Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32km

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

No real surprises here except SK. And maybe Mas.

Xwijk is no surprise. Massive 3rd week specialist.

Too bad the mountains here are not diesel enough

Best career non-MTT ITT result, first time doing really well in his second GT of the year.

He was 5th in a non mtt giro TT before. So 4th or 5th is no real difference

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

No real surprises here except SK. And maybe Mas.

Xwijk is no surprise. Massive 3rd week specialist.

Too bad the mountains here are not diesel enough

Best career non-MTT ITT result, first time doing really well in his second GT of the year.

He was 5th in a non mtt giro TT before. So 4th or 5th is no real difference

While it's not a MTT in the Giro and no real difference place-wise, the winner's average speed was about 5 km/h faster today so I would say that today was pretty surprising.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

In this field and at this time of the race I really don't consider it a surprise but whatever

 

[Red Rick]

The rest of this Vuelta rests on the shoulders of Kruijswijk.

Will he look at those in front of him or at those behind him?

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

The rest of this Vuelta rests on the shoulders of Kruijswijk.

Will he look at those in front of him or at those behind him?

In front of him I tink

4th in the Tour accords him the leeway to go for an all out Vuelta ...who cares the minor places...not SK that is who

 

[jaylew]

Well, we do know one thing. Yates is either going to cap an incredible year with a win or he's going to go down as the guy who fails in the big moment as it would be the 3rd big stage race that he lost at the end this season.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

The rest of this Vuelta rests on the shoulders of Kruijswijk.

Will he look at those in front of him or at those behind him?

In front of him I tink

4th in the Tour accords him the leeway to go for an all out Vuelta ...who cares the minor places...not SK that is who

Yeah, I hope he will. Tomorrow the climb is anything but tactical, so I guess the legs decide for you there.

 

[shalgo]

Re:

Kuss, Boom, Lindeman, Leezer, Bennett finished 153rd, 161st, 162nd, 163rd and 164th from 165 riders today. Seems that LottoNL-Jumbo have a bit of a plan for tomorrow then...

Very interesting. Van Poppel was also 151st, and he can do a pretty good time trial when he wants to (he was even 49th in the long Giro TT).

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

I wonder how Superman feels about past tactical decisions right now

The messing about with Quintana on the stage Yates won did not cost him significant time. He went early and repeatedly on Covadonga, where there actually was the potential to take big time. His issue isn’t tactical it’s that he hasn’t been stronger than Yates.

So because he's the 2nd best climber in the race and currently standing 5th or something means that he's riding tactically solid?

More or less, yes. He has lost some seconds on punchy climbs, where he is not the second best, and more in the TT where is very far from being the second best. He is about where his current level as a GC rider on this parcours dictates. He just wasn’t strong enough to gain big time on Covadonga to recover the time lost in other areas. Maybe he will be strong enough to take significant time later as the Tour guys get tired and of course Yates may implode again. But there’s no tactical approach that would have him in second place at this point in this race.

 

[JosephK]

Re: Re:

Kuss, Boom, Lindeman, Leezer, Bennett finished 153rd, 161st, 162nd, 163rd and 164th from 165 riders today. Seems that LottoNL-Jumbo have a bit of a plan for tomorrow then...

Very interesting. Van Poppel was also 151st, and he can do a pretty good time trial when he wants to (he was even 49th in the long Giro TT).

Nice to see Kruijswijk surging at the right time in this grand tour. If he can reclaim his Giro form from a couple years ago (before the voodoo intervention), this could be very interesting indeed.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I wonder how Superman feels about past tactical decisions right now

The messing about with Quintana on the stage Yates won did not cost him significant time. He went early and repeatedly on Covadonga, where there actually was the potential to take big time. His issue isn’t tactical it’s that he hasn’t been stronger than Yates.

So because he's the 2nd best climber in the race and currently standing 5th or something means that he's riding tactically solid?

More or less, yes. He has lost some seconds on punchy climbs, where he is not the second best, and more in the TT where is very far from being the second best. He is about where his current level as a GC rider on this parcours dictates. He just wasn’t strong enough to gain big time on Covadonga to recover the time lost in other areas. Maybe he will be strong enough to take significant time later as the Tour guys get tired and of course Yates may implode again. But there’s no tactical approach that would have him in second place at this point in this race.

With a teammate who is in much better position.

 

[Bolder]

I noticed that too about the Jumbo riders sandbagging the TT. Seems pretty obvious they're going to try proper train tactics with Kruijswijk. With Kuss and Bennett they've got two riders who can get 90% of the way up almost any climb. I don't think there are any snowbanks still left in Andorra so why not?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Also a strong ITT from De Plus, only 4 seconds behind Mas. Two QS youngsters of 23 (De Plus turned 23 this week). Maybe he can help Mas in the final week since he gave up on his own GC after he lost 4 minutes in one stage. De Plus will also ride the WC ITT again this year.

