Vuelta a España 76th La Vuelta ciclista a España 2021 (August 14 - September 5)

[Leinster]

The crash today was at 11km to go, on a stage that had already had splits due to crosswinds, with a murito finish, and a 5-man break up the road. It was on a dead straight, flat, wide piece of road, with no spectators, road furniture or collapsing archways.

And somebody still found a way to crash.

You can't prevent all crashes. But you can adjust the rules to reduce the serious ones.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Yeah obviously you can always find some excuse if you really want to. But the facts still remain the same. And the fact is there is a lot of GC related crashing involved at the end of bunch sprint stages on GT races. And that can be avoided when the people involved decide not to stick their head in the sand anymore and stop finding lame excuses.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yeah obviously you can always find some excuse if you really want to. But the facts still remain the same. And the fact is there is a lot of GC related crashing involved at the end of bunch sprint stages on GT races. And that can be avoided when the people involved decide not to stick their head in the sand anymore and stop finding lame excuses.

What exactly do you want them to do? Tell GC teams that they aren't allowed to be near the front for the last... what?... 15 Ks on a flat stage? But what about a team like Jumbo, at the Tour? They are a GC team, but at the Tour they also had a guy like Van Aert, who's a sprinter, among other things.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Yes exactly something like that. They can be if they want to. I would not forbid it. But the initiative should be very low. Resulting in they not being there most of the time as if wouldn't make much sense for them.

 

[perico]

I’m still wondering how Mas and Lopez weren’t included in the pre-race poll but Bardet, Aru, and Padun were.

 

[ice&fire]

For those interested in the combativity award:

Combativo : La Vuelta

Entra y vota en CombativoLaVuelta.com #LaVuelta21

www.combativolavuelta.com

Troll'em if you can

 

[Red Rick]

For those interested in the combativity award:

Combativo : La Vuelta

Entra y vota en CombativoLaVuelta.com #LaVuelta21

www.combativolavuelta.com

Troll'em if you can

Let's vote in Meintjes every day of the final week.

 

[ice&fire]

Let's vote in Meintjes every day of the final week.

I believe you can only vote for a limited number of riders selected by the organiser for each stage. I'm not sure they can do better polls than what we see in this thread.

 

[tobydawq]

Let's vote in Meintjes every day of the final week.

I swear my TV was broken yesterday. It seemed to be showing Meintjes in a group ahead of the main bunch.

 

[hayneplane]

I swear my TV was broken yesterday. It seemed to be showing Meintjes in a group ahead of the main bunch.

He was even briefly at the head of that small group. The ninja union will be having stern words on the rest day today.

 

[Red Rick]

I swear my TV was broken yesterday. It seemed to be showing Meintjes in a group ahead of the main bunch.

Sometimes protecting the 14th place in GC is more important things than living life at the back of the peloton

 

[BlueRoads]

Of the eleven riders I put in the poll 4 are now gone.
They're trolling me.

 

[Netserk]

Of the eleven riders I put in the poll 4 are now gone.
They're trolling me.

You didn't make it easier for yourself by omitting (on purpose?) several of the contenders.

 

[BlueRoads]

You didn't make it easier for yourself by omitting (on purpose?) several of the contenders.

Actually I didn't think it would matter that much since Roglic would be the over-favourite anyway. I really should have put in Mas and Lopez but I thought they were going all in for Valverde in his maybe final Vuelta... Should have known Movistar are not into going all in for a guy.

My poll wasn't worth much, but I never meant to jinx the guys I named here...

 

[Red Rick]

I must honestly say good job on the Vuelta to way overdo it on the points classification adjustment tbh.

 

[roundabout]

Why?

Stage finish points only under old system (let's leave Roglic out for the sake of an expirement)

Jakobsen - 115
Mas - 93
Lopez - 91

It's not that unreasonable that Mas can score more stage finish points in total than Jakobsen after 21 stages.

And Jakobsen going 6/6 would have probably lost to Roglic by a margin of over 1 stage victory (Roglic has 150 stage finish points under the old system as of now).

 

[Red Rick]

Why?

Stage finish points only under old system (let's leave Roglic out for the sake of an expirement)

Jakobsen - 115
Mas - 93
Lopez - 91

It's not that unreasonable that Mas can score more stage finish points in total than Jakobsen after 21 stages.

And Jakobsen going 6/6 would have probably lost to Roglic by a margin of over 1 stage victory (Roglic has 150 stage finish points under the old system as of now).

I said they overdid it. Not that it wasn't a good thing to adjust in the first place.

I don't think it's a prerequisite GC guys can compete in this, but a sprinter winning it with his eyes closed with 3 stage wins and nothing else isn't a good thing. Especially this Vuelta it would be good if a guy like Cort could contest it.

 

[roundabout]

I said they overdid it. Not that it wasn't a good thing to adjust in the first place.

