Vuelta 2017, Stage 4: Escaldes-Engordany/Tarragona 198.2km

[Dekker_Tifosi]

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

 

[bambino]

Pozzovivo 3:25 down, Majka 3:45.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Too bad for JJ, I hoped he would snatch this one. But Quick Step is simply an amazing team

 

[Krokro]

Re:

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

Such a poor bike handling. Not worse than Bouhanni but still. Shame because he is a rather good rider.

Trentin textbook win as expected. Wondering if Cort Nielsen is on a Sunday ride since the beginning?
Plus, not sure if Ag2r leadout was awfully timed or if Pozzo was badly positionned but the result is pathetic for them.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Kirby tipping Si Clarke.

Whatever anyone's thoughts on Kirby, and he is a bit marmite, this constant Si Clarke obsession is just bloody unprofessional. It's almost as if he has a running bet on to mention him as a contender for literally every stage of any race he's in.

It really is pathetic!

Kirby listed about 30 possible winners of the stage - And Clarke was never mentioned as Kirby's selection for the day.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

Such a poor bike handling. Not worse than Bouhanni but still. Shame because he is a rather good rider.

Trentin textbook win as expected. Wondering if Cort Nielsen is on a Sunday ride since the beginning?
Plus, not sure if Ag2r leadout was awfully timed or if Pozzo was badly positionned but the result is pathetic for them.

You need to understand that Neil Stephens is an old school DS - Everything is for the GC riders - You'll find from around stage 10 when the GC pecking order is established, then Cort will be given the opportunity to sprint - It was the same in the 2016 Vuelta.

 

[yaco]

What an awesome ride by Lobato - He was nearly 20 riders back with around 600 metres to go, and somehow threaded his way to the front with 200 metresto go.

 

[Krokro]

Re: Re:

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

Such a poor bike handling. Not worse than Bouhanni but still. Shame because he is a rather good rider.

Trentin textbook win as expected. Wondering if Cort Nielsen is on a Sunday ride since the beginning?
Plus, not sure if Ag2r leadout was awfully timed or if Pozzo was badly positionned but the result is pathetic for them.

You need to understand that Neil Stephens is an old school DS - Everything is for the GC riders - You'll find from around stage 10 when the GC pecking order is established, then Cort will be given the opportunity to sprint - It was the same in the 2016 Vuelta.

Okay, did not know it was probably on purpose. I sincerely hope so as the kid has so much potential. Plus on a rather weak field, we could see him flying when he enters the arena.

 

[Anderis]

Interesting to see Tom Scully mixing up af the front with just few hundred meters to go but he got a mechanical. Not meaning much to a casual fan but he is doing better than I expected before the season. And Cannondale is leading Van Asbroeck out decently considering the team they've brought here.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

Such a poor bike handling. Not worse than Bouhanni but still. Shame because he is a rather good rider.

Trentin textbook win as expected. Wondering if Cort Nielsen is on a Sunday ride since the beginning?
Plus, not sure if Ag2r leadout was awfully timed or if Pozzo was badly positionned but the result is pathetic for them.

You need to understand that Neil Stephens is an old school DS - Everything is for the GC riders - You'll find from around stage 10 when the GC pecking order is established, then Cort will be given the opportunity to sprint - It was the same in the 2016 Vuelta.

Okay, did not know it was probably on purpose. I sincerely hope so as the kid has so much potential. Plus on a rather weak field, we could see him flying when he enters the arena.

I personally think if you bring Cort let him go for the sprints if the GC riders are safe with 3km to go.

 

[Breh]

Re:

Trentin becomes the 101st rider to win a stage in all three GTs.

Is there anyone else still in contention bar De Gendt?

Quick Step with some solid results at the start of a GT. Again.
Stage1: 2nd
Stage2: 1st and 2nd, green and red
Stage3: 2nd
Stage4: 1st, green

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Stupid finish, too dangerous. Whose idea was it to put a 1km banner in such a way that it narrowed the road even further?

Nice leadout and good win by Trentin, obviously the best sprinter until Degenkolb gets well, unless he retires. Kirby was seriously annoying, more so than normal - managed to convince himself that jelle wallays was a GC contender.

If by GC contender, he means finishing in the top 100, Wallays could have a chance

I'm happy not to have to listen to Kirby. Tomasz Jaroński and Dariusz Baranowski (for the younger listeners - former US Postal/Banesto/Liberty Seguros pro ) are the commentators on Polish Eurosport. Jaroński is a sort of anti-Kirby with
his deep, lugubrious, world-weary voice and dry sense of humour. Of course, they focus on the Polish pros (for example, when Wallays crashed, he said "don't worry, it's not Marczyński"), but when Marczyński was very near the front with only a few hundred metres left of a chaotic technical sprint, he very matter of factly said that he wouldn't be there for long.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah nationalism and hard patriotism sucks, just about the worst in commenting.

 

[liamito]

Any update on Pozzovivo? Strange to see he still lost almost 2 minutes to Moreno.

 

[staubsauger]

Probably took it easy since gc is over anyway now? It didn't look as if he was seriously hurt. Hopefully now
he finally goes for polka dot once.

 

[MADRAZO]

Re: Re:

lol that top 15. What a sprint field

Kelderman falling again, no surprise there. I wonder what took him so long

Such a poor bike handling. Not worse than Bouhanni but still. Shame because he is a rather good rider.

Trentin textbook win as expected. Wondering if Cort Nielsen is on a Sunday ride since the beginning?
Plus, not sure if Ag2r leadout was awfully timed or if Pozzo was badly positionned but the result is pathetic for them.