 

[shalgo]

It is worth noting that Teuns put in a good TT, building on (and even better than) some TTs he did in one-week races earlier this year. Before this year, he had been weak in time trials.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Had Dennis not been there, that would have been an amazingly close TT: I don't see any record of the fractions of seconds, but less than 2 seconds between what would have been the top 4.



Dennis is apparently on his way home, so it won't matter to him, but it often seems to me it can't be good for a rider to spend so long sat in a not necessarily very comfortable chair, sometimes well over an hour, and then having all the stage protocol before they can get any comfort. I'm surprised we don't hear them complaining about it, though I guess it is not seemly to moan about being feted as a winner.
Probably even worse to wait in the hot seat for ages, then get pipped by one of the late starters. Are there cases of really bad days following the hot seat?

 

[search]

Re:

Had Dennis not been there, that would have been an amazingly close TT: I don't see any record of the fractions of seconds, but less than 2 seconds between what would have been the top 4.

1 DENNIS Rohan 37'57"44
2 ROSSKOPF Joseph 38'47"01
3 CASTROVIEJO Jonathan 38'47"18
4 KRUIJSWIJK Steven 38'48"42
5 KWIATKOWSKI Michal 38'48"96
6 MAS NICOLAU Enric 39'00"97
7 OLIVEIRA Nelson 39'02"96
8 DE PLUS Laurens 39'04"17
9 GESCHKE Simon 39'07"14
10 ASGREEN Kasper 39'07"27

http://www.tissottiming.com/File/0003100109010110FFFFFFFFFFFFFF0C

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Re: Re:

Had Dennis not been there, that would have been an amazingly close TT: I don't see any record of the fractions of seconds, but less than 2 seconds between what would have been the top 4.

1 DENNIS Rohan 37'57"44
2 ROSSKOPF Joseph 38'47"01
3 CASTROVIEJO Jonathan 38'47"18
4 KRUIJSWIJK Steven 38'48"42
5 KWIATKOWSKI Michal 38'48"96
6 MAS NICOLAU Enric 39'00"97
7 OLIVEIRA Nelson 39'02"96
8 DE PLUS Laurens 39'04"17
9 GESCHKE Simon 39'07"14
10 ASGREEN Kasper 39'07"27

http://www.tissottiming.com/File/0003100109010110FFFFFFFFFFFFFF0C

Thanks.

So it could have been closer, but it is still less than 2 seconds.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

Also a strong ITT from De Plus, only 4 seconds behind Mas. Two QS youngsters of 23 (De Plus turned 23 this week). Maybe he can help Mas in the final week since he gave up on his own GC after he lost 4 minutes in one stage. De Plus will also ride the WC ITT again this year.

And his 3rd place on Caminito del Rey tells a lot about him as a rider. He both has a great engine and is quite punchy. The perfect combination for the Ardennes.. Should be in the mix next year.

He will get more freedom on Jumbo.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Also a strong ITT from De Plus, only 4 seconds behind Mas. Two QS youngsters of 23 (De Plus turned 23 this week). Maybe he can help Mas in the final week since he gave up on his own GC after he lost 4 minutes in one stage. De Plus will also ride the WC ITT again this year.

And his 3rd place on Caminito del Rey tells a lot about him as a rider. He both has a great engine and is quite punchy. The perfect combination for the Ardennes.. Should be in the mix next year.

He will get more freedom on Jumbo.

I don't see a lot of freedom at Jumbo at all. They're getting stacked in the uphill department.

 

[search]

last week he said that he'd pick some stages to attack and rest on the others, so that didn't really sound like he was going to support Mas (who usually has Serry with him, as long as he is able to hang on). But maybe plans have changed now, yeah

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

The rest of this Vuelta rests on the shoulders of Kruijswijk.

Will he look at those in front of him or at those behind him?

In front of him I tink

4th in the Tour accords him the leeway to go for an all out Vuelta ...who cares the minor places...not SK that is who

5th in the Tour. My new love Roglic was 4th.

 

[Breh]

Quick Step's class of '95
Mas 6th, De Plus 8th and neopro Asgreen, pro since 01/04, finished 10th.

 

[Robert5091]

BMC 1-2 - chapeau! Kruijswijk & Mas - standout performances. Otherwise, Yates solid, Valverde & Quintana maybe the TdF catching up with them.

Who went too deep, we might well find out tomorrow (Wednesday)

 

[JosephK]

Re:

BMC 1-2 - chapeau! Kruijswijk & Mas - standout performances. Otherwise, Yates solid, Valverde & Quintana maybe the TdF catching up with them.

Who went too deep, we might well find out tomorrow (Wednesday)

Whatever can be said about BMC, the one thing they did get right was/is time-trialing.