Vuelta 2017 stage 12 Motril - Antequera 160,1 km

[Melo]

Too bad Theuns was spent the last 3 km...

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Contador the big winner today then

What should have been an awful attack may turn into a big time gainer because of Froome's issues leading to a period with nobody pushing on

I think Nibali is perhaps the biggest winner. Froome is terrible at recovering from crashes, and there are two very tough MTFs at the weekend - plus he's had to waste a lot of energy in the last 20km.

Wasn't a big crash though. I assume the first incident was a mechanical rather than a crash.

Yes it looked that way, he had a few small cuts on his arms but didn't look too bad

 

[Climbing]

Should be around 20 seconds between Nibali group and Froome.
Nothing major, it's most of all about the damage taken from the fall.

 

[hrotha]

Even if Froome abandoned right now, that wouldn't mean Nibali was smart. Instead of taking time NOW, which he could easily have done, we're hoping an unforeseen and unpredictable consequence of Froome's crashes will allow him to maybe perhaps gain time at an unspecified later stage, if all goes well? Meh.

Nibali is being extremely disappointing this year, and not because he has worse legs than in previous seasons.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Whole lotta nothin' today.

Great win for Marczynski. Who would've guessed that he would be the only guy bringing Lotto-Soudal two GT stage wins this year?

 

[LaFlorecita]

That was a big effort for 21s, but damn what a ride

 

[Descender]

We shall miss Contador.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So the geniuses found out to work properly in the last kilometre. Could and should have been 30 seconds more, I expected more from the voodoo master in such situation.

 

[sir fly]

And congrats to Marczynski, off course.

20 seconds due to a crash on Froome is a fair measure.
Could've been more, but the fair play makes the competition, as well.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

It took a crash to get the GC race going a bit. Congrats to Contador for taking the initiative.
The rest of the GC wannabees.... lol.

 

[Vasilis]

Really curious to know what actually happened to Froome

 

[hfer07]

Re:

Nibali, Chaves, Kelderman, Aru....

They're all pussy's! The only true champion left is called ALBERTO CONTADOR VELASCO!

Amen ++++++

 

[Pricey_sky]

Could have been a lot worse for Froome today, hopefully he has no damage from the crash.

 

[benzwire]

Pretty exciting stage after all. Just goes to show that nothing is certain, except that Contador will be missed!

 

[Jungle Cycle]

Great... just great to see Contador showing how is done. Make your own luck!!..

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

So the geniuses found out to work properly in the last kilometre. Could and should have been 30 seconds more, I expected more from the voodoo master in such situation.

The gap was never over 40 seconds, important to note.

Edit: still, disappointing. I'm guessing there was some confusion at first, but they only really started pushing after the 3 to go mark

 

[GJB123]

Re:

Really curious to know what actually happened to Froome

According Eurosport NL Froome crashed twice. First what was considered a mechanical on here and second time in amongst the cars.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Re:

Froome loses 42 s to Contador and 22 to the rest

Well done contador, podium back on. I feel froome may gain that time back in the TT though so same again over weekend and hope nibs joins in to make froome panic a little. Game on a little.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

So the geniuses found out to work properly in the last kilometre. Could and should have been 30 seconds more, I expected more from the voodoo master in such situation.

The gap was never over 40 seconds, important to note.

Edit: still, disappointing. I'm guessing there was some confusion at first, but they only really started pushing after the 3 to go mark

Exactly. And it was 3 against 20, christ.... so its not unreasonable.

 

[wwabbit]

Re: Re:

Contador the big winner today then

What should have been an awful attack may turn into a big time gainer because of Froome's issues leading to a period with nobody pushing on

I think Nibali is perhaps the biggest winner. Froome is terrible at recovering from crashes, and there are two very tough MTFs at the weekend - plus he's had to waste a lot of energy in the last 20km.

Wasn't a big crash though. I assume the first incident was a mechanical rather than a crash.

It was a mechanical, then on his new bike while descending he swerved to avoid a Katusha car that initially looked like it had stopped to let him around the corner first but then decided to move forward, leading to the crash.

 

[skippo12]

Re:

Even if Froome abandoned right now, that wouldn't mean Nibali was smart. Instead of taking time NOW, which he could easily have done, we're hoping an unforeseen and unpredictable consequence of Froome's crashes will allow him to maybe perhaps gain time at an unspecified later stage, if all goes well? Meh.

Nibali is being extremely disappointing this year, and not because he has worse legs than in previous seasons.

Yesterday was disappointing? Only one who tried to challenge Froome and could stay with him in the end. I agree that his Giro wasn`t great but in the Vuelta he has done everything people could have expected. He will allways lose seconds on the muritos but on the longer climbs he is among the top 3. The race is far from over and he is only 1 minute down.

 

[Aguirre]

Froome is ridiculous bike handler, there is a long road to Madrid

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Even if I were for the whole waiting thing (which I'm not), I still think that after waiting for Froome eleventy times in the last couple of months you kinda have to draw a line somewhere.

At twelvety times!

 

[movingtarget]

Great win by Marczynski. Pretty good recovery from Froome.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Even if Froome abandoned right now, that wouldn't mean Nibali was smart. Instead of taking time NOW, which he could easily have done, we're hoping an unforeseen and unpredictable consequence of Froome's crashes will allow him to maybe perhaps gain time at an unspecified later stage, if all goes well? Meh.

Nibali is being extremely disappointing this year, and not because he has worse legs than in previous seasons.

It's not such a binary decision as you are making out; taking big pulls on a gentle downhill uses a lot of energy for limited reward, considering most of the watts are wasted against increasing air resistance.

He did put his team-mate on the front and did a couple of short turns himself. But if he would have taken long, hard pulls himself he might possibly have gained an extra 5-10 seconds on Froome. It's pretty debatable whether or not that would have been worth wasting a lot of extra energy for, compared with just letting his team-mate do most of the pulling along with the Astana doms.