You need to understand that Neil Stephens is an old school DS - Everything is for the GC riders - You'll find from around stage 10 when the GC pecking order is established, then Cort will be given the opportunity to sprint - It was the same in the 2016 Vuelta.

Okay, did not know it was probably on purpose. I sincerely hope so as the kid has so much potential. Plus on a rather weak field, we could see him flying when he enters the arena.

I personally think if you bring Cort let him go for the sprints if the GC riders are safe with 3km to go.

It is a really stupid priority by Orica to not let Cort sprint, but he has indeed clear orders only to help Adam Yates, and has been seen in front around the 10 km mark both sprintstages. So its not even the guy that has a podiumchance, Chaves, they are wasting him on.. Last year the first time Cort won he also did so despite not being allowed too, but with 3 captains this year and a very stubborn Niel Stephens it will likely be impossible for him to sprint until the last stage unless the captains should all loose their GC-chances before. In danish TV interviews Cort has even told the reporters asking him on his chances to put pressure on Stephens to let him sprint, so he wants to but is just not allowed, and Stephens was very clear that he would not be allowed when they then asked him...

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

It is a really stupid priority by Orica to not let Cort sprint, but he has indeed clear orders only to help Adam Yates, and has been seen in front around the 10 km mark both sprintstages. So its not even the guy that has a podiumchance, Chaves, they are wasting him on.. Last year the first time Cort won he also did so despite not being allowed too, but with 3 captains this year and a very stubborn Niel Stephens it will likely be impossible for him to sprint until the last stage unless the captains should all loose their GC-chances before. In danish TV interviews Cort has even told the reporters asking him on his chances to put pressure on Stephens to let him sprint, so he wants to but is just not allowed, and Stephens was very clear that he would not be allowed when they then asked him...

Bleh, Orica.
Too bad for them there isn't a white jersey here that they could defend all the Vuelta.

 

[axl]

I got a question about tomorrow stage. The last climb (Ermita Sta. Lucía. Alcossebre) is noted "3.4 kilometre-long climb at 4.2%". But it's 310m high on 3,4km, so if i'm not mistaken it's almost 10% ! Is the official vuelta site wrong ?

 

[Vesica]

Re: Re:

Trentin becomes the 101st rider to win a stage in all three GTs.

Is there anyone else still in contention bar De Gendt?

Quick Step with some solid results at the start of a GT. Again.
Stage1: 2nd
Stage2: 1st and 2nd, green and red
Stage3: 2nd
Stage4: 1st, green

Stupid Dutch journalists from NOS mentioning Trentin as the 100th rider to win a stage in all GT's...completely missing Nibali's win from yesterday.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

Trentin becomes the 101st rider to win a stage in all three GTs.

Is there anyone else still in contention bar De Gendt?

Quick Step with some solid results at the start of a GT. Again.
Stage1: 2nd
Stage2: 1st and 2nd, green and red
Stage3: 2nd
Stage4: 1st, green

Stupid Dutch journalists from NOS mentioning Trentin as the 100th rider to win a stage in all GT's...completely missing Nibali's win from yesterday.

Well atleast Jose Been didn't *** up, oh wait...

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re:

I got a question about tomorrow stage. The last climb (Ermita Sta. Lucía. Alcossebre) is noted "3.4 kilometre-long climb at 4.2%". But it's 310m high on 3,4km, so if i'm not mistaken it's almost 10% ! Is the official vuelta site wrong ?

Yeah, it's a mistake. 9.2% would be about right

 

[tweak37]

Re: Re:

Trentin becomes the 101st rider to win a stage in all three GTs.

Is there anyone else still in contention bar De Gendt?

Quick Step with some solid results at the start of a GT. Again.
Stage1: 2nd
Stage2: 1st and 2nd, green and red
Stage3: 2nd
Stage4: 1st, green

Stupid Dutch journalists from NOS mentioning Trentin as the 100th rider to win a stage in all GT's...completely missing Nibali's win from yesterday.

So is there actually a list somewhere of these 99 riders before the Vuelta or where is this number coming from? The lists I can find are at most 90 riders long (Wikipedia).

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

I got a question about tomorrow stage. The last climb (Ermita Sta. Lucía. Alcossebre) is noted "3.4 kilometre-long climb at 4.2%". But it's 310m high on 3,4km, so if i'm not mistaken it's almost 10% ! Is the official vuelta site wrong ?

http://www.cyclingstage.com/vuelta-2017-route/stage-5-spain-route-2017/

At 3.4 kilometres, the hill is averaging 9.7%. At almost 15%, the first part is steepest, while the final 1,600 metres go up at 5%.

Last 5 km

Edit - just found this which is either wrong, old or correct! Whole climb to the top.

 

[Robert5091]

QS came good again, but Pozzovivo ... so close, yet ... Now Bertie, Mejka and Pozzovivo can go in a breakaway together.

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

It is a really stupid priority by Orica to not let Cort sprint, but he has indeed clear orders only to help Adam Yates, and has been seen in front around the 10 km mark both sprintstages. So its not even the guy that has a podiumchance, Chaves, they are wasting him on.. Last year the first time Cort won he also did so despite not being allowed too, but with 3 captains this year and a very stubborn Niel Stephens it will likely be impossible for him to sprint until the last stage unless the captains should all loose their GC-chances before. In danish TV interviews Cort has even told the reporters asking him on his chances to put pressure on Stephens to let him sprint, so he wants to but is just not allowed, and Stephens was very clear that he would not be allowed when they then asked him...

Bleh, Orica.
Too bad for them there isn't a white jersey here that they could defend all the Vuelta.

There's a red number bib!