La Vuelta ciclista a España 2020

[Carrick-On-Seine]

I hope Marc Soler accidentally manages to get time in the first few stages and then we're back to the Movistar triple leader scenario, thus ruling out Enric Mas of any chance for the win . He should probably still podium again.

 

[richwallone]

For me, like for majority here, it is the fight between Carapaz (to prove that they should have let him ride Giro) and Roglic (TdF redemption tour)... They both have great motivation and hopefully on form to go for it... The rest I'm giving to somebody from the young guns group: Martinez, Mas or Vlasov... Vlasov maybe an odd shot here but hey 2020 is the young guns coming out year.

 

[Lequack]

Some more before the start

 

[Rackham]

Good to see Dawg back racing a grand tour, sadly too many will take great delight when he doesn't have the legs

Of course. It's why "everyone" cheered when Indurain lost his legs in 1996 & even Armstrong himself would have been well advised to let the natural passing of time beat him & lose a Tour in 2004 or 2005: many people want to see the champion fall... even though it's nothing really personal.

Froome won loads, i.e. it's quite normal for people to be hungry for new champions & want the former ones to fail. It's reassuring for the viewers, i.e. the previous exploits of champions are only further magnified by the sight of their current struggles (aka cycling is a hard as hell unforgiving sport which doesn't tolerate weakness & aging).

 

[Luthor]

I don't see anyone outside Roglic, Dumo or Carapaz to win. Roglic might be the favorite but same applied to G before Giro and we saw how that went.

 

[RedheadDane]

That looks... dangerous!

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Roglic the first defending champion since Juan Jose Cobo to actually show up at La Vuelta?

Cobo never won a Vuelta. But yeah, Froomey showed up 2012.

 

[RedheadDane]

Cobo never won a Vuelta. But yeah, Froomey showed up 2012.

But Cobo was still defending champion back in 2012. Unless, of course, the Cobo and Froome that rode in 2012 were actually time-travellers from after Cobo had been stripped of his title.

 

[Eclipse]

The dawg looking lean and relaxed. Carapaz nervously about to check his back for ineos branded knives.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

The dawg looking lean and relaxed. Carapaz nervously about to check his back for ineos branded knives.

He'll be fine. Plastic knives are useless.

 

[Escarabajo]

I would not ignore Mas in this Vuelta. He has all the tools to win it.

**** Roglic, Carapaz
*** Mas, Dumo, Vlasov, Pinot
** Valverde, Martinez, Martin (French), Kuss, Soler, Poels, Woods
* Chaves, Martin (Irish), Formolo, Izaguirre, Sosa, Froome, De La Cruz

Maybe you can put more riders in that last line that I don't remember.

 

[HelloDolly]

I voted for Carapaz with Dumoulin and Chaves on the podium

but would not be surprised if Froome starts slowly and begins to contend towards the end

when are the rest days ?

 

[roundabout]

with so many people doubling up from the Tour it feels like that the advantage should be with the few that did not (go Woods) or those who couldn't perform/took it easier at the Tour.

on the other hand it's a 13 day + 1 climb race so doubling up should be easier

against the idea of an easier double is the calender with the Worlds and Ardennes in between

so all in all, I have no idea what will happen

 

[KZD]

Roglic, Mas and Vlasov is the podium that I expect for this race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

But Cobo was still defending champion back in 2012. Unless, of course, the Cobo and Froome that rode in 2012 were actually time-travellers from after Cobo had been stripped of his title.

If Cobo actually were a time traveller, he forgot to bring the right passport

 

[JosefK]

Carapaz. Roglic or Dumo or Kuss (or Pinot) would be my fav, but the head says Carapaz. I don't think he went as deep as Roglic at the TDF, and Dumo will be better in 2021, back to his top form, but not yet. Kuss could be great for three or four really tough mountain days, but I think there are too many mountain stages in this Vuelta for him if he wants to place high on GC (he's bound to have at least one jour sans), plus he's average at best in the TT. I think he shines brightest as a top support climber, where he can occasionally take time to recover (losing time) on stages where he's finished his work or is not needed for the hills.

 

[Koronin]

I hope Marc Soler accidentally manages to get time in the first few stages and then we're back to the Movistar triple leader scenario, thus ruling out Enric Mas of any chance for the win . He should probably still podium again.

