Vuelta 2018 Stage 4:Vélez-Málaga - La Alfaguara 161.4km

[rick james]

Yates interview with ITV after the stage was plain weird

 

[The Chicken]

Wow, just seen that S. Yates interview on ITV4. He looked like he'd just been bollocked by his team for that ride. Clearly they want him to show some restraint in his GT riding to avoid another Giro-style collapse but he's too ill-disciplined. LOL.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Wow, just seen that S. Yates interview on ITV4. He look liked he'd just been bollocked by his team for that ride. Clearly they want him to show some restraint in his GT riding to avoid another Giro-style collapse but he's too ill-disciplined. LOL.

I'd say he has more chance of winning it by doing this than playing the waiting game like his brother does. We simply do not know if he is going to fade. And at least he is giving himself a chance of winning.

 

[Lequack]

Yeah plus attacking Simon Yates is much better for the excitement fo the race.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Wow, just seen that S. Yates interview on ITV4. He look liked he'd just been bollocked by his team for that ride. Clearly they want him to show some restraint in his GT riding to avoid another Giro-style collapse but he's too ill-disciplined. LOL.

I'd say he has more chance of winning it by doing this than playing the waiting game like his brother does. We simply do not know if he is going to fade. And at least he is giving himself a chance of winning.

You need to capitalize on form when you have it. Taking an advantage enables you to actually ride more efficiently later on. And it's a 5km attack or something. Not that much. At no point in this Vuelta will he be in a postion where he crams out the 20k solo's anyway.

This was a battle won for him today. Now he gets to sit on his butt for 4 days. Having an equally good day on La Covatilla is not a given. Now he has gotten himself the upper hand on Quintana

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Simon didn't look like he was flat out, unlike those brutal Giro attacks. I think those seconds gained have come at good value.

Of course, he's still got to prove himself over 3 weeks, but he really is a fantastic climber. He looked like he was out on a coffee ride when Kuss was shredding the field.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

If Yates were to win the Vuelta, that'd make it 3 different winners of the GTs from the same nation. Can't remember any recent years where that's happened.

2008 Spanish riders won all 3 but that was Contador x2.

Actually, if Yates were to win, that would the first time since 1964 that any nation has won 5 consecutive GTs.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

 

[The Barb]

Re: Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

Interesting. yeah, I worry about Quintana. It's a bit of a myth that Colombians thrive in hot weather - a myth that, I think, comes from people who haven't been there but just look at a globe, see it's on the equator, and assume it's all hot. Yes, some parts are extremely hot (especially around the coast) but on the high Andean plains (such as Boyaca, where Quintana is from) the temperature is cool and basically never gets into the 30s (Celsius). Remembering how he won the Giro in icy conditions, I am sure that scorching temperatures do not help him.

It's helpful for Quintana that from Stage 11 onwards they are in the north, as opposed to last year when they weren't really there until Stage 16.

 

[SlickMongoose]

I hope Simon keeps doing what he's doing. He's pretty much the most exciting climber in the peloton right now, having that trained out of him would be awful.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

Interesting. yeah, I worry about Quintana. It's a bit of a myth that Colombians thrive in hot weather - a myth that, I think, comes from people who haven't been there but just look at a globe, see it's on the equator, and assume it's all hot. Yes, some parts are extremely hot (especially around the coast) but on the high Andean plains (such as Boyaca, where Quintana is from) the temperature is cool and basically never gets into the 30s (Celsius). Remembering how he won the Giro in icy conditions, I am sure that scorching temperatures do not help him.

It's helpful for Quintana that from Stage 11 onwards they are in the north, as opposed to last year when they weren't really there until Stage 16.

Yeah, Quintana does struggle with the heat and can struggle badly with it. On the other hand, Valverde absolutely thrives in the heat and loves it. Where Quintana is happier if it's cold and snowy/icy, Valverde is happier when the temperatures are in the upper 20s and well into the 30's. He's been known to complain about it being too cold if the temperatures drop below 20.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I hope Simon keeps doing what he's doing. He's pretty much the most exciting climber in the peloton right now, having that trained out of him would be awful.

