59th Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) 8 - 13 April

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Gotta admit, there are two one-week races that never disappoint: Paris-Nice and Pais Vasco.

Didn't see this coming.

PN was literally over before most GC stages

Yeah, but at least here we see a true tactical masterpiece by Astana. Letting Buchmann away on the penultimate day but having to make a huge effort that he wouldn't be able to recover from for today, where they put the nail in Bora's coffin.

Thats not a tactical masterpiece, they just got their sh*t together after they fked it up yesterday.

My humble guess would be it was a pretty sarcastic comment to RR's bashing of Astana yesterday.

Cance: Oh yeah, thats a good point and a pretty obvious one when you think about it. Thats also why the Giro is always better than the Tour - at least one of the big reasons.

 

[Hayabusa]

According to Eurosports commentators, Fuglsang has joined Bora and been working for Buchmann for the last few kms....

 

[Salvarani]

I feel like Schachmann and Konrad could have done more work. They are not simply stopping, like you see when a dom is completely empty

 

[Escarabajo]

How can Martinez be so bad in the climbs?

We have a great race here today.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I feel like Schachmann and Konrad could have done more work. They are not simply stopping, like you see when a dom is completely empty

They are emptying themselves and trying to get over this climb as well, but they can't help that much on the steep slopes since they simply aren't good enough

 

[Red Rick]

Movistar Movistarring like only Movistar can

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Izagirre better have the goods in the end, with the work Fuglsang is putting in.

- as per usual, he is putting loyalty in the bank in the spring, for his own targets later on

 

[Libertine Seguros]

País Vasco has had a few stinker routes in recent years though. 2012 was pretty bad, salvaged by terrible weather in the Oñati road stage and that the TT was far harder than it looked, and 2014 wasn't great with the fairly lame penultimate stage. Introducing Karakate though was always going to be a big thing, It's a great climb, and that it can now be a pass is bonus because it used to only be ridable from one side (the side they descended here). Do I wish there was more variety in the MTFs and it wasn't just Arrate each time? Sure. But the paving of the Azitain side of the climb now opens up much more creative use of it. Just with we'd see Urkiola more (fantastic climb that) or would do Jaizkibel-Erlaitz-Bianditz one year. It's weird because this is both a part of the world which is completely well- to the point of being over-trodden from a route perspective that you'd think it would be hard to find new options (and indeed they do spam some classics like Aia and Arrate), but there's also so much choice by way of interesting climbs of all sizes (save for the absolute behemoth, given the mountains in this part of the world are quite low-lying and it's not expected that they hop across the border for Pierre Saint-Martin or Larrau, both of whom could be argued are Basque climbs) that even despite the Arrate repetition in the period before they paved the Azitain side the race didn't get too repetitious.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Izagirre better have the goods in the end, with the work Fuglsang is putting in.

- as per usual, he is putting loyalty in the bank in the spring, for his own targets later on

He is putting in the work for himself and Ion. And its not like Ion isn't pulling either...

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Izagirre better have the goods in the end, with the work Fuglsang is putting in.

- as per usual, he is putting loyalty in the bank in the spring, for his own targets later on

He is putting in the work for himself and Ion. And its not like Ion isn't pulling either...

It's clearly Fuglsang doing most the work, which ofcourse makes sense, with Izagirre being in the lead.

However, if he does not have the goods on the last climb, Martin may run away with it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This was the last categorized climb of the day on the 2012 stage when Kiserlovski tried to attack from distance in torrential rain, then Sky misread the route book and toasted all their puncheurs trying to lead out Appollonio in a sprint, only to find the uncategorized Alto de Garagaltza (1km @ 9%) in their way, with Samu eventually outsprinting J-Rod for the stage win.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

What a fighter Buchmann is :O

Chapeau!

 

[Velolover2]

What was Nieve doing?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Yates takes the stage.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Nice win for Yates, a shame about the puncture earlier in the week.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Haha, wrong way, jeez

 

[Velolover2]

Wrong turn. Podium lost!

 

[WKA311]

Re:

What a fighter Buchmann is :O

Chapeau!

This. Great fight.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Buchmann follows the camera bike off the course near the end. Does it cost him a podium?

Edit; it does, he finished 4th on GC.

 

[70kmph]

Heheh what the... was dat

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Pogacar 6th overall. Superb ride.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Movistar Movistarring like only Movistar can

There's always something wrong, isn't there?

Landa gained three places from Verona's work.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

Buchmann follows the camera bike off the course near the end. Does it cost him a podium?

Yeah. If he got the s/t as Mollema, he would have been on the podium.

Still a nice performance from Bora with 4 stage wins.

 

[Gigs_98]

Buchmann seriously lost the podium in the last corner. Gotta feel for the guy. Tough day for him

 

[Valv.Piti]

Adam Yates must look back at this spring with mixed feelings.