Vuelta a España - Stage 11 Vilanova i la Geltrú - Andorra 208.4km

[Arnout]

I started following him more since Romandy 2007 when he cut off the great Thomas Dekker in the sprint for the stage win in Morgins

That was brilliant.

 

[Lyds97]

I have nothing against Nibali. He is a great rider. Just not a GT winner. Never will be.

Sure you're not secretly Roman Kreuziger, DT?

Great stage today, truly compelling stuff. Hope to see Mosquera continuing to be competitive and Nibali managing to ride at his Giro best.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Sure you're not secretly Roman Kreuziger, DT?

Great stage today, truly compelling stuff. Hope to see Mosquera continuing to be competitive and Nibali managing to ride at his Giro best.

Actually Kreuziger is a worse version of Nibali

Same limitations. Good TT, good climber, but great at nothing. With the difference Kreuziger is worse and less consistent, and has not improved much the last 3 year.

Nibali made some huge progression the last 3 years. But not so much between last year and this year. I think the level he showed at the Tour 09 is the same level as the Giro 10 and Vuelta 10 at the moment. Ofcourse, when you are close to the top there is not much to improve upon.

But time and time again he comes up short against the best climbers in mountain stages.
In every stage race (well except San Luis, but which top climbers are there?)

 

[La Pandera]

I have nothing against Nibali. He is a great rider. Just not a GT winner. Never will be.

In an admittedly tough Giro he came in 3rd, actually being the 2nd strongest rider to Basso, his teammate, who he was riding for. At 26 years of age, and as we both stated, having shown steady progression in his performances, it's way too premature to be writing someone off considering Menchov is a 3 time grand tour winner, Sastre has a Tour win under his belt, and Valverde has a Vuelta win. With Menchov and Sastre's coming after they reached 30 years of age. Never is a long time. I think he will prove you wrong.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

We'll see. If he doesn't, I'll be here to remember you

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Always in the red zone trying to limit his losses? Sounds like Gesink at this year's Tour to me.

gesink wasn't good at the tour. Not at his best anyway.

And gesink paces himself up a climb, doesn't hold on until going into the red zone.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Just watched the stage on my dvr. Obviously Anton and Mosquera were impressive, but it was the Cassie riders that really stood out. Nice to see Bruseghin back in the mix again, and finally Uran lives up to all my praise for him. Rooting for Tondo as well.

 

[Kwibus]

Well this stage was obviously very exciting. We have to wait for 2 days to see more of this epic stuff though :/

 

[Sophistic]

For me it's still too early, so far everybody has been fresh or even undertrained (Schleck), once we have 3 supertough mtfs in a row, the dynamics of the race should change significantly.
I wouldn't even rule out Sastre winning the whole thing in the end.
For the ITT: Bruseghin could very well take 2+ minutes from Anton and Mosquera, Nibali is pretty unpredictable but the ITT is after the rest day what should benefit the specialists.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Actually Kreuziger is a worse version of Nibali

Same limitations. Good TT, good climber, but great at nothing. With the difference Kreuziger is worse and less consistent, and has not improved much the last 3 year.

Nibali made some huge progression the last 3 years. But not so much between last year and this year. I think the level he showed at the Tour 09 is the same level as the Giro 10 and Vuelta 10 at the moment. Ofcourse, when you are close to the top there is not much to improve upon.

But time and time again he comes up short against the best climbers in mountain stages.
In every stage race (well except San Luis, but which top climbers are there?)

actually in san luis he also couldn't win any mountaintop stage, he won that race because of his itt win. not his climbing