2016 Vuelta a España, Stage 20: Benidorm → Alto de Aitana

[webvan]

Wonder how Contador will spin his retirement after announcing it and then changing his mind...

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re:

Contador drops a teammate and throw him out of TDF podium. Froome applauds biggest rival.

Lol, LLS' style (and uniform) was actually reminding me of Andreas on Columbierre!

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Wow, Contador looks old all of a sudden, time to bow out gracefully...

Could very well be, but I wouldn't be surprised if he can show up in great form in a GT next year. If he doesn't crash....
Or maybe he's done. Maybe. I don't think he can reach the level of Froome/Quintana anymore.... Allthough I did think he could challenge this TdF. Guess we'll see next year

He is done. Spent last 3 seasons trying to come up with enough excuses to still give some blind fans a bit of hope that he can even come close to Quintana and Froome's level

Sigh. Thank you for enlightment damian. Just what I needed an fair and objective opinion....

Hey, I have been proven right many times already. Not my fault you refuse to acknowledge the facts. Peak for spring, perform well in stage races (win some, lose some to your rivals domestiques), fail miserably at a Tour. Then go for Giro against weak rivals so you have excuse for failing miserably at a Tour. Next season, peak for spring, fail miserably at a Tour, fail at a Vuelta. FFS, no podium, no jersey, no stage win, and had the best prep among the pre-race contenders. What more do you need?

Well obviously his 2014 and 2016 tdf were huge fails indeed.

In some kind of way they are, if you like youtube fail movies of people crashing hard etc. Hard facts indeed damian. Thumbs up to you.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

 

[Ramon Koran]

Re: Re:

The era of Contador is finally over.

It was over when Froome beat the tar out of him in the 100th tour.

He, uh, won two Grand Tours after that.

Yeah but he wasn't the best like he had been from 07-11 from then onward the best was Chris

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

lol, that was my immediate reaction as well. Unfathomable.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Giro was more spectacular than Vuelta

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Represents the people that only saw the Tour.

 

[Bolder]

Re: 2016 Vuelta a España, Stage 20: Benidorm → Alto de Aitan

Chapeau a Latour! Not sure how hard he was going but it sure looked like he was turning himself inside out...

And bravo to Chaves, Quintana and Froome for also going 100 percent. The way I saw the end, Froome wasnt going to fight Quintana and probably let him cross the line first. The applause was sincere, I'm pretty sure. Froome may be awkward, he may be boring, he may be whatever, but I don't think he has a nasty streak in him.

 

[roundabout]

Re: 2016 Vuelta a España, Stage 20: Benidorm → Alto de Aitan

De la Cruz 7th

Moreno 8th

Bennett 10th

Moreno and Bennett both have just 1 top 10 stage finish, although Bennett picked just about the right stage for it.

 

[portugal11]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Giro was more spectacular than Vuelta

It was more dramatic but giro's first week was terrible

 

[Jungle Cycle]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Represents the people that only saw the Tour.

i'ld vote Vuelta also.. was espetacular and had the 2 best...

 

[Arnout]

Lol th Vuelta forgot Colombia is independent now

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Giro was more spectacular than Vuelta

It was more dramatic but giro's first week was terrible

And it was a pretty low quality field. A guy won who would have been miles out of contention in any of the two other GTs given their fields. Like watching a fairly entertaining Europa League game; whereas the Vuelta was more like a top quality Champions League game.

 

[Isaak-Gabriel]

Is Quintana really sprinted for the green jersey ? Maybe he doesn't know Felline was in front... Valverde school, meh.

 

[yaco]

Congratulations to La Tour who is a gifted rider - Congratulations to OBE in both the Giro and the Vuelta - Stage 19 at the Giro and Stage 20 at the Vuelta have seen long range attacks in which both times OBE has attacked from the second last climb - Bravo.

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

And it was a pretty low quality field. A guy won who would have been miles out of contention in any of the two other GTs given their fields. Like watching a fairly entertaining Europa League game; whereas the Vuelta was more like a top quality Champions League game.

That guy beat another guy who arrived 3rd at this Vuelta.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Full team effort by OBE to put Chaves onto the podium. Put Howson in the break. Started pulling the peloton late to drop all helpers of Contador. Howson dropped from the break and Chaves attack with synchronized precision. Yates attacks 2 times to disrupt & drop Trofimov. Chaves sustains long range lone attack upto the finish.

 

[skidmark]

Re: Re:

The era of Contador is finally over.

It was over when Froome beat the tar out of him in the 100th tour.

He, uh, won two Grand Tours after that.

