Vuelta 2018 stage 14:Cistierna - Les Praeres de Nava 171km

[Rollthedice]

Quintana will wait until stage 20.

 

[Koronin]

The problem with Quintana is he appears to make half hearted attacks, he no tactical sense, does not appear to be able to read race situations, and has no killer instinct. He's a very good climber, but that isn't always enough.

 

[Forever The Best]

Lol at Lopez and Quintana. Nice to see Yates strong.
Also, this race looks like it is gonna be the worst Vuelta in many years.

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

I agree ...he is great on the steep stuff but he lacks an attacking spirit or self believe or something. He certainly always looks like he is waiting for someone else to do something
But heaven forbid we criticize him...or you are accused of being a hater or racist or something

But it makes no sense whatsoever to criticize Quintana today without saying a word on Lopez who rode much more passively than Quintana and even had better legs.

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Yates - did enough to win, but it's only day 2 of three.

Pinot & Aru - welcome back!

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Quintana will wait until stage 20.

Kruijswijk and Quintana have been the most active today. They just didn't have the legs. And Quintana apparently didn't watch the Giro if he was expecting MAL to help opening the gap when they where ahead.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

I agree ...he is great on the steep stuff but he lacks an attacking spirit or self believe or something. He certainly always looks like he is waiting for someone else to do something
But heaven forbid we criticize him...or you are accused of being a hater or racist or something

But it makes no sense whatsoever to criticize Quintana today without saying a word on Lopez who rode much more passively than Quintana and even had better legs.

Well like it or not more is expected from Quintana ..He is the GT champion, he is the favourite
He is the best climber in the race with no Froome, Contador , Dumoulin ,etc
Quintana is the man everyone thinks (on here) will walk this
But he never hammers home any advantage ...And this is not the first time ....His psychology needs adjusting

 

[movingtarget]

Quintana could still win this race but I have doubts about him ever winning the Tour.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

I agree ...he is great on the steep stuff but he lacks an attacking spirit or self believe or something. He certainly always looks like he is waiting for someone else to do something
But heaven forbid we criticize him...or you are accused of being a hater or racist or something

But it makes no sense whatsoever to criticize Quintana today without saying a word on Lopez who rode much more passively than Quintana and even had better legs.

Well like it or not more is expected from Quintana ..He is the GT champion, he is the favourite
He is the best climber in the race with no Froome, Contador , Dumoulin ,etc
Quintana is the man everyone thinks (on here) will walk this
But he never hammers home any advantage ...And this is not the first time ....His psychology needs adjusting

He's also the one that is closer to the red jersey. Lopez chose to defend, Quintana chose to attack.

I think I know which one is to blame.

 

[Red Rick]

To be fair on Quintana. He looked to be improving in the Pyrenees, then he crashed in the Tour

And I won't deny Lopez is really getting on my nerves

 

[Inquitus]

Stage Results

GC Standings

 

[El Pistolero]

Does this Vuelta have anything other than steep short walls? This is boring, it's always the same cyclists over and over again.

Seems like only the Giro can get its course design right.

 

[Inquitus]

Re:

Does this Vuelta have anything other than steep short walls? This is boring, it's always the same cyclists over and over again.

Seems like only the Giro can get its course design right.

Tomorrow's finishing climb is a longer effort, avg 7.2% but with some much steeper ramps and some descending:

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

I dont understand the hate towards Quintana. If he was so strong why did he lose more than 10 seconds in the final? To me he looks like the only one who constantly attacks when he isn't the strongest, so he just cant sustain those attacks. Thats why he kept looking for help, he had nothing left.

I don't buy that. He won time on everyone yesterday.
Today he was obviously not the strongest uphill sprinter, but when he has >50 m on the rest, he was apparently so annoyed by Lopez, that he just giften that advantage again, thus allowing the sprinters to catch up again. Of course, the biggest brainfart was courtesy of Lopez, but Quintana should've at least ridden some tempo so that whoever was behind started to get nervous. We've seen time and again now that Yates climbs with these intermediate sprints. Quintana's tactic allowed Yates to climb like that here - and win.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Yates is a 800m specialist, not my style of rider

Guess you weren't watching this years Giro then?

Yeah he attacked once from 15km out, but his nature is to wait until
The end

People are entitled to their irrational likes and dislikes, but this is one of the odder ones. Yates attacks from range on a regular basis. As well as his Giro exploits earlier this year, in his last race, the Tour de Pologne, he won the final stage solo after attacking from far out in an attempt to take GC. Sure he can win in the Purito style and he probably should wait to do so, but in practice he attacks from all kinds of range.

