Vuelta 2018 stage 15:Ribera del Arriba - Lagos de Covadonga

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Kelderman has the excuse he has ridden 0 races since his injury in the Dutch national champs.

He thought he could do really well on the account of being fresh and training hard. But he is clearly lacking race rythm

 

[yaco]

I suspect that MoviStar will have their leader after the ITT.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Great, great win for Pinot. Most of the time his lead stayed between 10-20 seconds, but he persisted with his effort and finally the others gave up and started playing games with each other. Very happy with this result.

Quintana was obviously in damage limitation mode. Clearly new all along that he would not be able to sustain any remotely serious attack. Didn't even try to follow Pinot or Yates' first attack. We have seen how he has approached this same climb when he had the legs to really do something. As such it is even sadder to see him struggling like that.

 

[Velolover2]

I'm not sure if Quintana will do much better than Lopez in the ITT but let's see. He tend to be very strong in third week.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re: Re:

Aru behind Brambilla, pathetic.

Brambilla rode well today..he is improving ..could yet do a top 10

Tony Gallopin is not a GC rider ...
David de la Criz was SKY leader...he has been so poor
Aru continues to go backwards
And same for Keldermna ...
Zakarin ...who knows what happened to him since last year

David de la Cruz should have changed his nationality before he started the Vuelta.

I forgot George Bennett who like Kelderman said he targeted prepared for this Vuelta well and was ready for a good result

Also MIchael Woods ....again good last year and this year ??

Goes to show consistency is hard to find

Woods came 2nd in LBL. It is difficult to be good 2 times in a year. Most manage it for only one time

 

[yaco]

George Bennett has proven in the last two years he is unable to perform well in two GT's.

 

[shalgo]

Re:

Did Kwiatkowski abandon?

Procyclingstats has him finishing 73rd, 23:11 down.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

George Bennett has proven in the last two years he is unable to perform well in two GT's.

Yes...Bennett has been good most of the year ....just ran out of juice

Its such a fine line between riding enough and riding too many races in prep

Pinot may be a good bet for the Worlds ??

 

[Amazinmets87]

Re: Re:

Did Kwiatkowski abandon?

Procyclingstats has him finishing 73rd, 23:11 down.

Any reason for him to continue? Seems prudent to cease expending energy and rest for WC

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Tonton rejoices

Yeah, I'm in heaven . So well-deserved for El Tibo. He has had his share of heartbreaks and keeps fighting back. Bravo Thibaut!

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Tonton rejoices

Yeah, I'm in heaven . So well-deserved for El Tibo. He has had his share of heartbreaks and keeps fighting back. Bravo Thibaut!

Yeah well deserved win.

 

[bambino]

The more I think about this, and looking the stages to come, I think Alejandro Valverde will win this bike race.

 

[staubsauger]

Kruijswijk attacks when he feels strong (Dolomites 2016, Alp d'Huez 2018, Malbun 2011), follows wheels like Leipheimer when he's on a bad day and needs to find his rhythm like today and drills his own tempo from the front like Basso in order to weaken concurrents when he feels decent.

Yesterday attacking the whole climb in his own tempo made him finish a steep wall around the same time as the hot favorites.
Today riding his own tempo without carrying about bridging Valverde around made him finish ahead of Quintana on a bad day.

That's exactly what an ultimate diesel like Kruijswijk has to do. The assumption he's tactically inept based on the last 2 days is complete nonsense.

Quintana on the other hand, might've lost his podium today on a day that could've seen him winning the Vuelta. Valverde certainly does a decent TT on Tuesday, like always in Spain. Same goes for Kruijswijk, who's got the Pyrenees in his favor as well. Lopez already climbed better than Quintana today. Not pulling to frustrate Yates: That was tactically inept!

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Thibault Pinot! Ol' man Valverde will be in red Tuesday unless Yates digs deep - but we know what happened in the Giro ...