I don't think it's a prerequisite GC guys can compete in this, but a sprinter winning it with his eyes closed with 3 stage wins and nothing else isn't a good thing. Especially this Vuelta it would be good if a guy like Cort could contest it.

They went overboard only if there is a dominant sprinter.

6 x sprint stage wins is 300 points now

15 x other stage wins is 350 points total

6 x sprint stage 2nd places is 180 points

15x other stage 2nd places is 295 points total

Anyway, we will see how an all-rounder like Van Aert can contest a similar points classification if it comes to that next year.

 

[tobydawq]

I said they overdid it. Not that it wasn't a good thing to adjust in the first place.

I don't think it's a prerequisite GC guys can compete in this, but a sprinter winning it with his eyes closed with 3 stage wins and nothing else isn't a good thing. Especially this Vuelta it would be good if a guy like Cort could contest it.

Cort's problem is that he can't score many points in pure bunch sprints. Yes, he has the speed but his positioning is very unreliable and then it's hard to keep yourself in a points competition.

 

[perico]

Of the eleven riders I put in the poll 4 are now gone.
They're trolling me.

You let your bias cloud your judgment. Bardet and Aru? Seriously? Bardet hasn’t had a GT Top 5 since 2018 and Aru is retiring after this race.

You may not be a fan of the Movistar duo and there’s nothing wrong with that, but to make the official Vuelta poll and leave two major favorites who will end up on the podium at the end of the race was either being blatantly disrespectful or just trolling.

 

[BlueRoads]

You let your bias cloud your judgment. Bardet and Aru? Seriously? Bardet hasn’t had a GT Top 5 since 2018 and Aru is retiring after this race.

You may not be a fan of the Movistar duo and there’s nothing wrong with that, but to make the official Vuelta poll and leave two major favorites who will end up on the podium at the end of the race was either being blatantly disrespectful or just trolling.

My, why do you have such a problem with my polls. It's just a poll, a bit of fun, not meant to hurt or disrespect anyone and not to be taken too seriously anyway.
I promise I will never make another poll again. Everytime I leave out a rider his fans complain it was by purpose, disrespectful and biased.
Regarding this poll: I have nothing against Lopez, on the contrary, not one of my favourite riders, but definitely on the positive side. If he makes the podium, I like that.
Aru, Schachmann, Vansevenant was the fun, the "Vino" option.
I tried to get riders from several teams on the list. Sorry for taking Yates instead of Mas.
Mas, yes, there you might be right, I might be biased against him, because he seems like a nice guy but a boring rider to me. But maybe you can now, after posting your problem with this poll for like the 10th time, get over it.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

My, why do you have such a problem with my polls. It's just a poll, a bit of fun, not meant to hurt or disrespect anyone and not to be taken too seriously anyway.
I promise I will never make another poll again. Everytime I leave out a rider his fans complain it was by purpose, disrespectful and biased.
Regarding this poll: I have nothing against Lopez, on the contrary, not one of my favourite riders, but definitely on the positive side. If he makes the podium, I like that.
Aru, Schachmann, Vansevenant was the fun, the "Vino" option.
I tried to get riders from several teams on the list. Sorry for taking Yates instead of Mas.
Mas, yes, there you might be right, I might be biased against him, because he seems like a nice guy but a boring rider to me. But maybe you can now, after posting your problem with this poll for like the 10th time, get over it.

You did bait him a bit this time, though. And leaving out both Mas and López was defintiely a mistake

But I agree that if you want to have all the riders you see as the favourites included in a poll, then you should probably go ahead and make the thread and the poll yourself, though of course you might sometimes be too late.

 

[BlueRoads]

You did bait him a bit this time, though. And leaving out both Mas and López was defintiely a mistake

But I agree that if you want to have all the riders you see as the favourites included in a poll, then you should probably go ahead and make the thread and the poll yourself, though of course you might sometimes be too late.

I have no problem admitting it was a mistake - obviously it is, when two established riders end up on the podium. But why does everybody always go like "it was by purpose, you are down on xy"? Actually, when I don't like a rider much I'm much more likely to include him in a poll...

Maybe another aspect is, now that I re-read it, that my polls in these general race threads are seen as "official". I don't know if that's what they are considered here "historically", they certainly aren't meant to have any official whiff from my side.

 

[CyclistAbi]

You must have plotted this plan carefully and must have known you will upset the mob. I mean look at the Roglič entry. It's like everybody voted for Roglič. Him being a clear underdog on this race. Additionally the plan likely was to kidnap Mas and López as nobody would knew and there would be no evidence they are participating on the race at all. To give Valverde a fair chance and his hair back. Considering the Movistar tactics and the emergence of the Alpecin.

Now when the plan went bust surely this will get denied!

 

[RedheadDane]

Dunno which stage this is from, but I don't think it's accurate...