Yeah but he wasn't the best like he had been from 07-11 from then onward the best was Chris

Right, I guess you can define 'era' differently; I was just thinking that even if he wasn't 'the best', he could still win a GT. Here, he couldn't even hang and never looked like a threat. I guess in some ways, this could just be Vuelta '12 with tougher competitors, but Contador '14 beat Froome thoroughly after Froome came back from less heavy injuries in the Tour. Here, he can't even come close to a less fresh Froome who has already won the Tour. That is a bigger drop off to me than from 07-11 to 2013.

I guess in the 07-11 era he had an air of being unbeatable, but let's not go nuts - other than the Tour 2009 and Giro 2011, most of his GT victories were extremely close. He was poised and he was good and it felt like he was better than anyone else, but any number of things (like Leipheimer being a bit better in the TT in the Vuelta or Ricco being a bit more doped up in the Giro - oh wait, that wasn't possible) could have derailed that air.

My point is that he may have been undefeated in that period (Paris-Nice 'a lot to learn' cracking aside), but he wasn't unbeatable. He looks eminently beatable now, and the difference between two years ago and now is more stark for me than the difference between his peak and 2013.

Anyway, even in decline he drove the break that defined the race. Well done Alberto.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

And it was a pretty low quality field. A guy won who would have been miles out of contention in any of the two other GTs given their fields. Like watching a fairly entertaining Europa League game; whereas the Vuelta was more like a top quality Champions League game.

That guy beat another guy who arrived 3rd at this Vuelta.

True, but that doesn't really change the point. A GT these days without Quintana and Froome, is missing comfortably the strongest two GC riders in the world. No way Nibali would have gained anything close to 4 minutes back if either of those had been in the race.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

Giro was more spectacular than Vuelta

It was more dramatic but giro's first week was terrible

And it was a pretty low quality field. A guy won who would have been miles out of contention in any of the two other GTs given their fields. Like watching a fairly entertaining Europa League game; whereas the Vuelta was more like a top quality Champions League game.

The Giro was better this year.

You say it was like an Europa league match but Chaves, who came 2nd at the Giro (3rd strongest of the race), came third here, in worse shape (like everyone in their second GT of the year after properly peaking for the first). So, the argument is in itself contradictory and based on zero actual evidence, rather just biased empiricism. The first week of the Giro wasn't even that bad, it was better than the first week of the Vuelta. The first week just had Ezaro and that stage Yates won. Camperona was awful as a first mountain stage. Roccaraso was better, despite the headwind. The stages into Praia a Mare and Arezzo were better. The ITT was a disappointment, and Sestola also wasn't great, but the stage into Asolo was great fun and the beautiful Friuli stage was raced poorly, but still produced more entertainment than most stages in the Vuelta. Then all the mountain stages from 14 onwards were fantastic (14,15,16,19,20). Pinerolo was bad, but still. The Vuelta had: Covadonga, Aubisque, Formigal and this I guess. The Giro was so much better. And actual medium mountain stages instead of muritos.

 

[Frosty]

Main autobus came in at 27:51. 161 finished yesterday but Sammy Sanchez didnt start and Rojas didnt finish, leaving 159 to finish today unless someone else DNS/DNF? 155 home so far with 31:29 gone so no repeat of last Sunday, the mid-stage slackening of the pace really helped the guys at the back.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

You say it was like an Europa league match but Chaves, who came 2nd at the Giro (3rd strongest of the race), came third here, in worse shape (like everyone in their second GT of the year after properly peaking for the first). So, the argument is in itself contradictory and based on zero actual evidence, rather just biased empiricism. The first week of the Giro wasn't even that bad, it was better than the first week of the Vuelta. The first week just had Ezaro and that stage Yates won. Camperona was awful as a first mountain stage. Roccaraso was better, despite the headwind. The stages into Praia a Mare and Arezzo were better. The ITT was a disappointment, and Sestola also wasn't great, but the stage into Asolo was great fun and the beautiful Friuli stage was raced poorly, but still produced more entertainment than most stages in the Vuelta. Then all the mountain stages from 14 onwards were fantastic (14,15,16,19,20). Pinerolo was bad, but still. The Vuelta had: Covadonga, Aubisque, Formigal and this I guess. The Giro was so much better. And actual medium mountain stages instead of muritos.

It isn't contradictory: viewtopic.php?p=2021455#p2021455

Both were exciting races with some great stages and GC battles. So, for me, the deciding factor is that one had a significantly higher quality field.

 

[hfer07]

Nairo Quintana - deserving Champion of La Vuelta despite all the haters!!!

 

[klintE]

Re: Re:

Simple truth

Tour has 20 per cent

TdF is rigged.
I mean, to win, you need to be much stronger then Vroome beacuse Sky team is much stronger then other crews