Vuelta 2018 Stage 9:Talavera to La Covatilla 200.8 km

[ice&fire]

Re:

Do you agree that it is Quintana vs. MAL now?

Let's wait to see how MAL does in the two muritos next weekend before Covadonga

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

 

[pastronef]

Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

same here.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

I think thats mostly because he is at Sky... you just never know...

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

I think thats mostly because he is at Sky... you just never know...

But after the Tour and Tour de Pologne? Yes, you do know.

However, I'm not ruling it out for him in the future.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Quintana trademarked half assed attack

:lol:

I had to laugh. I bodes well for him that he is OK with this heat.

Chapeau King. What an effort.

Now, the Vuelta need to put behind the cameras people who know about cycling That was bad broadcasting towards the end.

I think the danger riders for Quintana are Kelderman and Lopez. I have seen that Lopez form looks good and he will improve. I don't read too much into the fading of last year. That was his first true GC attempt and was very careful not to crash in several occasions.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

 

[jmdirt]

Ben King!

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

Days of Uran doing a decent TT's are long gone. He will hardly be better than Quintana. Izagirre, Valverde, Yates, Kruijswijk will all be better than him.

 

[JosephK]

Re: Re:

Kwiatkowski not a GC rider. Whoda thunk it eh

He's not a nobody, long pedigree, Sky can't transform him apparently.
You need those asthmatic nobodies you know... :lol:

Sky had me fooled, I'll admit it. I thought they were going to open the door for a non-Brit, Kwia, to win a GC. It seemed to make sense, as Kwiatkowski by his early 20's was way ahead in talent and palmares when compared with their British GC champs at a similar stage of development. But apparently it's a non-starter.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

Days of Uran doing a decent TT's are long gone. He will hardly be better than Quintana. Izagirre, Valverde, Yates, Kruijswijk will all be better than him.

Don't forget his time trial in the Tour last year. He can rise to the occasion, it appears

 

[slosada]

Re: Re:

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

Days of Uran doing a decent TT's are long gone. He will hardly be better than Quintana. Izagirre, Valverde, Yates, Kruijswijk will all be better than him.

it's not about past abilities, but more about consistency. He was 8th in the final ITT of Tour 2017, just at 32 secs if the winner. And he overshot the last turn giving away 15 secs easily.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

Days of Uran doing a decent TT's are long gone. He will hardly be better than Quintana. Izagirre, Valverde, Yates, Kruijswijk will all be better than him.

it's not about past abilities, but more about consistency. He was 8th in the final ITT of Tour 2017, just at 32 secs if the winner. And he overshot the last turn giving away 15 secs easily.

It wasn't a flat TT, I don't think he can gain more than 30 sec on Nairo for example here.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

I don't think it was completely unreasonable to expect a decent GC from him. He was 11th in the 2013 Tour, losing 10th to Talansky on the last mountain of ther ace. Usually, it's a bit easier to shine in the Vuelta than in the Tour and in the last 2 years, he looked at times even stronger in high mountains than in 2013. Maybe not the win, but a top10 overall wouldn't be that much surprising IMO.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

Uran can win the Vuelta without attacking. All he needs is one decent time trial and following wheels.

Days of Uran doing a decent TT's are long gone. He will hardly be better than Quintana. Izagirre, Valverde, Yates, Kruijswijk will all be better than him.

it's not about past abilities, but more about consistency. He was 8th in the final ITT of Tour 2017, just at 32 secs if the winner. And he overshot the last turn giving away 15 secs easily.

It wasn't a flat TT, I don't think he can gain more than 30 sec on Nairo for example here.

It was only slightly hilly. The hill couldn't have been that much of a factor if Bodnar was the one, who won the stage (he is a rather poor climber even on short hills).

Although I wouldn't bet anything on Uran doing well in the ITT. Since he had left Quick Step, he rode only one good (2017 Tour) and one half-decet (2018 Slovenia) ITT. On any other occasion he was poor, or average at best.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Quintana trademarked half assed attack

:lol:

I had to laugh. I bodes well for him that he is OK with this heat.

Chapeau King. What an effort.

Now, the Vuelta need to put behind the cameras people who know about cycling That was bad broadcasting towards the end.

I think the danger riders for Quintana are Kelderman and Lopez. I have seen that Lopez form looks good and he will improve. I don't read too much into the fading of last year. That was his first true GC attempt and was very careful not to crash in several occasions.

As soon as the gap to Mollema went out, don't show Mollema again except for 15s at the finish

 

[El Pistolero]

Man, this Vuelta has such a weak field. Sure, on paper it looks strong, but guys like Nibali (broken vertebra in the Tour), Porte (broken collarbone in the Tour and stomach illness just before the Vuelta), Sagan (nasty crash in the final week of the Tour), Pinot (recovering from a nasty long infection in the final week of the Giro) etc. are far removed from their top shape.

 

[Lequack]

Nibali can still win this.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Quintana trademarked half assed attack

:lol:

I had to laugh. I bodes well for him that he is OK with this heat.

Chapeau King. What an effort.

Now, the Vuelta need to put behind the cameras people who know about cycling That was bad broadcasting towards the end.

I think the danger riders for Quintana are Kelderman and Lopez. I have seen that Lopez form looks good and he will improve. I don't read too much into the fading of last year. That was his first true GC attempt and was very careful not to crash in several occasions.

As soon as the gap to Mollema went out, don't show Mollema again except for 15s at the finish

Already years ago you'd regularly see split screen broadcast on certain moments. This seems to have completely disappeared though, for some reason. I don't get how hard this can be, in 2018.

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Ben King! 2 stage wins as well.
(Edit - See King got a 20 second penalty - late bottle I suppose)

Despite Yates's efforts not to win. he's got the leader's jersey - chapeau! Top 10 all within 1 minute, so all to play for.

(Edit see Bouhanni came in last again, so he's a good bet for Tuesday's stage? )

 

[search]

Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

not at all. What's up with de la Cruz dangling at the back throughout both the mountain finishes though? He managed to limit his losses, but this doesn't look too good so far...

 

[glassmoon]

thomas/froome/dummo would smash this field without braking a sweat...

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

I never believed in Kwiato for a gc and still don't understand why some people evidently did

not at all. What's up with de la Cruz dangling at the back throughout both the mountain finishes though? He managed to limit his losses, but this doesn't look too good so far...

Actually it's de la Cruz usual way to go. That's how he raced in 2016 and 2017. This year he has Mas and Aru in contention for the Zubeldia award.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

thomas/froome/dummo would smash this field without braking a sweat...

I thought Porte would?

Usual comments during the first mountain stage.

Since when the almost Lantern Rouge became a force to reckon with?

 

[Kwibus]

Ps I really enjoyed Keldermans final 800mtr. He needed time and because the others didnt want to ride he just went full on an pityful gradient and he actually dropped izagirre and uran. That looked impressive.