Stage 16, San Martín del Rey Aurelio - La Farrapona, Lagos de Somiedo

[Mellow Velo]

Imo, Contador in yesterday's situation could do no wrong.
Leave Froome take the stage: fine.
Take out the stage for more time on Froome, without contributing: fine.

However, since riders such as Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer gained reputations on this forum for wheel sucking by using the very same tactic, often under similar circumstances, I hope that those defending Contador now, where not part of that crowd, then.

Given the extreme fanboyism that exists here, I doubt that is the case.

 

[Jagartrott]

Amazingly, Monfort gained a place in GC.
17th now, and haven't seen him at all again.

The guy battles for all he's worth, suffers in complete anonimity without any chance of glory. That takes a special character.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Amazingly, Monfort gained a place in GC.
17th now, and haven't seen him at all again.

The guy battles for all he's worth, suffers in complete anonimity without any chance of glory. That takes a special character.

I think one have to pretty dumb to do it frankly.
Makes no sense.

 

[Flamin]

IMO if you want to win the stage from a 2 man group you work with the person.

Doubly so if you are the leaders jersey who has shown the whole race so far you are way stronger than the second person.

Its hardly a maverick opinion. Its pretty much common practice in cycling that the leaders jersey lets the other person get the stage if they leave them to do all the work. Happens all the time. Often even if they share the work they let them have the stage (Nibali Santa, Contador Rujano)

But if you make them do all the work you give them the stage. You want the stage you share the work.

Afterall Contador himself let Schleck have the win on Tourmalet after he left all the work for Schleck. In that same Tour he was in a situation with Rodriguez where he wanted the stage for himself so he did the work.

In general I agree with this, Hitch, but yesterday was something different. Froome didn't look back once asking for a pull, never dropped the pace a little bit, as he was trying to crack Contador with a constant very high pace instead of this 'standstill-attack-standstill-attack'-approach the Spaniards love so much. I'm sure Contador would have cooperated if Froome showed any interest in him doing so.

 

[Mellow Velo]

One more for the Dq'd?

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...it-my-lip-with-a-punch-on-climb-30571873.html

 

[Piz Buin]

Contador surely didnt think about froome's book or their relation before he dropped him. And i think he also didnt think much about putting time into purito and valverde. Froome is his main opponent. Froome didnt even try to ride with alberto. If he did he would have only opened ground for another attack by froome. Donating the stage win along with the time he put into him would be plain stupid. Its much too close

 

[Dazed and Confused]

One more for the Dq'd?

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...it-my-lip-with-a-punch-on-climb-30571873.html

From circus to comedy club or cage fighting. Welcome to pro cycling.

 

[jens_attacks]

always pathetic when they made these stories public. if you have a problem with the guy, settle it at the hotel don't whine about it
purito is like 45 kilos and one meter, if you whine that guy punched you, i can't help you son.

purito, true little mobster though. all the peloton cheered up

 

[No_Balls]

After the stage, I was so angry that all I wanted to do was find him and show him what a couple of years training in Letterkenny Boxing Club had taught me, but as the evening wore on I began to realise it wasn't worth stooping to his level.

This is hilarious

 

[Cimber]

Froome looked over his shoulder and then the moment he looked down, Contador attacked.. It almost seemed like Froome didn't notice before he was two bike-lengths away... Funny thing is, He almost domstratively looked down again, and rode his numbers instead of trying to follow.. He probably knew he couldn't follow so tried to limit his losses...

Indeed

"Clunk. Contador shifted to a big gear and just as his chain dropped onto a smaller sprocket so did his cadence drop. Chris Froome looked back and looked again but as soon as he resumed looking at his stem Contador jumped, winding up the newly selected big gear and Froome had no answer, preferring to pace himself as he’s done in recent days. It was a demonstration of force, for all that Froome suddenly had the advantage on Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez. Froome lost time to Contador and could well lose more later this week. So far Froome’s form has resembled yesterday’s stage profile, a series of ever-higher peaks with troughs in between. If he’s getting better he’s probably lost too much time to challenge for the red jersey."

http://inrng.com/2014/09/contadors-vuelta/

 

[search]

This is hilarious

 

[jens_attacks]

deignan this hidden mike tyson, punched and done KO by the dwarf purito...

 

[Netserk]

Just saw highlights. Unless there was some angle I missed that was pathetic wheelsucking from Contador.

Worst victory of his career by far (iirc the other ones he won like a man)

Did Froome ask him to take any pulls?

It would only have been pathetic if he waited to overtake him with 50m to go.

IMO if you want to win the stage from a 2 man group you work with the person.

Sure. Yesterday Contador won it solo, not from a 2 man group. He attacked and won.

Or should he also not have attacked Valverde on the first stage in Pais Vasco this year?

Not to mention that AC regards Froome as his main GC rival, he's not some Rujano. He would've lost 23'' in the GC if he had gifted the stage to Froome. With the upcoming stages still to come that would've been stupid. Especially when he isn't in top form himself.

