57th Vuelta al Pais Vasco 3-8 April 2017

[HelloDolly]

I suppose Roglic will win this now

 

[WheelofGear]

Bardet, Henao, Meintjes losing valuable seconds.

But what about Contador?

 

[DFA123]

Re:

The most important thing Contado rneeds to do now is race and not crash ....at this rate he wont survice the first week of the Tpur where there are several crashes

Yep, especially in that first week of the Tour when all the teams are really nervous. He needs his team to protect him as close to the front as possible all day. Or the DS should drum into him just to sit on Valverde's wheel or the back of the Sky train, or another rider who positions well.

Contador probably still has just about enough status and respect in the peloton that he could do that without having to aggresively defend his position all day - he should take advantage of that.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

Bardet, Henao, Meintjes losing valuable seconds.

But what about Contador?

He had Julien Bernard's bike.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

The most important thing Contador needs to do now is race and not crash ....at this rate he wont survice the first week of the Tour where there are several crashes

I don't have much hope anymore

I suppose Roglic will win this now

He looks mega strong. Unbeatable, I'd say. May lose a few seconds to Valverde and Henao tomorrow, but will take all of that and more back on Saturday.

 

[WheelofGear]

Re: Re:

He looks mega strong. Unbeatable, I'd say. May lose a few seconds to Valverde and Henao tomorrow, but will take all of that and more back on Saturday.

You think Contador will get smoked on the Arrate climb?

He doesn't look like a winner right now.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

The most important thing Contado rneeds to do now is race and not crash ....at this rate he wont survice the first week of the Tpur where there are several crashes

Yep, especially in that first week of the Tour when all the teams are really nervous. He needs his team to protect him as close to the front as possible all day. Or the DS should drum into him just to sit on Valverde's wheel or the back of the Sky train, or another rider who positions well.

Contador probably still has just about enough status and respect in the peloton that he could do that without having to aggresively defend his position all day - he should take advantage of that.

Contador can't keep anyone's wheel in a peloton, not his teammate's, not another rider's. He always gets pushed out the way by others. We've established that a long time ago. :idea:

 

[MatParker117]

Re: Re:

The most important thing Contador needs to do now is race and not crash ....at this rate he wont survice the first week of the Tour where there are several crashes

I don't have much hope anymore

I suppose Roglic will win this now

He looks mega strong. Unbeatable, I'd say. May lose a few seconds to Valverde and Henao tomorrow, but will take all of that and more back on Saturday.

Kwaitkowski if he survives the summit finish is a big threat as well.

 

[Rollthedice]

Apparently Contador punctured in the last km, so no second fall.

 

[Stan955]

https://twitter.com/Endika_/status/850009672971153408

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

You think Contador will get smoked on the Arrate climb?

He doesn't look like a winner right now.

Duh otherwise I'd have listed him don't you think
Contador doesn't believe he can win either, else he wouldn't be hanging at the back all the time. He has shown nothing in the last few stages to suggest he can hang with the best climbers tomorrow and if he can't hang with the best climbers, his TT will be below par as well.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Kwaitkowski if he survives the summit finish is a big threat as well.

But he won't, I think :Neutral:

https://twitter.com/Endika_/status/850009672971153408

I'm pretty sure he didn't have any issues, just didn't want to risk a time loss

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

The most important thing Contado rneeds to do now is race and not crash ....at this rate he wont survice the first week of the Tpur where there are several crashes

Yep, especially in that first week of the Tour when all the teams are really nervous. He needs his team to protect him as close to the front as possible all day. Or the DS should drum into him just to sit on Valverde's wheel or the back of the Sky train, or another rider who positions well.

Contador probably still has just about enough status and respect in the peloton that he could do that without having to aggresively defend his position all day - he should take advantage of that.

Contador can't keep anyone's wheel in a peloton, not his teammate's, not another rider's. He always gets pushed out the way by others. We've established that a long time ago. :idea:

Well, instead of just giving up and riding at the back, he should learn how to follow wheels and fight harder for position. It's a pretty fundamental skill in pro cycling and would go a long way to help prevent him crashing so much.

The solution isn't to just give up on the main thing he could do to help keep him upright.

 

[WheelofGear]

There is a better chance that De La Cruz will make a good result on such a brutal climb than Kwaitkowski.

Mark my words, De La Cruz will podium.

