Re:
DFA123 said:
Presumably Sagan was going to pull out on the rest day anyway? Don't think he would have a chance today and a breakaway should win tomorrow, so it probably hasn't really cost him or the race much leaving a couple of days early.
The big shame was that he was a massive favourite to take the win yesterday.
I think till the stage of Moncayo, not the rest day.
Nice breakaway today... will Kathousa control this, any other?
I think that of coure the Vuelta is going to be won by get well at the end, in Cantabria, Asturias, and in the ITT, and Purito in andorra is like to race at home in a stage he designed.. if he today dont put time and take some bonus, I think would be a bad signal. He need to take advantage of these stages and later we will see.
For me there are 2 sstages that people dont talk a lot, 2 long stages that surely will be very important:
Fuente del Chivo: Long, with tha hard mitic for la Vuelta Escudo, and after some km of moreor les flat road, a long climb, the s tage will be very demanding. Andbefore ome climbs, estacas de trueba with a nasty descent.
Riaza: just after the ITT, nobody talk about it, it looks a medium mountain stage for a break, no more...maybe some second for a GC rider, but no more.. and it is a stage where you can lo a lot of time, there are a lot of Km up and down, with 20 % roads, without asfalt, and finally is the 1 st categorized climb, and just the decent to the finish. I)f a rider and his team fells string and there are after the ITT at 1 minute, they can blow uo all in this stage.
With wind will be one of the hardest stages of la Vuelta.