Vuelta 2017, Stage 1: Nîmes - Nîmes 13,7 km (TTT)

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

It is indeed good for Bahrain, it's between Nibs and Froome for shure, no other climbers doing steady long tt at this race.

After 13k (non-individual), it's over guys.

Thanks for watching La Vuelta.

The beauty of the Vuelta though is that, unlike the Tour, there are about 15 mountain/hilly stages and loads of possible ambush opportunities. Not 11 flat stages and 3 mountain stages with lame climbs nearly all under 10%.

And it finishes on Angliru, where anyone could lose five minutes on a bad day. The GC battle will be on all race for sure.

True.

TTT is nothing new, like ITT is nothing new...the trend is to have less of them, but let's not kid ourselves: we can't just get GTs with no TTT and 10km of ITT just for the sake of small time gaps. It keeps riders who don't belong around and soon enough we forget that GT winners have to be a complete riders. Or riders who can mitigate a weakness by dominating another facet of cycling.

20 stages to go. It's far from over.

Yeah, TTs definitely serve a purpose in thinning out the competition. That was certainly one of the problems with the first week of the Giro this year; too many teams still in GC contention meant that very few were interested in going for stage wins until mid way through the second week.

With the Vuelta though, there should be another shake up on stage 3 and then again probably on stages 5 and 6, so we should get down to the realistic contenders for podium/top 10 pretty quickly.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

2011

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Advantage Froome already.

Nah, Dennis, TJ, De La Cruz and Kelderman/Barguil/Oomen are ahead

In my fantasy world, I am hoping Dennis can pull a "Dumoulin," Giro-style.

Can Dumoulin pull a Dumoulin in a race with climbs like Angliru?

You know, a scenario in which Dennis wins the vuelta is really hard to imagine but then again when I said that I could imagine Dumoulin winning the vuelta after stage 6 in 2015 people made fun of me as well. Strange things have happened in the vuelta, and more surprising riders managed to get on the podium.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

10 & 14!

 

[DanielSong39]

Kelderman is no joke and is a podium contender for sure. Ignore him at your own peril.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

10 & 14!

2014? Pretty sure that wasn't decided by TT's

 

[Sestriere]

Re: Re:

Can Dumoulin pull a Dumoulin in a race with climbs like Angliru?

He was great on Blockhaus, so why not?

The hard section of Blockhaus climbs 900m in 9.5 km (9.5%). The hard section of Angliru climbs 870m in 6.7 km (13%). You may compare them if you want, but Blockhaus loses. And it does clearly.
Now compare Angliru to the last MTF in this year's Giro (Piancavallo)

Surely, Angliru has the steeper ramps than Blockhaus and is overall more demanding (at least if the finish of Blockhaus is where it was this year.) But in the end the feather weight climbers were up front and Dumoulin was able to match them up a very steep climb. You have to be a good climber there, not just "roll up" it. Thus, I argue, Dumoulin could also have won if instead of Piancavallo the Monte Zoncolan would have been the last MTF. (I think Angliru and Zoncolan are comparable enough for this argument.)

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

10 & 14!

2014? Pretty sure that wasn't decided by TT's

Actually it was. Contador crushed it in the first time trial while Quintana fell. Contador then solidified his lead in stages 16 and 20 and had an insurmountable lead going into the second time trial.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

:lol:

However, you have a great alibi by Froome being the main favorite.

I have to partially agree with you on the TTT. They are horrible.

 

[Lequack]

26 Big Photos from the Stage 1 TTT (more photos added) — sirotti/flockton/aso
http://www.steephill.tv/2017/vuelta-a-espana/photos/stage-01/

 

[Ricco']

Terror attack in Nîmes. Hope everyone (in and out of the race caravan) is safe.

Or not, according to other reports. What seems sure is that the train station has been evacuated.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Re:

Terror attack in Nîmes. Hope everyone (in and out of the race caravan) is safe.

Or not, according to other reports. What seems sure is that the train station has been evacuated.

Just got a report of a shooting incident at the station. Wouldn't think anyone from the caravan would be around there though. But it's an awfully strange coincidence for something to happen on the day of the Vuelta depart...

 

[vedrafjord]

Re: Re:

Yeah, TTs definitely serve a purpose in thinning out the competition.

TTTs are blatantly unfair on good guys on small teams though. No problem with ITTs, and I think prologues make good TV.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

That's the spirit

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Yeah, TTs definitely serve a purpose in thinning out the competition.