MS & Movistar not BFF now?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Kruijswijk attacks when he feels strong (Dolomites 2016, Alp d'Huez 2018, Malbun 2011), follows wheels like Leipheimer when he's on a bad day and needs to find his rhythm like today and drills his own tempo from the front like Basso in order to weaken concurrents when he feels decent.

Yesterday attacking the whole climb in his own tempo made him finish a steep wall around the same time as the hot favorites.
Today riding his own tempo without carrying about bridging Valverde around made him finish ahead of Quintana on a bad day.

That's exactly what an ultimate diesel like Kruijswijk has to do. The assumption he's tactically inept based on the last 2 days is complete nonsense.

Quintana on the other hand, might've lost his podium today on a day that could've seen him winning the Vuelta. Valverde certainly does a decent TT on Tuesday, like always in Spain. Same goes for Kruijswijk, who's got the Pyrenees in his favor as well. Lopez already climbed better than Quintana today. Not pulling to frustrate Yates: That was tactically inept!

Duh, everything that comes out of El Pistrollero is complete nonsense. He wouldn't know how to do a sensible post if it hit him in the face. It's a miracle he survived this long without getting a definite ban for obvious trolling. But whatever

 

[Laplaz]

What is Porte doing in this race btw?

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

It kind of feels Quintana is banking for Yates having that 1/2 bad days in the 3rd week.

He might be right.

exactly my thoughts - He's likely betting everything on the 17th & penultimate stages, BUT If Yates fades, the problem for Quintana is Superman Lopez, who seems to be stronger, so that gamble is not fully thought out well IMO...

I'd add at this point Quintana has another problem and that is his own teammate. Valverde isn't going to just give Quintana time on him.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

To me it looks like there is no clear communication within Movistar. Both, Valverde and Quintana don't ride against each other, yet they don't ride to maximise the chance for one of them winning. When Valverde is in the group he rides from the front, when he is dropped Quintana looks uncertain about wether he should ride on. One of them should ride for the other or it will be very difficult for them.. Maybe one of them has to lose a lot of time for the other one to be the clear leader.

They are racing two different races. Quintana is racing basically with the support of the team except for Valverde. Valverde is racing his own race with no support.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

What is Porte doing in this race btw?

Training. He was dropped near the bottom of the final climb. Maybe next week he will try again in the break or test his climbing legs.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Kruijswijk attacks when he feels strong (Dolomites 2016, Alp d'Huez 2018, Malbun 2011), follows wheels like Leipheimer when he's on a bad day and needs to find his rhythm like today and drills his own tempo from the front like Basso in order to weaken concurrents when he feels decent.

Yesterday attacking the whole climb in his own tempo made him finish a steep wall around the same time as the hot favorites.
Today riding his own tempo without carrying about bridging Valverde around made him finish ahead of Quintana on a bad day.

That's exactly what an ultimate diesel like Kruijswijk has to do. The assumption he's tactically inept based on the last 2 days is complete nonsense.

Quintana on the other hand, might've lost his podium today on a day that could've seen him winning the Vuelta. Valverde certainly does a decent TT on Tuesday, like always in Spain. Same goes for Kruijswijk, who's got the Pyrenees in his favor as well. Lopez already climbed better than Quintana today. Not pulling to frustrate Yates: That was tactically inept!

Duh, everything that comes out of El Pistrollero is complete nonsense. He wouldn't know how to do a sensible post if it hit him in the face. It's a miracle he survived this long without getting a definite ban for obvious trolling. But whatever

Says the most nationalistic and antagonistic poster on this board. Literally every time you go in an argument with me you bring up "but the Belgians". Like dude, you have serious issues, not everything revolves around the country one is born in. That's why Nibali is my favorite cyclist, something you will probably never understand, cheering for a rider that is not from your country. 95% of your posts are about Dutch cyclists and when Dutch cyclists have nothing to do with it you still try to bring up an example involving a Dutch cyclist.

