Vuelta 2018 Stage 2:Marbella – Caminito del Rey 163.5 km

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

Nairo looks good, Superman still awful.

He is always bad on those short climbs at the end of the stage like that

Hence ''still''.

Relax, I didnt say to correct you or some ***

 

[Breh]

Re:

Love how a flattish stage at the Vuelta can spit out GC contenders - The TDF should have a stage like this in the first three or four stages of each edition.

Flattish? There were over 2500 altitude meters.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Love how a flattish stage at the Vuelta can spit out GC contenders - The TDF should have a stage like this in the first three or four stages of each edition.

Can thank Sky for that. But only really Nibali and Porte lost out as expected and Zakarin had a fall so GC was nothing surprising.

 

[hazaran]

Re: Re:

Love how a flattish stage at the Vuelta can spit out GC contenders - The TDF should have a stage like this in the first three or four stages of each edition.

Flattish? There were over 2500 altitude meters.

Okay, so what? That's nothing. They're not racing those climbs. It's 170 km distance.

I could get more in less distance around here, and the highest peak is like 500m.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

Campenaerts in the top 40. Pretty shocking result by him. I guess the poster who wrote last week that he was a rider whose only usefulness was at 5 TTs a year has to rethink that statement a little.

The year he was at Lotto NL, he did a lot of work for the team during either Giro or Vuelta (can't remember). He's not exactly useless.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Love how a flattish stage at the Vuelta can spit out GC contenders - The TDF should have a stage like this in the first three or four stages of each edition.

Can thank Sky for that. But only really Nibali and Porte lost out as expected and Zakarin had a fall so GC was nothing surprising.

Can you imagine this happening in stage 2 of the TDF ?

 

[Velolover2]

These punchy stages are really Superman's krytonite.

Why does he always lose 20 secs or even more on these? Couldn't he at least stay with the main contenders?

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Campenaerts in the top 40. Pretty shocking result by him. I guess the poster who wrote last week that he was a rider whose only usefulness was at 5 TTs a year has to rethink that statement a little.

The year he was at Lotto NL, he did a lot of work for the team during either Giro or Vuelta (can't remember). He's not exactly useless.

2016 Vuelta it was.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Love how a flattish stage at the Vuelta can spit out GC contenders - The TDF should have a stage like this in the first three or four stages of each edition.

Valverde has warned everyone in the past that a Vuelta "flat" stage has a bunch of climbing in it.

Nice win by Bala. The stage had his name written on it and he delivered yet again. Win #12 on the season so far. He's also extended his record of most years between first and most recent stage win. Overall stage win #10 at la Vuelta for Valverde. He really does enjoy this race. There are more stages to come that are good finishes for him. One thing we saw today is that he's definitely got a lot better form starting la Vuelta than he did with the Tour.

 

[tobydawq]

Boom and Duval were four seconds inside the time limit.

Quite a tough start to the race.

 

[rick james]

Bet Froome dawg is is kicking himself now....he wouldn’t have to get out of second gear to win this years Vuelta

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Bet Froome dawg is is kicking himself now....he wouldn’t have to get out of second gear to win this years Vuelta

Lol, cause riding three gt's in a reason isn't difficult at all.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Boom and Duval were four seconds inside the time limit.

Quite a tough start to the race.

Boom had intestine problems. There was a twitter video of him going into a camper from the public to take a #2 break

 

[Robert5091]

Re: Re:

Boom and Duval were four seconds inside the time limit.

Quite a tough start to the race.

Boom had intestine problems. There was a twitter video of him going into a camper from the public to take a #2 break

LRP's problems going around?

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

Imagine how much better the Tour de France would be if they had a stage like this in the first few days. Thinning out the GC pretenders immediately, while providing entertainment right from the start.

In the Tour this stage wouldn't have this kind of selection

It's the end of a Long season...

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Bala! The ol' man still has it. Nice attack from De Plus.

So we can begin to cross off some contenders ... and look forward to the Sky train tomorrow.

 

[Laplaz]

Expected better from Saimen Yates

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

These punchy stages are really Superman's krytonite.

Why does he always lose 20 secs or even more on these? Couldn't he at least stay with the main contenders?

Lopez is the definition of true diesel engine!

 

[Valv.Piti]

Can only agree with Rick and DFA about how to make an opening weekend. This is EXACTLY how you want to design a first weekend, a nice opening time trial day and a semi hard, punchy day on the second day. That really gets you hyped for the race instead of two totally useless flat stages which serve no purpose apart from a lot of crashes and people being able to ride into form.

I would have hoped Quintana would have worked a bit for Valv when Carapaz disappointed and Valv didnt have any other domestiques, but oh well, then its nice he can finish it off like that. Bala would surely pay him back - must admit I was a little disappointed in Quintana not pulling for a few hundred meters when De Plus attacked.

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Expected better from Saimen Yates

Me too - going from his TdPoland form. Jack Haig finished 5 seconds in front of him so something went wrong!

Uran was up there at the finish so he seems to have recovered form Tdf, but poor ol' LRP - 14 minutes back after 2 stages.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Can only agree with Rick and DFA about how to make an opening weekend. This is EXACTLY how you want to design a first weekend, a nice opening time trial day and a semi hard, punchy day on the second day. That really gets you hyped for the race instead of two totally useless flat stages which serve no purpose apart from a lot of crashes and people being able to ride into form.

I would have hoped Quintana would have worked a bit for Valv when Carapaz disappointed and Valv didnt have any other domestiques, but oh well, then its nice he can finish it off like that. Bala would surely pay him back - must admit I was a little disappointed in Quintana not pulling for a few hundred meters when De Plus attacked.

Are you seriously telling us that you for one second thought Quintana would work for somebody else?

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Can only agree with Rick and DFA about how to make an opening weekend. This is EXACTLY how you want to design a first weekend, a nice opening time trial day and a semi hard, punchy day on the second day. That really gets you hyped for the race instead of two totally useless flat stages which serve no purpose apart from a lot of crashes and people being able to ride into form.

I would have hoped Quintana would have worked a bit for Valv when Carapaz disappointed and Valv didnt have any other domestiques, but oh well, then its nice he can finish it off like that. Bala would surely pay him back - must admit I was a little disappointed in Quintana not pulling for a few hundred meters when De Plus attacked.

Are you seriously telling us that you for one second thought Quintana would work for somebody else?

This. We've seen in the past that Quintana won't work for anyone else.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Uh, Valverde fanboys, you do know even Valverde said Quintana is the leader? Ofcourse he is not going to pull and risk extra time loss

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Uh, Valverde fanboys, you do know even Valverde said Quintana is the leader? Ofcourse he is not going to pull and risk extra time loss

No, that's quite true. And maybe he did help a bit in Catalonia.

But he just doesn't come off as a particularly generous rider.

 

[Lequack]