Vuelta 2012, Stage 8: Lleida - Andorra, Coll de la Gallina (174.7 kms)

[thehog]

It was pretty unlikely he would have got any help regardless. Seems that even guys from the break and on a different team are allowed to pace guys now.

Great isn't it! following the rules is fun!

It's not Tri - you can draft you know regardless of what team a rider is from.

 

[theyoungest]

the ITT could bring one or two of those people to the front though. But after the ITT they'll inevitably lose time again.

F.ex if Gesink does a ITT like in Suisse or California he could jump past Valverde and Rodriguez. But after the next mountain stage he'll be back at place 5...

This TT is a semi-mountain TT. I doubt Gesink will jump past Purito and Piti on that one.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

This TT is a semi-mountain TT. I doubt Gesink will jump past Purito and Piti on that one.

Meh, rode the race in PCM. The climb should not make THAT much of a difference.
Theres more than enough flat to hurt piti/purito

 

[LaFlorecita]

I just rewatched the finish; Piti and Purito passed Alberto like 10 meters before the line

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

meh, rode the race in pcm. The climb should not make that much of a difference.
Theres more than enough flat to hurt piti/purito

:d:d:d


............

 

[panache]

I'm a little confused on Froome's tactics thus far. They must result from some TDF/Olympic inspired overconfidence. Practically leading out the sprint a la Wiggins the day before a mountain with 15% ramps is almost arrogant. Add to that that his three primary competitors at this point are arguably the three best in the world at that sort of terrain, are from the host country, and are mad that Sky wouldn't wait for Valverde.

I don't think Froome sees Purito and Valverde as threats for the win. I think he sees them as de facto teammates of Contador until after the TT puts them out of contention. Contador's bad day this week has him racing as if he is the leader trying to bury Contador once and for all.

I don't like to hear about the lack of sportsmanship on Valverde's part. It does show that he hasn't forgotten the lack of sportsmanship on the part of Sky.

Froome is still the man to beat in my opinion. His race was tactically poor today and he only lost 15 seconds. The fatigue of Froome with too many racing miles vs. the fatigue of Contador for too few will decide this. Froome to be 1 minute ahead after the TT. Alberto to pick 5 - 20 seconds on most mountaintop finishes thereafter. This will be a fun one.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Meh, rode the race in PCM. The climb should not make THAT much of a difference.
Theres more than enough flat to hurt piti/purito

I tend to agree with you.
Having a hill doesn't seem to make much of a difference to Purito's ITT chances.
He's just unable to sustain output, regardless of terrain.

Piti is a bit more difficult to call. He's capable of anything in the pretty poor to pretty good range.

Gesink could well jump either or both and will perhaps find the later, longer climbs more to his taste.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Froome is still the man to beat in my opinion. His race was tactically poor today and he only lost 15 seconds. The fatigue of Froome with too many racing miles vs. the fatigue of Contador for too few will decide this. Froome to be 1 minute ahead after the TT. Alberto to pick 5 - 20 seconds on most mountaintop finishes thereafter. This will be a fun one.

Actually Alberto will only get better while Froome should get worse. Alberto isn't fatigued because of the lack of racing miles.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

the ITT could bring one or two of those people to the front though. But after the ITT they'll inevitably lose time again.

F.ex if Gesink does a ITT like in Suisse or California he could jump past Valverde and Rodriguez. But after the next mountain stage he'll be back at place 5...

Well, we've only had climbs that wern't suited to Gesink, but were perfect for Purito and Valverde. We'll have one more of those, but I want to see a big difficult and long climb before I'll write Gesink off for the podium.

Besides Purito might show fatigue because he's done he Giro and is usually inconsistent, Valverde too because he did the TDF.

I realise it's unlikely, but I think Gesink still has a decent chance of making the podium. We know Gesink isn't very explosive, but we've only had >10km steep explosive climbing going on. I think he should do better in Asturias in the third week, with a bit longer climbs, and possible fatigue/inconsistensy of Purito and Valverde (and Froome?).

 

[peacefultribe]

I'm a huge Contador fan, but I kind of like Froome. Soooooo much better than Alberto against the Schlecks. I don't like SKY, or Wiggans, but Froome is likable. This Vuelta could be a classic, like the Vuelta of years past.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Great isn't it! following the rules is fun!

It's not Tri - you can draft you know regardless of what team a rider is from.

Yeah, nothing suspect about what happened there

 

[theyoungest]

I tend to agree with you.
Having a hill doesn't seem to make much of a difference to Purito's ITT chances.
He's just unable to sustain output, regardless of terrain.

Piti is a bit more difficult to call. He's capable of anything in the pretty poor to pretty good range.

Gesink could well jump either or both and will perhaps find the later, longer climbs more to his taste.

Purito's TTs this year have been really good. He has clearly improved.

The climb in the TT may not be very difficult, but it's still hard for Gesink to gain time on Rodriguez there. Let alone on Valverde. With the descent, that leaves about 20 flat kms. That ain't a lot.

 

[burning]

I'm looking at the top 20 and it's basically the 4 guys in front with everyone else being largely invisible.

Although to be fair this course doesn't really allow those good-but-not-great people to do anything but hang on.

Yeah, why people fight for 18th spot instead of going for stages??

 

[will10]

Yeah, why people fight for 18th spot instead of going for stages??

There hasn't been many chances for attackers in this race just yet regardless.

 

[jilbiker]

I'm a little confused on Froome's tactics thus far. They must result from some TDF/Olympic inspired overconfidence. Practically leading out the sprint a la Wiggins the day before a mountain with 15% ramps is almost arrogant. Add to that that his three primary competitors at this point are arguably the three best in the world at that sort of terrain, are from the host country, and are mad that Sky wouldn't wait for Valverde.