 

[cineteq]

Here Froome was trying his best to drop Contador. Check his post-race interview. Read Contador's comments. Seems to me Contador simply waited for Froome to put in one too many accelerations and launched a perfectly timed counter attack. I'm not sure Contador could have played it any better (tactically speaking).

Froome is a threat to GC, but needed to gain time on Valverde and Rodriquez and, most of all, Contador. By contrast Contador was in the lead and thus was only in a win-win tactical position.

If you want to talk about wheelsucking then it's the stage before, when Valverde and Rodriquez had every reason to work with AC to distance Froome, but raced for the time bonuses instead on Contador's wheel.

Poor Hitch, this is what happens when a couple of guys make sense with strong arguments to support Contador's soi-disant wheelsucking.

"Clunk. Contador shifted to a big gear and just as his chain dropped onto a smaller sprocket so did his cadence drop. Chris Froome looked back and looked again but as soon as he resumed looking at his stem Contador jumped, winding up the newly selected big gear and Froome had no answer, preferring to pace himself as he’s done in recent days"

http://inrng.com/2014/09/contadors-vuelta/

Taking the risk to change bikes on the final ascent paid off big time!

 

[theyoungest]

One more for the Dq'd?

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...it-my-lip-with-a-punch-on-climb-30571873.html

Team Sky is hated in the peloton for its 'shove everyone out of the way' antics, so maybe Purito couldn't control himself any longer.

 

[Jagartrott]

Nikolas Maes @nikolas_maes

To @AndreaGuardini in english; Next time get in the car instead of hanging on it the whole stage, desgrace for your @AstanaTeam @LaVuelta
Retweeted by Jens Debusschere

Shouldn't they report this to the jury during the race rather than tweeting about it afterwards? I can understand it must be frustrating though, when you yourself are playing the game fairly.

 

[Arredondo]

Of course he is not going to DQ, because it's words against words without evidence.

I think it's quite poor by Deignan to say it almost two days later.

But Purito must be lucky he's getting away with it. But we don't know why he did it.

 

[Dr. Juice]

De Marchi was brutal yesterday. He lost contact at 2.7 km to go with 26 sec advantage over Valverde/ Rodriguez and still finished ahead of them. Only 20 sec lost in those 2.7 km and keep in mind Valverde made his final sprint effort to jump away from the others.

 

[Carols]

When Contador, Valverde and Chris all jumped across to the break near the top there was panic stations in the bunch before the trio agreed it was a bit early for all out warfare and drifted back to the peloton. - See more at: http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...h-on-climb-30571873.html#sthash.6hxYInbP.dpuf

Does anyone have insight on how this move happened? Who went first and started the chaos that drew out the other 2?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Nikolas Maes @nikolas_maes

To @AndreaGuardini in english; Next time get in the car instead of hanging on it the whole stage, desgrace for your @AstanaTeam @LaVuelta
Retweeted by Jens Debusschere

Shouldn't they report this to the jury during the race rather than tweeting about it afterwards? I can understand it must be frustrating though, when you yourself are playing the game fairly.

Finally a useful application for the bike cam. Evidence.

 

[The Hitch]

It would have been stupid for Contador to gift the stage to Froome, since those were bonus seconds that put Valverde further back as well.

It probably would have.

But here is what I wrote

But if you make them do all the work you give them the stage. You want the stage you share the work.

Option 1 is you give them the stage. Don't like option 1? There's option 2.

You give them the stage if you make them do all the work. If you want to win it yourself you share the workload.

As for contador not being that strong because he was only 30 seconds up on Valverde, have you watched a vuelta before. They race an average of 3 km per mountain stage and 3 of the last 4 winners won by under a minute. 30 seconds is massive.

 

[cineteq]

One more for the Dq'd?

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...it-my-lip-with-a-punch-on-climb-30571873.html

Purito's reply to Deignan => [Spanish] http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/noticias-ficha.asp?id=74964

 

[ILovecycling]

Nikolas Maes @nikolas_maes

To @AndreaGuardini in english; Next time get in the car instead of hanging on it the whole stage, desgrace for your @AstanaTeam @LaVuelta
Retweeted by Jens Debusschere

Shouldn't they report this to the jury during the race rather than tweeting about it afterwards? I can understand it must be frustrating though, when you yourself are playing the game fairly.

Ive got a feeling I should tweet him to ask him about bananito

 

[BeagRigh]

Purito's reply to Deignan => [Spanish] http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/noticias-ficha.asp?id=74964

Purito says Deignan exaggerates, that it was a racing incident and he doesn't know why he's bring it up now ... is that a reasonable translation? Thanks.

 

[ILovecycling]

Purito says Deignan exaggerates, that it was a racing incident and he doesn't know why he's bring it up now ... is that a reasonable translation? Thanks.

yep,it is,plus he apologized after that