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

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I'm hoping beyond hope Valverde manages to take a minute on Yates and Quintana. Maybe Kruijswick to have a good day as well. Will make the week interesting with Yates in particular pressured to take the time back
 
That said, It would be fun to have Valverde in red and the Colombian duo to lose some time.

It would force Quintana (and Lopez) to do some long range attacks while Valverde could sit on Yates' wheel.

Valverde is the only one who can handle Yates' short accelerations if he hasn't been forced to pull for Quintana.
 
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WheelofGear said:
Dennis obviously. But I hope Kwiatkowski isn't too badly injured. He can top 3 it.

Worst stage for Mas who has been flying in this Vuelta. Out of the top 10 riders in GC, he is the worst time trialist.
Nonsense, I don't know what makes you say that. Enric isn't the best TTer in the bunch but for a climber he is quite solid. Remember the final Tour de Suisse stage which was about as long as this one and he was on par with Kruijswijk and Kelderman and half a minute faster than Quintana. We just don't have many other reference points.

I am curious to see his performance tomorrow. My guess is he will be a little worse than Kruijswijk and Valverde, better than Lopez and Quintana and on par with Yates and Pinot.
 
Re: Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32

Gigs_98 said:
I think Yates will do better than most people think and comfortably hold on to red.
The annoying thing is there's barely any reference for his TT'ing when he's in this kind of form. Only the Giro ITT, which was 2 days after his great Sappada solo, and 2 days before he started imploding.
 
Re: Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32

Red Rick said:
Gigs_98 said:
I think Yates will do better than most people think and comfortably hold on to red.
The annoying thing is there's barely any reference for his TT'ing when he's in this kind of form. Only the Giro ITT, which was 2 days after his great Sappada solo, and 2 days before he started imploding.
I think that TT was about par for what we can expect from him tbh.
 
Re: Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32

Red Rick said:
Gigs_98 said:
I think Yates will do better than most people think and comfortably hold on to red.
The annoying thing is there's barely any reference for his TT'ing when he's in this kind of form. Only the Giro ITT, which was 2 days after his great Sappada solo, and 2 days before he started imploding.

Yates will not and does not need to go so hard as he did at the Giro otherwise he'll blow up again. Expecting a solid time about the same as Valverde but quicker then MAL, Quintana etc.

That last km though with 180 degree turns could cause some problems. The course has no lumpy bits and apart from the last 2km looks good for some big gaps in finishing times.
 
Oct 29, 2016
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Valverde in red and dream come true for me. He realy, realy deserve to win this Vuelta.

If i see him in red at Madrid that would be good thing for cycling.
 
Yates doesn't quite have the same legs as in the Giro and the race is taking place in Spain. As such I expect Valverde to gain time on him and take the red, but not by a big margin. Quintana will probably do his normal TT being around half a minute back from Valverde. He hasn't regressed notably in TT-ing, its his climbing level that has dropped.

Pinot is a wild card. This TT coming after the rest day, he may well end up being the worst of the GC guys. Normally he should be around Quintana's level - that one year when he was flying in TTs was clearly an exception. Lopez I don't know. Mostly he has been quite bad at TT-ing, but has shown good form thus far in the Vuelta and should at least be able to limit his losses fairly well against his current rivals.
 
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Velolover2 said:
How many of the GC riders do you think will enter top 20?

These late Vuelta TT usually have a good number of GC riders in the mix. Even if they are not really hilly or mountainous. The fatigue factor.

Also a lot of non GC riders who arent ITT specialist who could do a reasonable time trial will be saving themselves for breaks or domestique duties
 
Dennis for the win obviously. Will Porte actually try or keep training ? Somehow i am not expecting very big gaps between the contenders for the overall.Normally SK and Uran would do well on this course but i don't see it happening this time not for Uran anyway. Zakarin also would normally like this course. Valverde gets his chance maybe to make up some time. Kelderman and Pinot would also like this course usually and Pinot is overdue for a good TT.
 
Re: Vuelta 2018 stage 16:Santillana del Mar - Torrelavega 32

If I was Valverde, I would go all out to show Movistar that I was the leader and tell short ar$e that he can dom for me the rest of race. I would be getting really pi$$ed off with him doing nothing but getting dragged around these stages whilst he goes around pretending to be the leader.

The only thing I can see happening this Vuelta is Short arSe will somehow do a Giro Froome and gain enough time on one stage to win him the overall and him pretending that was his plan all along.


I'm hoping Yates will have a good race along with MAL and Krusher to kick the Movistar boys off the podium.
 
The TT actually looks easier than it actually is...

IMG_20180910_185038.jpg
 
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Laplaz said:
The TT actually looks easier than it actually is...

IMG_20180910_185038.jpg
So you're trying to tell me it's basically as hard as the one in the Tour, but with a very different y axis :eek:

I had noticed it was quite rolling, but not that it was this hilly.

I remember complaining that Dumoulin should've picked the Vuelta over a Tour he couldn't win. Now I'm sad he's not there. Would have made this Vuelta much crazier, especially if he'd had a crap team again.
 

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