I don't think Froome sees Purito and Valverde as threats for the win. I think he sees them as de facto teammates of Contador until after the TT puts them out of contention. Contador's bad day this week has him racing as if he is the leader trying to bury Contador once and for all.

I don't like to hear about the lack of sportsmanship on Valverde's part. It does show that he hasn't forgotten the lack of sportsmanship on the part of Sky.

Froome is still the man to beat in my opinion. His race was tactically poor today and he only lost 15 seconds. The fatigue of Froome with too many racing miles vs. the fatigue of Contador for too few will decide this. Froome to be 1 minute ahead after the TT. Alberto to pick 5 - 20 seconds on most mountaintop finishes thereafter. This will be a fun one.

At the end of the day, the winner on ANY sporting event is not the more skilled one or the one with the best stamina, its the one with the coolest, smartest brain. Froome from all indications is lacking in the strategy department, reminds me of Ullrich/Andy. When one adds up the not so great GC field in last year's Vuelta and this years TDF plus Froome started both races as a domestique, you can see he is a novice on the chess game of winning a GT.

 

[bigcog]

I'm a huge Contador fan, but I kind of like Froome. Soooooo much better than Alberto against the Schlecks. I don't like SKY, or Wiggans, but Froome is likable. This Vuelta could be a classic, like the Vuelta of years past.

Damn right. So much better to watch than the tour de bore. Hopefully Froome is not too tired to put a good battle against Contador.

 

[Telmisartan new]

Froome is still the man to beat in my opinion. His race was tactically poor today and he only lost 15 seconds. The fatigue of Froome with too many racing miles vs. the fatigue of Contador for too few will decide this. Froome to be 1 minute ahead after the TT. Alberto to pick 5 - 20 seconds on most mountaintop finishes thereafter. This will be a fun one.

Directly after the stage one bookmaker went evs AC and was knocked over,he was 8-11 ten mins ago and the cash is flooding on.I wouldn't bet Froome FTW with your money.Friendless and drifting....

 

[The Hitch]

I tend to agree with you.
Having a hill doesn't seem to make much of a difference to Purito's ITT chances.
He's just unable to sustain output, regardless of terrain.

Piti is a bit more difficult to call. He's capable of anything in the pretty poor to pretty good range.

Gesink could well jump either or both and will perhaps find the later, longer climbs more to his taste.

The basque tt usually is hill mixed with flat and purito does quite well, and this year was flat hills and narrow roads and he came 5th.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Purito's TTs this year have been really good. He has clearly improved.

The climb in the TT may not be very difficult, but it's still hard for Gesink to gain time on Rodriguez there. Let alone on Valverde. With the descent, that leaves about 20 flat kms. That ain't a lot.

Well, his Giro effort was certainly better. I can't recall any of his other results, but don't think he's done any of around Wednesday's duration.
Question is: Can he make it consistent, or will he revert to his earlier standard.

The basque tt usually is hill mixed with flat and purito does quite well, and this year was flat hills and narrow roads and he came 5th.

Ah, as I type. 19kms, I believe.

 

[Miburo]

The basque tt usually is hill mixed with flat and purito does quite well, and this year was flat hills and narrow roads and he came 5th.

Remember who won that in 2008/2009 and was second (i think) in 2007?

In Giro '08 similar TT he should have won. In tour '09 he won that kinda TT, not even that hilly. In tour d'algerve he won also these kinda TT.

In hilly TT Contador hasn't been defeated many times.

Purito is ok at that but Contador is God at this stuff. Purito will lose in this TT against Contador 1.30/2 min maybe even more.

 

[panache]

Actually Alberto will only get better while Froome should get worse. Alberto isn't fatigued because of the lack of racing miles.

Maybe I phrased it incorrectly. Previous races harden you against the fatigue of a three week GT. Too little and you won't have staying power. Too much and you will die out in week 3. A mini version of that is the fact that he attacked 7 or 8 times in the high heat, and seemed to pay for the effort later in the week.

Your point is that Alberto will have trained hard enough to handle the stress of a GT, and still improve into week 3. He has shown that to be the case in the past, so it does seem likely. Will that be enough to overcome a potential minute by Froome? I hope so, if only for the counterweight against Sky's dominance this year.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Maybe I phrased it incorrectly. Previous races harden you against the fatigue of a three week GT. Too little and you won't have staying power. Too much and you will die out in week 3. A mini version of that is the fact that he attacked 7 or 8 times in the high heat, and seemed to pay for the effort later in the week.

Your point is that Alberto will have trained hard enough to handle the stress of a GT, and still improve into week 3. He has shown that to be the case in the past, so it does seem likely. Will that be enough to overcome a potential minute by Froome? I hope so, if only for the counterweight against Sky's dominance this year.

Okay
.

 

[airstream]

Hills can be different. 4% is rather a false flat. Froome will thresh with such frequency that I don't see that gives Purito any serious advantage in comparison to pancake flat. The main Joaquim's problem is he absolutely can not go uphill in a steady pace smoothly alone both in a group stage and time trial. Basically that's the reason why he almost never attacks till the finish line. I suppose Valverde to do very well in TT.

 

[Carols]

Anyone but me that finds it extremely awesome that Valverde is back in his good old awesome shape?

You are not alone!!! As long as he doesn't beat Alberto, it is Awesome to see him riding like this

 

[Carols]

According to Dutch commentators, Valverde was waving at Sky riders and staff after the finish. Nice touch

I Love It!!!!