Pre La Vuelta-thread

[shalgo]

Well, we may not know who will win the Vuelta, but we now know who will finish 10th: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/meintjes-leads-dimension-data-at-vuelta-a-espana/

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Why does Quintana have 2 asterisks beside his wins??

Some people think he won the Giro because he raced the 'neutralized' descent, and won the Vuelta thanks to Contador's attack catching Froome off guard, and that those things somehow make his wins less legit.

Following that train of thought, you'd have to put an asterisk beside every game of chess ever played.

The Giro descent was at least somewhat controversial. But nothing's wrong with catching your opponents off guard!

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

Why does Quintana have 2 asterisks beside his wins??

Some people think he won the Giro because he raced the 'neutralized' descent, and won the Vuelta thanks to Contador's attack catching Froome off guard, and that those things somehow make his wins less legit.

Following that train of thought, you'd have to put an asterisk beside every game of chess ever played.

I can't recall whether there was an official neutralization of the descent or that race officials were flying the red flag to caution the riders of the dangers of the descent as a result of the weather.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Why does Quintana have 2 asterisks beside his wins??

Some people think he won the Giro because he raced the 'neutralized' descent, and won the Vuelta thanks to Contador's attack catching Froome off guard, and that those things somehow make his wins less legit.

Following that train of thought, you'd have to put an asterisk beside every game of chess ever played.

I can't recall whether there was an official neutralization of the descent or that race officials were flying the red flag to caution the riders of the dangers of the descent as a result of the weather.

Probably the latter, since there never was a neutralisation.

 

[RedheadDane]

If I recall correctly the organisers thought they'd officially neutralised the stage.
They just failed in the rather important bit, which is to - clearly - communicate that there actually is a neutralisation.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

If I recall correctly the organisers thought they'd officially neutralised the stage.
They just failed in the rather important bit, which is to - clearly - communicate that there actually is a neutralisation.

“There was never any confusion. None,”. “They said a motorcycle would indicate if there was dangers on the descent with a red flag, but never, never, was there a mention of neutralizing the descent.”

 

[Valv.Piti]

Its a stupid discussion anyways. Those that don't like Quintana will point towards Val Martello and say theres a asterisk to his win on that background and in similar fashion totally downplay his Vuelta win two years later and argue it was all a product of Alberto Contador. Fact is he won two GTs on soe pretty epic long range raids (and won the two cleanest mountain stages - more or less - of the races, the TT to Monte Grappa in the Giro and the MTF at Lagos de Covadonga in the Vuelta), comfortably proving to be the best climber in both races throughout the 3 weeks. Whether you dislike him or not you can't take that and 2 GTs from him.

Wouldnt surprise me if he turns some heads in this upcoming Vuelta.

Edit: Delage, Duchesne, Molard, Pinot, Preidler, Sarreau, B.Thomas, Vincent. Thats a pretty sorry FDJ team tbh, but its the Vuelta so the team wont matter that much IMO. Preidler and Molard are very decent domestiques tho

 

[Breh]

Mollema is going for stages, not interested in the GC.

 

[Anderis]

I'm rather surprised that Van Asbroeck and Docker are doing their 2nd GT this year.

 

[rick james]

Woods looks like he could be on the trainspotting poster

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re:

Mollema is going for stages, not interested in the GC.

Popo seems to think otherwise: "On the other hand we have Bauke Mollema, who came with great legs from the Tour de France, finishing 2nd in 'his' race, the Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián and who is aiming for the overall. The whole team will be there to protect him and to bring him to Madrid in the perfect position and as highly ranked as possible. We strongly believe he can attain a top five if all goes well."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mollema-to-lead-trek-segafredo-at-vuelta-a-espana/

 

[Lequack]

Cofidis:

Ag2r:

UAE:

 

[Escarabajo]

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

 

[Lequack]

Re:

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

Probably going to send Sergio Henao and the big question is if Egan Bernal is good enough to go.

 

[Breh]

Re: Re:

Mollema is going for stages, not interested in the GC.

Popo seems to think otherwise: "On the other hand we have Bauke Mollema, who came with great legs from the Tour de France, finishing 2nd in 'his' race, the Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián and who is aiming for the overall. The whole team will be there to protect him and to bring him to Madrid in the perfect position and as highly ranked as possible. We strongly believe he can attain a top five if all goes well."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mollema-to-lead-trek-segafredo-at-vuelta-a-espana/

https://twitter.com/BaukeMollema/status/1031566039044317184

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

Probably going to send Sergio Henao and the big question is if Egan Bernal is good enough to go.

Egan is done for the year.

But I can't believe that they were going to send him to the Vuelta.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

Probably going to send Sergio Henao and the big question is if Egan Bernal is good enough to go.

Egan is done for the year.

But I can't believe that they were going to send him to the Vuelta.

I thought that was the original plan, as in; from before they decided to send him to the Tour.
Then he did the Tour, and the debate was whether he should do the Vuelta too, and then… well, he unfortunately became unable to do the Vuelta anyway.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Why does Quintana have 2 asterisks beside his wins??

Some people think he won the Giro because he raced the 'neutralized' descent, and won the Vuelta thanks to Contador's attack catching Froome off guard, and that those things somehow make his wins less legit.

Following that train of thought, you'd have to put an asterisk beside every game of chess ever played.

I can't recall whether there was an official neutralization of the descent or that race officials were flying the red flag to caution the riders of the dangers of the descent as a result of the weather.

Those were the days when Quintana was taking risks. I remember Cadel Evans who was a very good descender saying that that descent was a nightmare and he was actually scared. He couldn't feel his hands because of the cold. Quintana was the strongest in the race anyway and the result would have been the same. I'm convinced that Contador's attack won the Vuelta for Quintana as there is no way Quintana would have attacked at that point. But once again he was the most consistent climber in the race. But that attack ensured Froome would do the double the next year because he was so peeved at losing like that in one of his favourite races. Froome usually doesn't need extra motivation.

 

[Kafviar]

Did Enric Mas crash out of the Tour de Wallonie? Anyone know how he's doing? Was (still am) looking forward to seeing him going for GC in a GT.

 

[Gigs_98]

Did Enric Mas crash out of the Tour de Wallonie? Anyone know how he's doing? Was (still am) looking forward to seeing him going for GC in a GT.

Yeah he abandoned wallonie due to a crash but iirc he is in the qs squad. I don't expect a very high gc placement after his preparation though but a stage win is definitely possible

 

[Robert5091]

Be interesting to see if Yates (S) has learned his lessons from the Giro - no tommyD or Dawg to worry about in the ITT helps!

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah it really sucks if Mas is compromised by that crash...

 

[samhocking]

Re: Re:

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

Probably going to send Sergio Henao and the big question is if Egan Bernal is good enough to go.

Egan is done for the year.

But I can't believe that they were going to send him to the Vuelta.

David de la Cruz is leading Sky at Vuelta, it's been his target race all year I believe.

 

[Vasilis]

Well with Sky announcing their Deutschland Tour lineup, we now know that Golas, Seb. Henao, Kiryienka and Knees won't do the Vuelta.
So I'd say:
De La Cruz
Van Baarle
Geoghegan Hart
Kwiatkowski
Ser. Henao
Elissonde
Puccio
Castroviejo?

 

[Lequack]

Re: Re:

So only one left to be announced is Sky?

Probably going to send Sergio Henao and the big question is if Egan Bernal is good enough to go.

Egan is done for the year.

But I can't believe that they were going to send him to the Vuelta.

David de la Cruz is leading Sky at Vuelta, it's been his target race all year I believe.

Wouldn't Sergio Henao be a better bet?