 

[Keram]

There is no sky train in this race but this Vuelta is somehow boring. At least compared to recent years. Gc action limited to last meters or couple of kilometres like in Tour. It is maybe just my short memory but I think there used to be more Gc action at Vuelta

 

[slosada]

López is the one to blame. Period. Had he helped a bit, he would have won the stage a now would be closer to the red jersey. Instead, he settled for 2nd and 6 secs further. He also knows he might be the weakest in the ITT.
Right now the top4 in GC are probably the ones fighting for title and podium.

 

[Arked]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

No. Quintana wasn't the strongest today. If he was he would win. Simple as that. He did all he could. He even clearly said that in the interview after the stage, that it was all he had and couldn't do more. I mean no offence but do same of you people ever ride your bikes uphill? Because sometimes it seems like many forum users live in the world of fantasy where attacking is the matter of willingness, not physical ability.

 

[Arked]

Re:

López is the one to blame. Period. Had he helped a bit, he would have won the stage a now would be closer to the red jersey. Instead, he settled for 2nd and 6 secs further. He also knows he might be the weakest in the ITT.
Right now the top4 in GC are probably the ones fighting for title and podium.

Help at 16% gradient? How? Drafting at 12kph is practically negligible (you can probably save something like 1W). That's why they were riding side by side for quite a long time. It's everyone for themselves on this type of climb.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

To be fair on Quintana. He looked to be improving in the Pyrenees, then he crashed in the Tour

And I won't deny Lopez is really getting on my nerves

Quintana and even Valverde tried before. Kruijswijk the whole climb.

It's especially Lopez and Yates getting on my nerves with their wait tactic. And even then Yates was doing a lot of chasing at least. Lopez is just... a wheelsucker. If he wasn't Colombian I swear he would get more hate

 

[Amazinmets87]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

No. Quintana wasn't the strongest today. If he was he would win. Simple as that. He did all he could. He even clearly said that in the interview after the stage, that it was all he had and couldn't do more. I mean no offence but do same of you people ever ride your bikes uphill? Because sometimes it seems like many forum users live in the world of fantasy where attacking is the matter of willingness, not physical ability.

The real question is whether they ride bikes at all.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

To be fair on Quintana. He looked to be improving in the Pyrenees, then he crashed in the Tour

And I won't deny Lopez is really getting on my nerves

Quintana and even Valverde tried before. Kruijswijk the whole climb.

It's especially Lopez and Yates getting on my nerves with their wait tactic. And even then Yates was doing a lot of chasing at least. Lopez is just... a wheelsucker. If he wasn't Colombian I swear he would get more hate

Yates is a very attacking rider when the route allows him.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

“The strongest” is too broad a term. Quintana could be the strongest climber on a given day and still get done over in the last 600 meters for some seconds by more explosive guys.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

To be fair on Quintana. He looked to be improving in the Pyrenees, then he crashed in the Tour

And I won't deny Lopez is really getting on my nerves

Quintana and even Valverde tried before. Kruijswijk the whole climb.

It's especially Lopez and Yates getting on my nerves with their wait tactic. And even then Yates was doing a lot of chasing at least. Lopez is just... a wheelsucker. If he wasn't Colombian I swear he would get more hate

If Yates was Colombian, he would be viewed as the second coming of Christ on this forum. I’m moderately fond of our island neighbors but there’s nothing less glamorous than Brits.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

Yep, the hate for him is ludicrous. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it comes from a pretty dark place as well. It's so irrational.

Looked like he was close to the limit, based on how he lost time at the end. Surely it is a missed opportunity for Yates and MAL to bury Quintana, if anything.

Quintana was the strongest today imo, and I resent the implied accusation of racism. The reason I am so annoyed by him is that he so rarely seems to use his full potential. He's not a coward or a wheelsucker, but I want to see him really push himself and go for the win.

No. Quintana wasn't the strongest today. If he was he would win. Simple as that. He did all he could. He even clearly said that in the interview after the stage, that it was all he had and couldn't do more. I mean no offence but do same of you people ever ride your bikes uphill? Because sometimes it seems like many forum users live in the world of fantasy where attacking is the matter of willingness, not physical ability.

The real question is whether they ride bikes at all.

Could you be even more paternizing?
I ride 10.000 km per year, thanks, and I'm quite sure that, if Quintana and Lopez had ridden differently, their result would've been better. The statement that the strongest rider wins on a climb is utter BS. There are many more factors, and creating a gap, sustaining it for a while and hoping the group behind hesitates and leaves it too late could well have worked here for MAL and Quintana. Now, they eased off considerably, which is effectively gifting away a precious advantage.