TTTs are blatantly unfair on good guys on small teams though. No problem with ITTs, and I think prologues make good TV.

Yeah, that's pretty much also my opinion and the main problem with TTTs, prologues and opening ITTs are cool.

 

[Robert5091]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-1/results/

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) 31 seconds down, Alberto Contador(Trek-Segafredo) is 35 seconds back, and Fabio Aru (Astana) is 41 seconds adrift.

Good day for Dawg & Sunweb.

 

[Robert5091]

Re: Re:

Terror attack in Nîmes. Hope everyone (in and out of the race caravan) is safe.

Or not, according to other reports. What seems sure is that the train station has been evacuated.

Just got a report of a shooting incident at the station. Wouldn't think anyone from the caravan would be around there though. But it's an awfully strange coincidence for something to happen on the day of the Vuelta depart...

https://rusreality.com/2017/08/19/in-france-evacuated-the-station-because-of-an-armed-man/

PARIS, August 19 — RIA Novosti, Victoria Ivanova. The station is the southern French city of Nimes on Saturday evening was evacuated due to the presence of one or more armed men, reports the newspaper Midi Libre.

“About 21.15 local time (22.15 GMT) the police made people run to leave the station building. The station remains cordoned off by law enforcement agencies”, — the newspaper notes.

The evacuation began after police received information that one or more persons at the station, armed. Residents advised to avoid area where there is a railway station.

However, the police Prefecture of the Gard Department in his Twitter account denied the information about the shooting, but confirmed reports of the arrest of a man. The report also notes that in respect of the detainee is checked.

On Saturday at Nimes the first stage of the Cycling race “Vuelta”.

Twitter video/tweets at https://twitter.com/bleugardlozere/status/899002558454394880/video/1 on evacuation of train station.

Original Midi Libre article at http://www.midilibre.fr/2017/08/19/la-gare-de-nimes-evacuee-en-urgence-et-bouclee,1549428.php in French.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

All of the PCT teams sucked badly. Except Aquablue who were surprisingly decent.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

10 & 14!

2014? Pretty sure that wasn't decided by TT's

Froome lost over 50s to Contador in about 35km. Usually he'd gain 30s on Contador in that scenario, and he lost overall by 1'10 (although Contador took it easy in the final, wet TT but Froome wouldn't have had to try and drop Contador in the final stages where Contador would counter towards the end and steal bonus seconds).

So yes, 14 was also decided by TT

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Let's be honest, the Vuelta is likely over already. Almost every modern GT is decided purely on time gained during time trials (and defending in the mountains).

It's come to a point where I hope time trials are completely banned from GTs.

When was the last time the Vuelta was decided by time gained in a TT?

10 & 14!

2014? Pretty sure that wasn't decided by TT's

Froome lost over 50s to Contador in about 35km. Usually he'd gain 30s on Contador in that scenario, and he lost overall by 1'10 (although Contador took it easy in the final, wet TT but Froome wouldn't have had to try and drop Contador in the final stages where Contador would counter towards the end and steal bonus seconds).

So yes, 14 was also decided by TT

That's a bit of a stretch. Froome would also normally gain time on Contador in the mountains, but he ended up losing time on the two big stages in the last week. So you could equally say it was decided in the mountains.

Because there are so many mountain stages, particularly MTFs, in the Vuelta, the TTs are hardly ever decisive in themselves, like they often are in the Tour. Because there are so many chances to take back any time lost there.

 

[Red Rick]

Contador won the Vuelta of 2014 in the ITT and on the 2nd MTF. He gained a huge tactical advantage over Froome there and Contador was good enough to ride the Froome train all the way home to Madrid.

 

[portugal11]

It is hilarious how some people think that
Quintana would have won that vuelta.

 

[portugal11]

Froome lost the race in the time trial because contador was the best in the mountains so froome should have been in red after the time trial

 

[YavorD]

Why so much hate over the TT's? Actually they COULD be good for the overall racing, imagine with no TT's in a GT all the riders would probably just sit and wait for the last MTF and make it a "sprint finish" over the last climb... I agree that the TT's could be bad if they are too much >110 km's buut a good balanced GT needs a 50-60 km's to balance the route, since GT's are supposed to be for the MOST complete Riders, not the best pure Climbers.. And if you cant manage to lose less than 90 seconds in a TT of <25 km (a.k.a Bardet at TdF) do you really deserve to win a GT..?