 

[Mr.White]

How the hell Henao lost 10sec? And Contador doesn't look good at all, we'll see tomorrow, but it doesn't look good so far. As for Roglic, he is strong, but tomorrow is serious climb, he could loose significant time to Henao and Valverde. Truth is we don't know much. We saw that Contador is not looking good, that Roglic and De la Cruz are strong, that Valverde and Kwiatkowski are attentive, and that's pretty much it. The race is still wide open

 

[HelloDolly]

Contador doesnt need ot win this rcae...he and the team need to get the positioning correct
He also needs to hone his form


Let this race go and start thinking of what and how he and the team are going to ride the Tour ....nothing else matters
Froome & Porte are not here becasue they don;t need to be

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Well, instead of just giving up and riding at the back, he should learn how to follow wheels and fight harder for position. It's a pretty fundamental skill in pro cycling and would go a long way to help prevent him crashing so much.

The solution isn't to just give up on the main thing he could do to help keep him upright.

Since the start of his career he's had issues with maintaining his position in a peloton, he's not going to just "learn" it at this point in his career.
He'll be fighting for position again (and failing) at the Tour, here it's pretty obvious he doesn't believe he can win.

 

[Gigs_98]

Tomorrows stage will be very interesting. Guys like Valverde should better attack early on Arrate because they probably need more than just a few seconds on Roglic.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Tomorrows stage will be very interesting. Guys like Valverde should better attack early on Arrate because they probably need more than just a few seconds on Roglic.

Valverde is smart enough just to ride his own pace on hellish gradients like that and be confident thats good enough to drop Roglic by a fair amount, attacking early will kill you

 

[Gigs_98]

Tomorrows stage will be very interesting. Guys like Valverde should better attack early on Arrate because they probably need more than just a few seconds on Roglic.

Valverde is smart enough just to ride his own pace on hellish gradients like that and be confident thats good enough to drop Roglic by a fair amount, attacking early will kill you

Well he surely shouldn't do an all out attack immediately when the street starts to go uphill, but if nobody sets a high pace until one kilometer before the finish, that probably won't be enough to beat Roglic. He or someone else at least has to set a high pace for the whole climb

 

[WheelofGear]

Valverde has Mur-experts Rubén Fernández and Dani Moreno for stage 5.

I think he will win the stage, but if he wins it in a sprint.. it's looking less good for him.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Contador doesnt need ot win this rcae...he and the team need to get the positioning correct
He also needs to hone his form


Let this race go and start thinking of what and how he and the team are going to ride the Tour ....nothing else matters
Froome & Porte are not here becasue they don;t need to be

He doesn't need to "hone his form", he'll take a 2 month break after this race.
He isn't the kind of ride who uses all races just as training for the Tour, fortunately because I hate riders who ride prestigious races for training (looking at you, A. Schleck). It's one of the most prestigious stage races, he should be trying to win this. He doesn't need to win this race but it would be pretty great if he did, because he isn't going to win anything else. He could be focusing solely on the Tour and he'll be left with nothing (again looking at you, A. Schleck). Of course, he'll be left with nothing anyway, but at least with this approach to the season he had the chance to win something important.

 

[Mongolian Torque]

Re:

Contador doesnt need ot win this rcae...he and the team need to get the positioning correct
He also needs to hone his form


Let this race go and start thinking of what and how he and the team are going to ride the Tour ....nothing else matters
Froome & Porte are not here becasue they don;t need to be

100% correct. Conti needs to get hungry and continue to prepare for July.

Sky doesn't have to as they have their Jiffy in the bag already.They just simply need to show up at TDF and it's pretty much done.

Also, I like the way Valverde has gone full beast mode so far this season.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Tomorrows stage will be very interesting. Guys like Valverde should better attack early on Arrate because they probably need more than just a few seconds on Roglic.

Valverde is smart enough just to ride his own pace on hellish gradients like that and be confident thats good enough to drop Roglic by a fair amount, attacking early will kill you

Well he surely shouldn't do an all out attack immediately when the street starts to go uphill, but if nobody sets a high pace until one kilometer before the finish, that probably won't be enough to beat Roglic. He or someone else at least has to set a high pace for the whole climb

Agree, we could very well see Ruben Fernandez do that job like he did last year in the Vuelta on the muros. I only think Valverde will go when the road starts to 'flatten' a bit.

 

[johnymax]

Re: Re:

Beautiful riding from Roglic today.

All the other attacks were by Bennett?

Yes. On the climb and on the descent it was Bennett the one who attacked. Roglic only followed the GC favourites. Then 3km from the finish Roglic made the only attack but it was a strong and decisive one. Beautiful win.

It was sad to hear Kirby talking like it was Roglic every time Bennett attacked. Poor Bennett he made several attacks yesterday and today and his name was never even mentioned during the broadcast on UK Eurosport.