Vuelta a España Ninja of La Vuelta

[Hakkie2]

Stage 8

A hstorical moment as Nicolas Edet ninjas himself into the leaders jersey!
Guerreiro drops out after finishing fourth, but Stetina delivers a stellar performance as well to move into a virtual podium.

Rider	Manager	Best placing	Current GC	Gap
Wilco Kelderman	Red Rick	12	12	06:37
Pierre Latour	Hayneplane	11	14	06:56
Peter Stetina	Tigerion	12	17	08:09
Herman Pernsteiner	SafeBet	11	18	09:09
Dani Martinez	JoeD1997	23	26	13:18
Louis Meintjes	Wirral	16	27	13:44
Kilian Frankiny	Hakkie	20	30	15:07
Sergio Pardilla	Armchair Cyclist	36	47	31:19
Matteo Fabbro	Cian	46	56	35:49
Antonio Pedrero	Libertine Seguros	51	59	37:24
Felix Grossschartner	Anderis	44	79	45:18
Sergei Chernetski	Starlord	26	84	49:07
Tao Geoghegan-Hart	Shadow93	51	96	51:44
Robert Power	Laarsland	60	159	01:33:02
Nicolas Roche	Logic is your friend	2 (st 2)
Alex Aranburu	Scarponi	9 (st 2)
Victor de la Parte	Tobydawq	17	DNF
David de la Cruz	Del1962	9 (st6)
Jesus Herrada	Pantani lives	1 (st6)
Rafal Majka	Koronin	5 (st7)		-
George Bennett	Salvarani	9 (st7)
Oscar Rodriguez	Carton	10 (st7)
Ruben Guerreiro	DJSprtsch	4 (st8)

 

[Roku]

The guy with Stetina is gonna win this. But, if you are looking for a solid ninja and if i can enter mid-race, I'd say Christian Rodríguez from Caja Rural.

 

[laarsland]

Bob Power flattering to deceive yet again, even in the ninja comp

 

[Red Rick]

Oh god I'm now officially Kelderman's manager.

How am I gonna handle the stress

 

[SafeBet]

Kelderman, Latour, Stetina and Pernsteiner have all been very close to a top10 and will eventually find a way to get one. Dani Martinez will 99% get in a break later in the race so I'm not betting on him either. All signals point to Meintjes winning the Ninja competition and he would sure be a deserving winner.

 

[del1962]

If someone had picked Edet would he still be in the race or does the race lead disqualify him

 

[Armchair cyclist]

If someone had picked Edet would he still be in the race or does the race lead disqualify him

I would say that he wouldn't be disqualified if yesterday were the last stage, but I haven't seen proper coverage of yesterday's stage to see if he was as anonymous as could be in the break. A break with enough men in it need not expose a ninja.

Given that the whole point of a leader's jersey is to make him visible, being in red might negate ninja status. He could just try to pass himself off as a Sunweb rider though.

 

[ice&fire]

Keldeman out with his 8th place.

 

[SafeBet]

Pernsteiner and Tao as well.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Well there goes me. I actually had hope this morning a couple others would be crossed off to move him up.

 

[hayneplane]

Nice ninja work by Latour again. Gets in the break but is never witnessed on the front of the group and gets eclipsed by his own relatively unknown teammate.

There is a chance he might knock me out of contention by doing a strong time trial as there are not many specialists in the race and it is a moderately hilly course.

 

[Leinster]

Carl Fredrik Hagen is killing it here. Is it too late to join in? In my defense I had never heard of him before the race?

 

[Koronin]

Will definitely have to actually think about this competition for next year. Who do I want to manage for this one next year....of course will need official lineups.

In Latour's case, he manages to remain a Ninja in the break and his unknown teammate gets the attention. Due to Movistar's antics, almost forgot about Latour's teammate having had a nice stage.

 

[Hakkie2]

Stage 9

A new exciting day in this competition. Carl Fredrik Hagen, who ninjad himself into a professional contract at age 27, takes a commanding lead after his main competitors fail. Kelderman, Pernsteiner and WeirdName leave the competition through their top-10 finish. Latour and Stetina took their day off 24 hours too early.
Hagen now has a 12 minute margin on Martinez and Frankiny, who showed lots of ninja-potential today by dropping out of the breakaway.

