Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2018

[yaco]

Peleton disrespected De Gendt in the last 30km - They allowed him to pull out a minute in the first 3kms at the beginning of the long climb - A.Yates out of the race - Good ride by S.Yates who spent time pulling on the front, yet still got into the chasing group.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

I hope this is correct. Otherwise he's playing with fire that will eventually burn him. It certainly didn't look like he cared what the team wanted.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

Too bad he had an earpiece of Michelton-Scott instead of Movistar for today's stage.

 

[del1962]

after the initial gap Quintana spent the rest of the break sitting on the back, a shame, because it would have been more interesting for the race had the 4 go away, a shame that Bernal of Henao hadn't got in the break, as Sky wouldn't have ridden for Valverde

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

Tour de France will be real fun with the three Movistar amigos.

This.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

Not a bad finish to the stage. Contador said on commentary something like, that it makes almost no difference if Nairo pulls or not, because he's so weak on the flat and offers so little to shelter behind. :lol:

Not a bad finish? It was finally excellent finish of this stage! :razz:

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Only cowards hide behind their team all the time.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Or maybe he knew it wouldn't work and figured he would sit in the pack and not waste energy for something that wasn't going to work.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Or maybe he knew it wouldn't work and figured he would sit in the pack and not waste energy for something that wasn't going to work.

You're telling me the most talented cyclist of the century can't ride away from this field without getting caught?

:lol:

 

[Laplaz]

So tomorrow no shortening or neutralisation right?

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Or maybe he knew it wouldn't work and figured he would sit in the pack and not waste energy for something that wasn't going to work.

You're telling me the most talented cyclist of the century can't ride away from this field without getting caught?

:lol:

It's called TACTICS. Even he has stated you can't always win by pure strength. He was talking about Soler needing to learn to read races and learn tactics.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Only cowards hide behind their team all the time.

If you actually watched the race, he bridged to the group and then another group got away. You can't cover everything

 

[jaylew]

Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

How much did you actually see him work? Both Nairo and Pinot say he pretty much just sat on, as per team orders.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Only cowards hide behind their team all the time.

If you actually watched the race, he bridged to the group and then another group got away. You can't cover everything

A strong rider can. Especially in a field this weak.

 

[happytramp]

Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

100%. He did an excellent job as a domestique today. The peloton had no interest in bringing back De Gent. However by going away with a small group of GC contenders Quintana served as a magnet to pull the chasing pack closer to De Gent, limit his time gap and keep Valverde in contention.

 

[search]

Re: Re:

Just watched the finale, how come Quintana is helping to pull a break consisting of Yates and Pinot AWAY from Valverde? If he doesn't crash, he wins this race in his sleep with two fingers stuck in his nose, wtf is going on. Can they just close the race and let Valverde do his thing instead.....?!

Lets see what happens tomorrow, kinda depressing to see Quintana ride like that.

He will still win this race because of bonus seconds. De Gendt is a decent cyclist, but he's way below the top tier riders.

The only one to blame here is Valverde by the way. He should have been there with Quintana. If he's as good as you say he shouldn't have had any problem bridging to the break.

Only cowards hide behind their team all the time.

If you actually watched the race, he bridged to the group and then another group got away. You can't cover everything

question is, why they allowed Soler to attack and disrupt the chase at all. Maybe Valverde was not at his best today - but even then it made no sense at all to make it so obvious that he is vulnerable

 

[The Barb]

So, what do we think now? Can De Gendt hold onto this lead. Gaps up today's final climb are typically pretty small. If Valverde doesn't get the full 10 second bonus then it could get very interesting.

 

[Koronin]

So, what do we think now? Can De Gendt hold onto this lead. Gaps up today's final climb are typically pretty small. If Valverde doesn't get the full 10 second bonus then it could get very interesting.

I saw somewhere where De Gendt doesn't believe he'll hold onto the leaders jersey. This stage is tailor made for Valverde. Unless something crazy happens I'd expect the leader's jersey to go back to Valverde. Also at this point the win is going to come down fully to bonus seconds.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

I hope this is correct. Otherwise he's playing with fire that will eventually burn him. It certainly didn't look like he cared what the team wanted.

Lol nothing will burn him. A win by Quintana or Valverde is a win for Movistar either way. It doesn't matter who takes it. Today he did in fact seem to be talking in his ear piece, but even if he wasn't and he was just racing by instinct - who cares? He was following potentially dangerous riders. Movistar would only be happy that one of their riders was there in the break when Valverde couldn't be.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

I hope this is correct. Otherwise he's playing with fire that will eventually burn him. It certainly didn't look like he cared what the team wanted.

Serously, you are seeing gosts!
Quintana and Valverde have ridden in the past together without any problems at all!

 

[claude cat]

Any update on the severity of Adam Yate's injuries?

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Any update on the severity of Adam Yate's injuries?

I don't know anymore than this. From their site: "“Adam crashed just one kilometre from the finish, we tried to get him to ride to the finish but he couldn’t. He hit his back on the curb and he tried to stand up but had to sit down again and had a lot of pain in his pelvic. He has gone to hospital now for checks.”

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Quntana was listening to his ear phone
and taking orders from the team car

I hope this is correct. Otherwise he's playing with fire that will eventually burn him. It certainly didn't look like he cared what the team wanted.

Serously, you are seeing gosts!
Quintana and Valverde have ridden in the past together without any problems at all!

I didn't actually mention any names. Are you so sure I wasn't referring to team management? Pretty sure if he's not listening to directions from the team car that would be team management that would not be very happy.