Being a diesel doesn't change the fact that he's riding like a dumb-ass when he never asks the people in his wheel to pull. The guy hasn't won a bike race since what? 2014.

I don't care what Kruijswijk's nationality is, I'd have said the same if he was Spanish, Italian or Belgian.

It's so tiring to go in a discussion with you when every single time you bring up my nationality.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

To me it looks like there is no clear communication within Movistar. Both, Valverde and Quintana don't ride against each other, yet they don't ride to maximise the chance for one of them winning. When Valverde is in the group he rides from the front, when he is dropped Quintana looks uncertain about wether he should ride on. One of them should ride for the other or it will be very difficult for them.. Maybe one of them has to lose a lot of time for the other one to be the clear leader.

They are racing two different races. Quintana is racing basically with the support of the team except for Valverde. Valverde is racing his own race with no support.

Well.... retrospetrively thinking, Quintana looked like he didn't actually want to attack while Valverde was in troubles, but he did follow most of Yates' attacks with relative ease. I'm really not sure what to conclude in regards of Movistar begging order after today.

 

[Bolder]

Re: Re:

It kind of feels Quintana is banking for Yates having that 1/2 bad days in the 3rd week.

He might be right.

exactly my thoughts - He's likely betting everything on the 17th & penultimate stages, BUT If Yates fades, the problem for Quintana is Superman Lopez, who seems to be stronger, so that gamble is not fully thought out well IMO...

I'd add at this point Quintana has another problem and that is his own teammate. Valverde isn't going to just give Quintana time on him.

I find it hard to believe that Quintana would just let Yates/Valverde take time on him if he's feeling good. That doesn't make any sense. He's just a bit off the pace this year, and has to race with perfect tactics. I don't think he did that yesterday. Also, Valverde isn't really a teammate at this point. If he cracks, he'll go stage hunting rather than work for Quintana. But maybe he's earned that status.

But, 3 hard stages and a TT to go, so much remains unknown.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

It kind of feels Quintana is banking for Yates having that 1/2 bad days in the 3rd week.

He might be right.

exactly my thoughts - He's likely betting everything on the 17th & penultimate stages, BUT If Yates fades, the problem for Quintana is Superman Lopez, who seems to be stronger, so that gamble is not fully thought out well IMO...

I'd add at this point Quintana has another problem and that is his own teammate. Valverde isn't going to just give Quintana time on him.

I find it hard to believe that Quintana would just let Yates/Valverde take time on him if he's feeling good. That doesn't make any sense. He's just a bit off the pace this year, and has to race with perfect tactics. I don't think he did that yesterday. Also, Valverde isn't really a teammate at this point. If he cracks, he'll go stage hunting rather than work for Quintana. But maybe he's earned that status.

But, 3 hard stages and a TT to go, so much remains unknown.

I don't think Quintana can attack. If he can he would have tried more often up till now.

 

[Sestriere]

Re: Re:

To me it looks like there is no clear communication within Movistar. Both, Valverde and Quintana don't ride against each other, yet they don't ride to maximise the chance for one of them winning. When Valverde is in the group he rides from the front, when he is dropped Quintana looks uncertain about wether he should ride on. One of them should ride for the other or it will be very difficult for them.. Maybe one of them has to lose a lot of time for the other one to be the clear leader.

They are racing two different races. Quintana is racing basically with the support of the team except for Valverde. Valverde is racing his own race with no support.

This might have made sense at the start of the race when they hoped Quintana would just outclimb everyone. However, this clearly isn't the case hence they should come up with a plan to actually win the race overall after the TT. I'd like to add that it didn't look like they were riding two different races today, they were clearly trying to help each other.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

What is Porte doing in this race btw?

According to himself he is having fun with the spectators from the grupetto

Seewhere Steve de J says an upright Porte can get a Tour podium ..I see that man has grasped the enormity of the job in front of him