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

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Mar 20, 2010
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There was a huge crash. Astana man tends to Aru and gets him on his way. Nibs left standing in the road for ages before he gets a bike. He has 3 team mates to help him. He has to make up 1:30+, teammates drop off and he has to go alone on a storming ride to catch the peloton . Then had nothing left for the finale......
 
May 9, 2010
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Re: Re:

Arredondo said:
DFA123 said:
Hugo Koblet said:
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.
As far as we know, Quintana was the only one strong enough to attack today. And even though he rode solo for a long time he still beat all of the favorites except Rodriguez.
 
Aug 15, 2012
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Seems like getting a bike from one of the three teammates would have been faster for Nibbles ( laying similar bike sizing). Ah well.
 
Mar 13, 2015
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Re: Re:

Hugo Koblet said:
Arredondo said:
DFA123 said:
Hugo Koblet said:
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.
As far as we know, Quintana was the only one strong enough to attack today. And even though he rode solo for a long time he still beat all of the favorites except Rodriguez.

And got dropped by Chaves, Roche and Dumoulin. Strange logic...
 
Aug 18, 2010
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A strange stage, but we did learn some things:

Quintana got dropped by Chaves, Dumoulin and Roche. He is not at his best. Getting caught and dropped by Martin is one thing, Martin is a favourite for a stage like this. Being unable to hold onto that group of three and shipping half a minute to them is quite another.
Talansky was supposed to be riding GC but he dropped three minutes.
G Thomas is not going to be confusing everyone by hanging around the upper reaches of the GC again.
Majka and Pozzovivo didn't have a disaster but dropping a minute is not an encouraging sign.
 
Feb 18, 2015
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Re: 2015 Vuelta stage 2: Alhaurín de la Torre / Caminito del

Does Nibali really get a time penalty? It would be fair but I haven't read anything like that yet
 
Re: Re:

Arredondo said:
DFA123 said:
Hugo Koblet said:
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.

Not this crap again. There was a time back in July when Bala didnt win on Mur when people thought: he doesnt have it. Three weeks later he reached the podium in Paris for the first time.

Gone are the days when Bala cared about hunting for early stages in GT:s. Specially a season like this with being on a constant high level around six-seven months (with two GT:s between them) in order to compete in them he had to change his approach. This is were Purito almost always fail getting to tempted of winning every short punchy hill in sight. And at Vuelta these are plenty to choose from.

Remember this when Bala will drop Purito like a sack potatoes later. :)
 
Nov 7, 2010
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Libertine Seguros said:
Lol yes, there's sticky bottles and sticky bottles. That must be pushing the boundaries of what is a DQ.

He should be disqualified for that really if there is consistency between races. Sepulveda was thrown out for 100m in a team car; Nibali gained at least that and didn't even have to get off his bike and into the car!
 
Mar 19, 2009
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Re: Re:

Mr.White said:
Hugo Koblet said:
Arredondo said:
DFA123 said:
Hugo Koblet said:
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.
As far as we know, Quintana was the only one strong enough to attack today. And even though he rode solo for a long time he still beat all of the favorites except Rodriguez.

And got dropped by Chaves, Roche and Dumoulin. Strange logic...

I agree with this. Hugo, do you think Froome, Purito, Bala, Aru, etc...would have also been dropped by Roche and Dumoulin?
 
Mar 17, 2009
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Angliru said:
First mtf is too early to make any real determination on the contenders form.

+1000000

Indeed. All that none sense whether Nairito was strong or weak, whether the Alien & SKY are up to the task, whether Valpiti & Purito aren't at their best ........ just rubbish :mad:

a 4K bump on stage 2 can't determine anything at all - it was a "warm up"