Vuelta a España - Stage 12+1: Rincón de Soto - Burgos 196km

[Machu Picchu]

it would seem stupid to cut it to two weeks, especially as people are talking about its new revival/success.

 

[Frosty]

Why are they suggesting this? Is it to do with its proximity to the world championships?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Eurosport are talking very seriously about chances that the Vuelta will be cut to 2 weeks. This is bad news

They do every year. I'm not sure that Unipublic and the ASO will take that lying down.

Anyhow, Allan Davies makes a 60km break for glory.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Eurosport are talking very seriously about chances that the Vuelta will be cut to 2 weeks. This is bad news

I remembered this got mentioned in passing at the time, when the ToC was reflecting on its own ego, sorry, the importance of its race on the international calendar.

The Vuelta needed to shrink so others could grow and get a foothold into the year long calendar.

When those two just brought it up - and it sounded more like it was others making that case against the Vuelta, not the Vuelta exactly volunteering for it - I got so annoyed that it made my browser crash.

I have nothing against young fledglings in other parts of the world, but keep your friggin fingers off the big classics. When you've been around 50+ years and actually have people from outside the region also willing to contest it seriously, rather than see it as a nice ride in the sun on sponsor orders, we'll talk again.

I am all for growing the sport, but the real engine is still here in Europe, and we are underutilizing or losing committed local sponsors. They are put off by having to spend a fortune, shuttling "their" teams to invisible parts of the planet that no-one really cares about except those already there. They are losing exposure here and gaining nada.

So a catch 22, opening the field to bigger international sponsors, but can offer them next to existing international market to expose themselves to, and offer potential sponsors here in Europe rapidly decreasing value. Whilst passing up on the likes of Vacansoleil and settle for those with the interest and staying power of RadioShack.

Yeah!

If the next step of this is to chop off the legs of the Vuelta, I will change my vaguely bemused ambivalence attitude towards the ToC, TDU, etc, and will become outright hostile. It's one thing to try to get China to play football. It's another thing to sacrifice the Premier League and Serie A for it. I wonder what the reaction in the US would be if we suggested merging the two NFL conferences into one smaller one for the benefit of getting things really going in Europe.

People can have a point, but only up to a point. After that it gets a bit silly. a 2 week Vuelta would be the short cut to Sillyland.

And calling the Vuelta "the youngest" loses all meaning if you offset it against the races that are being suggested as "alternatives". The Vuelta just had its mid-life crisis and came out glowing. The others are still heavily dependant on breast milk, or throwing the first stroppy teenager fits.

 

[Machu Picchu]

tell us how you really feel Francois -_^

I agree about the Vuelta and OT I agree that its stupid holding actual NFL games outside America and the idea of a 39th Premier League game held somewhere around the world....

 

[The Hitch]

I remembered this got mentioned in passing at the time, when the ToC was reflecting on its own ego, sorry, the importance of its race on the international calendar.

The Vuelta needed to shrink so others could grow and get a foothold into the year long calendar.

When those two just brought it up - and it sounded more like it was others making that case against the Vuelta, not the Vuelta exactly volunteering for it - I got so annoyed that it made my browser crash.

I have nothing against young fledglings in other parts of the world, but keep your friggin fingers off the big classics. When you've been around 50+ years and actually have people from outside the region also willing to contest it seriously, rather than see it as a nice ride in the sun on sponsor orders, we'll talk again.

I am all for growing the sport, but the real engine is still here in Europe, and we are underutilizing or losing committed local sponsors. They are put off by having to spend a fortune, shuttling "their" teams to invisible parts of the planet that no-one really cares about except those already there. They are losing exposure here and gaining nada.

So a catch 22, opening the field to bigger international sponsors, but can offer them next to existing international market to expose themselves to, and offer potential sponsors here in Europe rapidly decreasing value. Whilst passing up on the likes of Vacansoleil and settle for those with the interest and staying power of RadioShack.

Yeah!

If the next step of this is to chop off the legs of the Vuelta, I will change my vaguely bemused ambivalence attitude towards the ToC, TDU, etc, and will become outright hostile. It's one thing to try to get China to play football. It's another thing to sacrifice the Premier League and Serie A for it. I wonder what the reaction in the US would be if we suggested merging the two NFL conferences into one smaller one for the benefit of getting things really going in Europe.