Except you're forgetting a big difference this year. This year Movistar has a group of guys who actually get along very well with each other. Soler and Mas are good friends and both like riding with and want to ride with Valverde. Mas said after the Tour that riding that Tour with Valverde showed him how much he still needs to learn about how to be leader and how to deal with all the responsibilities the leader has. He was talking about hoping the next GT he'd be able to start shouldering a bit of those responsibilities.

 

[Koronin]

My heart says Valverde. My head says he's more likely to get a podium than win. So as much as it pains me I'm picking Mas to win and Valverde to finish on the podium somehow.

 

[RedheadDane]

If Cobo actually were a time traveller, he forgot to bring the right passport

It was the 2011 edition of Cobo who had his passport analysed.

 

[tobydawq]

But Cobo was still defending champion back in 2012. Unless, of course, the Cobo and Froome that rode in 2012 were actually time-travellers from after Cobo had been stripped of his title.

There weren't time travellers. There never are.

 

[perico]

I’ve got something that pissed me off today... The world feed at La Vuelta. I have no issues with a former pro female in the commentary booth, but at least have one that can talk about riders besides Froome.

My regular channel zonked out today with weather so I switched over to the world feed on my mobile so I didn’t catch the name of the announcer, but it was right at the time Froome was dropped and she was going on and on about how Froome should “get on his radio right now and tell the team to slow down because he’s their leader” and overall guy. Apparently oblivious to the fact that Carapaz entered the race as a podium contender and possible winner, she expected them to lay off the pace so Froome wouldn’t be dropped. She droned on longer about Froome than Bob Roll talking about Lance at an Armstrong Appreciation Society meeting.

Seriously. I vaguely remember her from the 2019 World Championships pissing me off as well with a comment about how much she wanted one rider (it may have been Backstedt’s daughter in one of the events) to finish on the podium. It’s one thing to applaud a rider’s performance and say it’s deserving, but openly pulling for someone isn’t commentating, it’s cheering.

Just had to get that off my chest.

 

[JosefK]

I’ve got something that pissed me off today... The world feed at La Vuelta. I have no issues with a former pro female in the commentary booth, but at least have one that can talk about riders besides Froome.

My regular channel zonked out today with weather so I switched over to the world feed on my mobile so I didn’t catch the name of the announcer, but it was right at the time Froome was dropped and she was going on and on about how Froome should “get on his radio right now and tell the team to slow down because he’s their leader” and overall guy. Apparently oblivious to the fact that Carapaz entered the race as a podium contender and possible winner, she expected them to lay off the pace so Froome wouldn’t be dropped. She droned on longer about Froome than Bob Roll talking about Lance at an Armstrong Appreciation Society meeting.

Seriously. I vaguely remember her from the 2019 World Championships pissing me off as well with a comment about how much she wanted one rider (it may have been Backstedt’s daughter in one of the events) to finish on the podium. It’s one thing to applaud a rider’s performance and say it’s deserving, but openly pulling for someone isn’t commentating, it’s cheering.

Just had to get that off my chest.

I had the same reaction (was watching the NBC Sports Gold package). It was clear as day that Carapaz was the leader for Ineos and had the form, and that Froome had no form, not even enough to keep up with the top domestiques from some of the other GC guys' teams.

 

[Sciatic]

I had the same reaction (was watching the NBC Sports Gold package). It was clear as day that Carapaz was the leader for Ineos and had the form, and that Froome had no form, not even enough to keep up with the top domestiques from some of the other GC guys' teams.

Me as well. Though I thought she might be purposely dumbing down for english-speaking audiences who might not be aware that Ineos have been well aware of Froome’s numbers and physiology levels all summer (and now fall) long, know he’s one of the worst on the team, and have him on the squad only because they had promised to give him a shot, or because of genuine loyalty to Froome, or because a contract clause they had to meet. But perhaps you folks are correct in that she’s the clueless one. My odd thought about new announcers for North American audiences is that announcers should be knowledgeable or have personal experience in cycling so they have inside info to share, but that they should train by listening to baseball announcers, who became skilled at carrying along a narrative when not much is going on, and even when things do happen, they don’t feel the need to overexplain everything we can see with our own eyes, or make things up because they feel like they must blab some type of information, even if they make it up as they go along.