La Vuelta '17 stage 3:Prades Conflent>Andorra la Vella 158km

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Rubén Fernández is 26, not exactly a young star, and only one year younger than Nairito. He's the only one of whom Unzué will have placed any responsibility on GC-wise. Abarcá always leave their young guns with the freedom to lose time early on, and that's what Soler and Carapaz have done. Quintana did that in his breakout 2012 Vuelta. It's just that for once they don't have any GC leader here.

I reckon Soler and Carapaz are allowed to lose time here just to test recovery and have some freedom to go for stages later in the race. I wouldn't be surprised if Marc targets the GPM as the race goes on. Moreno will be their man who bails out the GC ambitions, probably by riding à la Zubeldia to finish about 8th. And Carlos Betancur was only a minute down

I am pretty pessimistic about a GC mix including both Yates twins, Rui Costa, Tejay van Garderen and the black hole void that is Louis Meintjes. Save us, Kamaz, save us.

They are riding for minor places tho, nobody is coming close to winning bar Adam Yates maybe. But yeah, that sounds so bad lining it up like that. :lol: Altho we must not forget Simon actually has shown a decent amount of aggressiveness in a variety of races, bar the Tour obviously. Adam however.. they remind me a bit of the Schleck-couple, but they are two Fränks.

On your other points, Fernandez simply is a travesty as this point. Soler was exceptionally bad in Burgos due to peaking two times earlier the year (shouldn't have done that in retrospect when Valv is absent, but thats easy to say) to this is expected. He tried to hang on, but was cooked. He will come. Calar Alto Antón style is my guess.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Save us, Kamaz, save us.

Which person (or deity), whose nickname coincides with a Russian manufacturer of heavy vehicles, can save us? It doesn't really fit Chaves or Nibali. What am I missing here?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Poels was dropped by Moscon

That is the funniest part indeed
Its surprising given the strength he showed recently. Not so regarding his lack of rythm following his injury tbf.

Wouldn't read too much into today, In the Tours when Poels was strong in the mountains he started off the first weak looking poor, then his form improved and he was very strong in the second half of the race. Hopefully more of the same here especially when the longer climbs start next week.

 

[HelloDolly]

Nibali on ITV4 crediting Nicolas Roche for getting back on terms with Froome today

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Nibali on ITV4 crediting Nicolas Roche for getting back on terms with Froome today

Was probably happy that Roche also handed him the stage win on a plate with a brainless early sprint, despite being the fastest guy in the group.

 

[Netserk]

That reminds me, does anyone remember the Der Untergang cycling parody were the two girls are the Schleck brothers? I've searched for it before, but I haven't been able to find it again. I think Hitler is Johan Bruyneel.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Save us, Kamaz, save us.

Which person (or deity), whose nickname coincides with a Russian manufacturer of heavy vehicles, can save us? It doesn't really fit Chaves or Nibali. What am I missing here?

Zakarin.

@Valv.Piti S.Yates is an aggressive rider indeed. He won his Vuelta stage last year by attacking. P-N stage 6 this year, GP Miguel Indurain and Leysin stage in Romandie other examples.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Valv.Piti - both Yates brothers are pretty interesting short stage racers and one-day racers, but they both retreat into their shells abjectly when the races get longer. Don't know if it's "conserve energy until later" "damn, now I'm knackered and all I can do is follow" until we've got a greater body of work to judge, but they really don't inspire much excitement in Grand Tours. In much the same way as Valverde is criticised for being ultra-conservative in the biggest races but animates the small ones. Still, could be worse - there could be one Yates and two Meintjes.

Tank - Kamaz trucks, those inelegant but rugged machines, can power over all terrains and are manufactured in Naberezhnye Chelny (Набережные Челны), Tatarstan. By coincidence, another inelegant but rugged machine that can power over all terrains and rejoices in the name Ilnur Zakarin, was manufactured in the same town.

 

[Netserk]

Libertine, that's not really fair to Simon, given how he rode the Vuelta last year.

 

[swissfr]

Re: Re:

Bardet: Really good atm, but i think he will falter in the 2nd part of this Vuelta

Aru: I admire the guy. So much fighting spirit. Podium candidate for sure

Enlighten me, because I fail to see many differences between their abilities. Bookies seem to share your thoughts.

There's a 40km ITT, Aru is basically an average TT'er for an elite climber, whereas Bardet is the very definition of TT'ing excrement.

Doesn't it (also) have to do with Aru being a former winner and Bardet racing here for the first time?

A little bit? Aru is probably slightly more established as a GT contender and especially as a man who can contend 2 GTs in a season (though he did Giro-Vuelta back then)

In the Tour, Bardet was largely superior than Aru...

 

[Forever The Best]

Re:

Libertine, that's not really fair to Simon, given how he rode the Vuelta last year.

Indeed. In his addition to his stage win, he was also going long-range on the Aubisque stage.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Watching the Yates brothers ride at the back of the group with no intentions of doing anything other than follow day out and day in honestly pisses me of, but its unfair to Simon. He did great in the Vuelta last year and went into Adam-mode in the Tour this year for whatever reason. It disappoints me you compared him to Valverde.... and Meintjens at least doesn't sit behind the bunch all the time, he got that going for him, but thats about the only thing.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

Nibali on ITV4 crediting Nicolas Roche for getting back on terms with Froome today

Was probably happy that Roche also handed him the stage win on a plate with a brainless early sprint, despite being the fastest guy in the group.