Agree, although I'd add Alaphilippe to that as one of the most exciting riders to watch. Although it doesn't appear Alaphilippe intends to ever race for GC.

 

[Red Rick]

Quintana is also a pretty compact dude. He doesn't have much surface area to get rid of the heat.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Quintana is also a pretty compact dude. He doesn't have much surface area to get rid of the heat.

Aye he’s be much better squeezing in to a tall, slim white body from Kenya

 

[The Chicken]

Re:

I hope Simon keeps doing what he's doing. He's pretty much the most exciting climber in the peloton right now, having that trained out of him would be awful.

He's not having it trained out of him. Rather, he's having the selective use of his climbing ability trained INTO him.

That said, I think he did the right thing; I don't think his antics today will cost him the race (so long as he takes it easy till Sunday).

Looking forward to BSP later - hope they show Matt White's reaction in the car when Simon attacks.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

This really makes me think that Yates should go for it again on La Covatilla if he has the legs. Get some margin on Quintana before he starts feeling better. I think there were quite a few riders today who couldn't really do much anyway and were happy to hang on for dear life.

One problem for Yates is that I really doubt LottoNL Jumbo will shred the peloton like that again, and Yates doens't really have the team to do that himself.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

This really makes me think that Yates should go for it again on La Covatilla if he has the legs. Get some margin on Quintana before he starts feeling better. I think there were quite a few riders today who couldn't really do much anyway and were happy to hang on for dear life.

One problem for Yates is that I really doubt LottoNL Jumbo will shred the peloton like that again, and Yates doens't really have the team to do that himself.

If his brother comes good in the second week, it’s possible, but Haig can’t do it all himself.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Quintana looked pretty dead at the finish. He can't wait for the cooler stages up north

Valverde made a comment while talking about the race that Quintana was suffering. He said something about he made a split second decision to stay with Quintana who was suffering instead of going with Yates and that was it was better for him to conserve some energy now even though he would have gone with Yates.
Make of those comments what you will.

This really makes me think that Yates should go for it again on La Covatilla if he has the legs. Get some margin on Quintana before he starts feeling better. I think there were quite a few riders today who couldn't really do much anyway and were happy to hang on for dear life.

One problem for Yates is that I really doubt LottoNL Jumbo will shred the peloton like that again, and Yates doens't really have the team to do that himself.

If his brother comes good in the second week, it’s possible, but Haig can’t do it all himself.

Agreed. If Adam can get his legs under him it's possible for them to pull this off again.

 

[Lequack]

22 Big Photos from Stage 4 (more to come) — unipublic/flockton/corvos
http://www.steephill.tv/2018/vuelta-a-espana/photos/stage-04/

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, Quintana was never going to be good today. Rolf Sørensen is possibly the most overly optimistic human being on earth and said he would attack today, on those gradients, in this heat. La Covatilla will most probably already be cooler, also due to altitude, but those MTFs in the second and third week shouldn't be problematic heat-wise. Its those 30 and above celsius days that is the problem.

That said, Valverde should just have jumped across to Simon Yates and sat on his wheel IMO if he could do that which Im pretty sure he could.

 

[Red Rick]

I don't think he could. They didn't really put a dent into Yates even on the flat or the sprint to the end.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I don't think he could. They didn't really put a dent into Yates even on the flat or the sprint to the end.

It was a lot stop and go and Buchmann did it on his own. Anyway, I just reacted to him saying he was able to and he looked good today which was to be expected

 

[Lequack]

If Yates has his giro legs the others better hope he has a bad day or two.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I don't think he could. They didn't really put a dent into Yates even on the flat or the sprint to the end.

Valverde actually said after the stage he could have gone with Yates when Yates when but decided not to and wanted to conserve energy. I'd love an explanation as to how pulling the group is conserving energy though. I'm with Valv.Piti that he could have gone across or with Yates and for whatever reason he didn't do it. Now granted we all know that his decision making at times can be questionable.

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.velonews.com/2018/08/vu...ow-their-cards-as-kwiatkowski-hangs-on_477069

“I didn’t mean to [attack],” Yates said after stage 4.

In a race when nearly no one said they aim to win it, it should be no surprise that Yates did not mean to attack!

Chapeau Ben King & DD!