed to take time here to start building his bulwark against Quintana on stages like the Andorra one.

he has a long ITT for that.

also i don't think Quintana is riding GC, stage wins and Valverde domestique.

I dont't think Froome's form is good enough for him either to take full advantage of the TT or to be able to claw back his mountain losses. But who knows.

 

[SkyTears]

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

It's the only way to do it.

It's the only way to do it without risk.

And why would he risk on stage 2?! He rode good race and seems one of the strongest

To win the stage. He could crash out tomorrow.

He already won couple of Vuelta stages(8), one more doesn't mean too much. It's much more important for him to conserve energy and saves himself wherever he can. And by the way he couldn't ride this stage much differently, if he had tried to bridge he would had all of the big guns on his wheel

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

He already won couple of Vuelta stages(8), one more doesn't mean too much. It's much more important for him to conserve energy and saves himself wherever he can. And by the way he couldn't ride this stage much differently, if he had tried to bridge he would had all of the big guns on his wheel

"I already did X" has never stopped him from not risking a podium spot, but fair enough. In that case, since he was allegedly the strongest, he could have tried to put more time on his rivals instead of letting them softpedal half the climb.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

He already won couple of Vuelta stages(8), one more doesn't mean too much. It's much more important for him to conserve energy and saves himself wherever he can. And by the way he couldn't ride this stage much differently, if he had tried to bridge he would had all of the big guns on his wheel

"I already did X" has never stopped him from not risking a podium spot, but fair enough. In that case, since he was allegedly the strongest, he could have tried to put more time on his rivals instead of letting them softpedal half the climb.

You don't get it. the only way he could gain time on his rivals today was exactly that way he was ridden. Late 500m charge can gain him couple of seconds if he's lucky enough to drop Valverde. If the charge is longer, he fades and they catch him

 

[No_Balls]

Re:

Its things like this that could break that fragile dynamic that currently hold Astana together. Pretty it was not as Master Yoda would say

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

Its things like this that could break that fragile dynamic that currently hold Astana together. Pretty it was not as Master Yoda would say

Picture speaks a thousand words....... .

 

[TomekA]

Could someone explain me this photo with Astana prorities? I watched only last 5km. Aru helped Nibali or Nibali helped Aru?

 

[Vasilis]

Re:

Could someone explain me this photo with Astana prorities? I watched only last 5km. Aru helped Nibali or Nibali helped Aru?

Neither, Aru was back in the peloton quickly, Nibali was supported by his teammates on his way back.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Could someone explain me this photo with Astana prorities? I watched only last 5km. Aru helped Nibali or Nibali helped Aru?

Neither. It's the Astana sougnier that's helping Aru first and not nibs.

 

[Angliru]

First mtf is too early to make any real determination on the contenders form.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Could someone explain me this photo with Astana prorities? I watched only last 5km. Aru helped Nibali or Nibali helped Aru?

There was a big crash about 30km from the finish. The photo shows an Astana mechanic getting Aru back into the race, he got back to the peloton pretty quickly. Nibali had to wait quite a long time for a bike change, took nearly 20k to get back into the peloton and thus lost more time on the final climb.