Poor Nico...loads of riders miles behind him today get hyped , everyone in top 9 gets mentioned and he rides out of his skin and all he gets ( as per usual) is criticism

 

[rick james]

Re:

on Froome:
The fact that he sprinted for the intermediate time bonuses, the fact that he attacked viciously to gain the most advantage possible to his competitors so early in the race -those facts signal to me he feels in desperate need to make huge chunks of of time before he starts to fade towards the last week ....?

We've been here before and we've seen it all before it has nothing to do with him feel bad, it's because he's feeling strong

 

[Krokro]

Re: Re:

Poels was dropped by Moscon

That is the funniest part indeed
Its surprising given the strength he showed recently. Not so regarding his lack of rythm following his injury tbf.

Wouldn't read too much into today, In the Tours when Poels was strong in the mountains he started off the first weak looking poor, then his form improved and he was very strong in the second half of the race. Hopefully more of the same here especially when the longer climbs start next week.

That's right, lot of things can still change in 3 weeks. If he improves, Sky's ennemies are pretty well doomed.

Hoping for long range attacks from contenders that lost a big chunk of time already (Zakarin, Kruisj, Keldermann, Jungels). Had some reasonnable hope on Jungels when I looked at the 40km long ITT but reality caught me.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Valv.Piti - both Yates brothers are pretty interesting short stage racers and one-day racers, but they both retreat into their shells abjectly when the races get longer. Don't know if it's "conserve energy until later" "damn, now I'm knackered and all I can do is follow" until we've got a greater body of work to judge, but they really don't inspire much excitement in Grand Tours. In much the same way as Valverde is criticised for being ultra-conservative in the biggest races but animates the small ones. Still, could be worse - there could be one Yates and two Meintjes.

Tank - Kamaz trucks, those inelegant but rugged machines, can power over all terrains and are manufactured in Naberezhnye Chelny (Набережные Челны), Tatarstan. By coincidence, another inelegant but rugged machine that can power over all terrains and rejoices in the name Ilnur Zakarin, was manufactured in the same town.

1. True. I think though that Meintjes is also just holding on.

2. Thanks for the answer. I did think of Zakarin, but a) the image of a preying mantis does not go with a truck, b) I can't see any salvation from that source. True, it was a downhill finish which is the worst terrain for a Kamaz, but I can only see him as possible top-5.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Mientjes is the new, worse Levi Leipheimer without a time trial. Thats bad guys.

 

[Krokro]

Re:

Watching the Yates brothers ride at the back of the group with no intentions of doing anything other than follow day out and day in honestly pisses me of, but its unfair to Simon. He did great in the Vuelta last year and went into Adam-mode in the Tour this year for whatever reason. It disappoints me you compared him to Valverde.... and Meintjens at least doesn't sit behind the bunch all the time, he got that going for him, but thats about the only thing.

Would it be possible that this is a strategy? They got 3 leaders. Chaves seems to be on fire until now. They might lose some time on purpose to tactically try something a bit later on?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Watching the Yates brothers ride at the back of the group with no intentions of doing anything other than follow day out and day in honestly pisses me of, but its unfair to Simon. He did great in the Vuelta last year and went into Adam-mode in the Tour this year for whatever reason. It disappoints me you compared him to Valverde.... and Meintjens at least doesn't sit behind the bunch all the time, he got that going for him, but thats about the only thing.

Would it be possible that this is a strategy? They got 3 leaders. Chaves seems to be on fire until now. They might lose some time on purpose to tactically try something a bit later on?

I think part of this is down to the team strategy, they've always said they will bring them on gradually, to ride at their own pace and not go deep.

Dave Millar mentioned at he end of the Tour he spoke with Matt White and he said they told Simon to ride conservative to keep the white jersey. They didn't want him going on pointless attacks to just get caught and dropped. We've seen in the past how they have been attacking in certain races, but it seems like a team call when they ride defensively.

 

[wwabbit]

Poels seems to have taken over Henao's role from the Tour de France...

 

[rick james]

Re:

Poels was dropped by Moscon

like what they do in TDF, Poels will come alive in the 3rd week

 

[rick james]

Re:

Poels seems to have taken over Henao's role from the Tour de France...

again at last years Le tour, Poels was getting dropped early doors all the time until the 3rd week. I wouldn't read too much into it

 

[deValtos]

I think Poels will be dissapointed, I get the impression he really wanted to be up there fighting for GC also. I agree though there's a good chance he will get into the swing of things in the third week.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re:

Mientjes is the new, worse Levi Leipheimer without a time trial. Thats bad guys.

Meintjes is definitely one of the most boring riders but he is still very young and talented and maybe he will get more aggressive in the future, or not :lol:

 

[May0maniac]

Poels is just not constant enough to ride for gc in a gt, the guy often even has bad days in one week stage races.
Pozzovivo was sick after Poland (apparently a Virus), so him being good on this stage is actually great news, he was a bit unsure about his form.