Vuelta a España Ninja of La Vuelta

[Armchair cyclist]

The above is the state of play to Stage 4. If Lopez remains top of the table, then the criteria obviously lacked something, but I doubt that will be a problem. May well be a couple more drop out today.
(Doesn't appear possible to edit above or below a table)

 

[Hakkie2]

I'll go for Kilian Frankiny.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Phew, for a moment I thought my man Herrada was attacking, but it's only his brother José. Allez, José!

 

[Alexandre B.]

I must say this was a classic Ninja ride by Latour.

Dropped as soon as the pace went serious, managed to finish between Majka and Uran (12th) without being seen at all, even on the finish line.

 

[Anderis]

The above is the state of play to Stage 4. If Lopez remains top of the table, then the criteria obviously lacked something, but I doubt that will be a problem.

I think we could add another condition for the future that to win the competition a rider can't lead any classifcation at any point of the race. It's hard not to catch attention if you're wearing one of the jerseys.

It was only a matter of time before Lopez would get his first top10 but it's still weird that a race leader was still in the competition. May happen in the future that a less profficient climber will grab the leader or best climber jersey for a few days, though.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Stage 5

Rider	Manager	Best placing	Current GC	Gap
Rafal Majka	Koronin	11	8	-
Pierre Latour	Hayneplane	11	11	00:36
Victor de la Parte	Tobydawq	17	13	00:42
George Bennett	Salvarani	14	15	01:11
Ruben Guerreiro	DJSprtsch	15	18	02:00
Oscar Rodriguez	Carton	16	19	02:13
David de la Cruz	Del1962	35	23	03:24
Herman Pernsteiner	SafeBet	37	24	03:28
Louis Meintjes	Wirral	33	38	07:13
Kilian Frankiny	45	39	07:15
Peter Stetina	Tigerion	27	42	08:00
Matteo Fabbro	Cian	46	46	08:52
Sergio Pardilla	Armchair Cyclist	36	48	09:03
Jesus Herrada	Pantani lives	19	49	09:22
Sergei Chernetski	Starlord	26	71	15:23
Antonio Pedrero	Libertine Seguros	71	74	15:42
Felix Grossschartner	Anderis	106	117	25:25
Tao Geoghegan-Hart	Shadow93	51	127	27:07
Robert Power	Laarsland	132	173	60:28
Nicolas Roche	Logic is your friend	2 (st 2)
Alex Aranburu	Scarponi	9 (st 2)

I'm not really volunteering to do this every day: I already have my hands full with the CQ game. But if anyone else wants to, feel free.

 

[hayneplane]

I must say this was a classic Ninja ride by Latour.

Dropped as soon as the pace went serious, managed to finish between Majka and Uran (12th) without being seen at all, even on the finish line.

I saw him on the TV dropping very early and you would have assumed he would have lost 3 minutes based on that but surging past the likes of Roche and Uran but not being seen doing so was top class ninja tricks to also skilfully stop at 12th.

I do feel my time in this comp may be over by the weekend because his form looks very decent.

 

[perico]

They carry on as if he's the second coming of Merckx...

Today he came in 157th, about 20 minutes down.

 

[Breezy1985]

Today he came in 157th, about 20 minutes down.

I had a good laugh today watching the Skybots unable to rebel against their programming and come to the front on the climb and get the train going despite having no one to ride for

 

[dusty red roads]

I'm not sure about Latour - Kirby kept mentioning him....

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I'm not sure about Latour - Kirby kept mentioning him....

But only becaue he seems to be Kirby's latest item of fascination, not because he did anything different from any other rider. Which is why I wanted to have something more objective that CK's obsessive behaviour as the criteria.

 

[dusty red roads]

Yup - Kirby's latest item of fascination is the way to put it! I hear ya!

 

[Pantani_lives]

Jesús, why hast thou forsaken me??

 

[Koronin]

I think we can eliminate Jesus Herrada and David de la Cruz from the list now.

 

[Red Rick]

For the umpteenth stage in a row I had no clue where Kelderman finished again

 

[Pantani_lives]

Well, at least my man Herrada went out with a bang. In hindsight it was a bad choice, because Cofidis would always focus on breakaways.

 

[JoeD1997]

Late to the party, can I take Dani Martinez?

 

[Northerner]

Latour and Majka are the best picks so far, but I think Koronin and Hayneplane might be unlucky next time the GC group contest a stage win.

 

[Hakkie2]

Rider	Manager	Best placing	Current GC	Gap
Rafal Majka​	Koronin​	11​	9​	-​
Pierre Latour​	Hayneplane​	11​	12​	00:36​
George Bennett​	Salvarani​	14​	14​	01:11​
Oscar Rodriguez​	Carton​	16​	17​	02:19​
Ruben Guerreiro​	DJSprtsch​	15​	18​	02:20​
Dani Martinez​	JoeD1997​	23​	19​	02:31​
Herman Pernsteiner​	SafeBet​	26​	22​	03:27​
Louis Meintjes​	Wirral​	33​	33​	07:29​
Kilian Frankiny​	Hakkie​	31​	34​	07:30​
Peter Stetina​	Tigerion​	27​	35​	08:16​
Matteo Fabbro​	Cian​	46​	38​	09:46​
Sergio Pardilla​	Armchair Cyclist​	36​	39​	09:47​
Antonio Pedrero​	Libertine Seguros​	51​	56​	17:12​
Sergei Chernetski​	Starlord​	26​	69​	21:54​
Felix Grossschartner​	Anderis​	75​	100​	31:12​
Tao Geoghegan-Hart​	Shadow93​	51​	109​	33:38​
Robert Power​	Laarsland​	95​	168​	66:59​
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)​

​

 

[Koronin]

I'm officially out with Mijka. A top 5 on today's stage is not the worst way to go out of this competition.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Big changes!

Rider	Manager	Best placing	Current GC	Gap
Wilco Kelderman	Red Rick	12	9	03:36
Pierre Latour	Hayneplane	11	11	03:55
Herman Pernsteiner	SafeBet	11	14	06:08
Dani Martinez	JoeD1997	23	23	10:17
Louis Meintjes	Wirral	16	24	10:43
Kilian Frankiny	Hakkie	20	26	12:06
Peter Stetina	Tigerion	25	30	14:32
Ruben Guerreiro	DJSprtsch	15	33	17:25
Sergio Pardilla	Armchair Cyclist	36	46	28:18
Matteo Fabbro	Cian	46	56	32:48
Antonio Pedrero	Libertine Seguros	51	59	34:23
Felix Grossschartner	Anderis	44	76	42:17
Sergei Chernetski	Starlord	26	85	46:06
Tao Geoghegan-Hart	Shadow93	51	94	48:43
Robert Power	Laarsland	94	162	01:30:01
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)

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Oscar Rodriguez shows that 10th on the stage can be fairly ninja-ish too: I hadn't heard mention of him in any of the coverage I saw.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I'm not sure whether this:

Yeah I think Kelderman won't get TV time

was intended as a nomination. If it was, he is still in the hunt. And hunting should be ninja style.

 

[Koronin]

Oscar Rodriguez shows that 10th on the stage can be fairly ninja-ish too: I hadn't heard mention of him in any of the coverage I saw.

Mijka finished 5th and I don't remember hearing his name until he was about to cross the finish line.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

His lone chase of the top 4 got a fair bit of camera time.