Will Hagen hold on?

Rider	Manager	Best placing	Current GC	Gap
Carl Fredrik Hagen	Leinster	11	6	01:46
Dani Martinez	JoeD1997	22	22	13:50
Kilian Frankiny	Hakkie	20	24	15:39
Pierre Latour	Hayneplane	11	25	17:08
Peter Stetina	Tigerion	12	26	20:38
Louis Meintjes	Wirral	16	28	23:56
Matteo Fabbro	Cian	40	49	45:56
Antonio Pedrero	Libertine Seguros	37	50	46:03
Felix Grossschartner	Anderis	33	54	50:04
Sergio Pardilla	Armchair Cyclist	36	59	52:46
Sergei Chernetski	Starlord	26	94	01:17:47
Robert Power	Laarsland	60	157	01:59:58
Nicolas Roche	Logic is your friend	2 (st 2)
Alex Aranburu	Scarponi	9 (st 2)
Victor de la Parte	Tobydawq	17	DNF
David de la Cruz	Del1962	9 (st6)
Jesus Herrada	Pantani lives	1 (st6)
Rafal Majka	Koronin	5 (st7)		-
George Bennett	Salvarani	9 (st7)
Oscar Rodriguez	Carton	10 (st7)
Ruben Guerreiro	DJSprtsch	4 (st8)
Tao Geoghegan-Hart	Shadow93	10 (st9)
Herman Pernsteiner	SafeBet	6 (st9)
Wilco Kelderman	Red Rick	8 (st9)

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Kelderman, Pernsteiner and WeirdName leave the competition through their top-10 finish.

Thanks for taking this on.

However, at risk of going off-subject, I must object to Geoghegan -Hart being rendered "WeirdName". Double barrelled surnames have been part of British naming tradition for centuries, and in the last 50 years or so has moved away from being an upper-class habit linked to inheritance.

Geoghegan is an Irish name that traces back to a 5th century High King of Ireland. It follows the phonetic rules of anglicised Irish just as much as any other rider's name follows the rules of its language.

But where Tao comes from as a forename, and why it is pronounced to rhyme with mayo, rather than cow (loose anglicisation of Chinese metaphysical concept), I have no idea.

 

[hayneplane]

With the greatest of respect to Leinster and their cheeky attempt to ninja their way into the competition close to halfway through I must protest that it is far too deep into the race for new entrants to be allowed when we have already had three hard summit finishes.

 

[Leinster]

With the greatest of respect to Leinster and their cheeky attempt to ninja their way into the competition close to halfway through I must protest that it is far too deep into the race for new entrants to be allowed when we have already had three hard summit finishes.

I completely agree, hence why I asked the same question. I do feel that Hagen’s spectacular efforts need to be noted in this thread. I’m happy to have my name removed as his “manager,” or to have an asterisk or something by my name to indicate that I was a late entry.

 

[HelloDolly]

I'm calling this now ...Carl Fredrik Hagen is so elite in this division that I htink he may be related to Hamiar

 

[JoeD1997]

Why Dani? Why? 1 second slower and we would still be in this competiton!!!

 

[shalgo]

Why Dani? Why? 1 second slower and we would still be in this competiton!!!

Latour is also out.

 

[del1962]

Hagen has twice been in the break and still no top ten, Knox to me is more ninja now 20th, no top tens and not been in the break,

 

[starlord]

Hagen has twice been in the break and still no top ten, Knox to me is more ninja now 20th, no top tens and not been in the break,

Knox has to be the ultimate ninja. A few days ago I read in a live feed that he had crashed and abandoned and there he is riding the TT

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Fuglsang is also doing a good job. 19th at best, 21st overall just behind Knox, and I haven't noticed him being in a break?

 

[Red Rick]

Fuglsang is also doing a good job. 19th at best, 21st overall just behind Knox, and I haven't noticed him being in a break?

He was in a break in Andorra, but dropped back to help Lopez on dirt section.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

He was in a break in Andorra, but dropped back to help Lopez on dirt section.

Arranged a thunderstorm to blank out the TV coverage to maintain his ninja status.