People can have a point, but only up to a point. After that it gets a bit silly. a 2 week Vuelta would be the short cut to Sillyland.

And calling the Vuelta "the youngest" loses all meaning if you offset it against the races that are being suggested as "alternatives". The Vuelta just had its mid-life crisis and came out glowing. The others are still heavily dependant on breast milk, or throwing the first stroppy teenager fits.

I remember Kirby and Backsted talking about it during the toc too, saying to change vuleta - 3 weeks, toc - 1 week into vuelta - 2 weeks, toc - 2 weeks.

But here Harmonn and Kelly werent talking about the Toc trying to increase their profile but about suggestions that the vuelta organisers are seriously considering it and why.

 

[The Hitch]

tell us how you really feel Francois -_^

I agree about the Vuelta and OT I agree that its stupid holding actual NFL games outside America and the idea of a 39th Premier League game held somewhere around the world....

Yep the things you mention are stupid too but they are not the equivalent of scrapping the vuelta as a gt to accomodate cali.

the equivalent of what you mention in our thing would be something really stupid, so stupid no one would even have considered it, like starting the giro d italia in washington dc.

Oh wait

 

[Sophistic]

I'm also against shortening the Vuelta but i find it interesting that there is no 2 Week Tour, the Tour de Suisse has 9 stages and then the 3 GTs have 21, so there is room for a 12-15 stage Tour.

 

[Descender]

I can't even begin to imagine the Vuelta organisers are so daft as to even consider cutting it down.

That would be nothing short of arakiri.

 

[The Hitch]

I'm also against shortening the Vuelta but i find it interesting that there is no 2 Week Tour, the Tour de Suisse has 9 stages and then the 3 GTs have 21, so there is room for a 12-15 stage Tour.

Volta a Portugal
Vuelta a Columbia

 

[jens_attacks]

peloton will split in 4,3,2...

 

[Mellow Velo]

Garmin seem to be doing a lot of work.
Rabobank all hanging off the back...........again.

 

[Francois the Postman]

I can't even begin to imagine the Vuelta organisers are so daft as to even consider cutting it down.

That would be nothing short of arakiri.

You have 2 Eurosport commentators trying to fill the second dull stage with waffle that is "interesting".

I suspect one of them picked up a snippet and extrapolated from it. Up to 6 months ago they often brought up "I wonder..." things and then showed they either had no inkling that a topic had already been news online, or actively discussed to death across the various boards, or that they really were not keeping up with the digital cycling press.

I hope (and suspect) that one of them got wind of an "discussion" that went on, took a sharp left and made it "the Vuelta wants..." and we just had an "interesting" segment that wasn't founded on much substance.

Recently I get the feeling that Hammon is following more of the online actively (and forums too?), and sometimes you get an echo of it during stages like this.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Yep the things you mention are stupid too but they are not the equivalent of scrapping the vuelta as a gt to accomodate cali.

the equivalent of what you mention in our thing would be something really stupid, so stupid no one would even have considered it, like starting the giro d italia in washington dc.

Oh wait

Indeed

But I guess our bar for really stupid lies somewhere different. [EDIT: ah, thank god, just reread it and realised what you actually wrote - I guess you are indeed the actual the Hitch and we are on the same page after all] There are 3 GTs. Period.

Picking the Vuelta or Giro is like picking Roubaix or De Ronde.

Why? How? What for?

And, if anything, it is the Tour de France that could actually benefit from being reduced to two weeks. It would make watching the endless stalemate snoozefest that is our global showcase event, the exciting run-up to that one single "now or never" stage, a bit more bearable.

 

[Frosty]

29 seconds with 8 kilometres to go. They should catch them but it will be a late capture.

 

[Francois the Postman]

So, is there a corner in this one, or not?

 

[ruamruam]

with 500 metres to go

 

[Mellow Velo]

Embarrassingly easy. Cav left them for dead.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Bunnyhopping. Outclassing the rest and then some.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Not even close. Destroyed the field.

 

[theswordsman]

Was that even a group sprint? With a bunny hop across the finish line?

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Was there a time gap?

 

[afpm90]

No one even tried to beat Cav...

 

[jens_attacks]

johnnie walker made the top 10

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

No one even tried to beat Cav...

Hushovd was doing his TDF 2009 wing man job, sitting in Cav's wheel and preventing a sprinter from using his slipstream.