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

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Tomorrow there are mountains, and the day after
and the day after that
and the day after that

Mountain cum fiesta

 

[tgsgirl]

Cavendish has filed an official complaint with the race jury because he feels Weylandt and Farrar are working together, conspiring against him. The jury told him to f... go away.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Tomorrow there are mountains, and the day after
and the day after that
and the day after that

Mountain cum fiesta

Hopefully the entire HTC team misses the time cut and gets bounced from the race, then the other flat stages might contain the slightest tiny possibility that something not entirely predictable from mid-August might happen, and the break might actually be allowed far enough down the road for it to be worth them expending the effort.

 

[theswordsman]

Did everyone know that Cav filed a conspiracy claim against other sprinters with the Vuelta committee?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=Akp_0YqBSHjbsQUcbu0Kg0eJgrcF?slug=reu-spain

 

[Francois the Postman]

Did everyone know that Cav filed a conspiracy claim against other sprinters with the Vuelta committee?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=Akp_0YqBSHjbsQUcbu0Kg0eJgrcF?slug=reu-spain

2 teams working together to get the better of a communal rival. In cycling?! Unheard of!

Whatever is next. People in a break working together. Team's refusing to do the chasing and letting another team pick up the slack? Countrymen passing bottles...

Just warmed up to the guy a bit too. An official complaint? That sympathy gulf lasted .5 of a second then.

 

[El Pistolero]

Hopefully the entire HTC team misses the time cut and gets bounced from the race, then the other flat stages might contain the slightest tiny possibility that something not entirely predictable from mid-August might happen, and the break might actually be allowed far enough down the road for it to be worth them expending the effort.

What's interesting about a break away winning?

Most boring thing that can happen as the only reason why these guys ever win is because the peloton doesn't care about reeling them in.

 

[El Pistolero]

Did everyone know that Cav filed a conspiracy claim against other sprinters with the Vuelta committee?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=Akp_0YqBSHjbsQUcbu0Kg0eJgrcF?slug=reu-spain

And here was I thinking Ghent was a city instead of a town

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What's interesting about a break away winning?

Most boring thing that can happen as the only reason why these guys ever win is because the peloton doesn't care about reeling them in.

They don't necessarily have to win. But I like there to be the possibility of a miscalculation that allows the break to win. A win like Anthony Roux's win in last year's Vuelta, holding off the sprinters by mere centimetres as they played cat and mouse trying to make other teams do the work to pull it back, is hugely exciting. Or the stage of the Giro that Pineau won, for example. I don't mind it going to a sprint (too much) if the break got to a point where you can think they have a chance and it isn't certain what the outcome is even if it's likely. But for three straight stages at the Tour, HTC got the break at 2-3 minutes, and kept it there, all stage long. At no point did the possibility of a miscalculation or a strong rider in the break having enough in the tank to put any pressure on enter into the equation. As a result, we were watching 100km of the péloton sitting at the exact same distance from the break, but making sure to leave them out there long enough to prevent any other attacks, before leading out the sprint. At no point in the stage was any possibility other than a sprint even worth contemplating.

That's what I dislike.

 

[The Hitch]

Cavendish has filed an official complaint with the race jury because he feels Weylandt and Farrar are working together, conspiring against him. The jury told him to f... go away.

Did everyone know that Cav filed a conspiracy claim against other sprinters with the Vuelta committee?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=Akp_0YqBSHjbsQUcbu0Kg0eJgrcF?slug=reu-spain

2 teams working together to get the better of a communal rival. In cycling?! Unheard of!

Whatever is next. People in a break working together. Team's refusing to do the chasing and letting another team pick up the slack? Countrymen passing bottles...

Just warmed up to the guy a bit too. An official complaint? That sympathy gulf lasted .5 of a second then.

I honestly thought it was a joke when tgsgirl posted and hence didnt comment. Surely cav consulted his team before this. What is the logic behind this ?

 

[tgsgirl]

I honestly thought it was a joke when tgsgirl posted and hence didnt comment. Surely cav consulted his team before this. What is the logic behind this ?

Ha, no. The complaint is that ***. Someone should show them footage of Horner towing Tejay up a mountain.

 

[El Pistolero]

They don't necessarily have to win. But I like there to be the possibility of a miscalculation that allows the break to win. A win like Anthony Roux's win in last year's Vuelta, holding off the sprinters by mere centimetres as they played cat and mouse trying to make other teams do the work to pull it back, is hugely exciting. Or the stage of the Giro that Pineau won, for example. I don't mind it going to a sprint (too much) if the break got to a point where you can think they have a chance and it isn't certain what the outcome is even if it's likely. But for three straight stages at the Tour, HTC got the break at 2-3 minutes, and kept it there, all stage long. At no point did the possibility of a miscalculation or a strong rider in the break having enough in the tank to put any pressure on enter into the equation. As a result, we were watching 100km of the péloton sitting at the exact same distance from the break, but making sure to leave them out there long enough to prevent any other attacks, before leading out the sprint. At no point in the stage was any possibility other than a sprint even worth contemplating.

That's what I dislike.

But why would you want to watch more then just the last 5km of a flat stage in a stage race anyway(unless it has cobbles or something else that makes it exciting)?

 

[Francois the Postman]

I honestly thought it was a joke when tgsgirl posted and hence didnt comment. Surely cav consulted his team before this. What is the logic behind this ?

Me too, but it did say Cavendish, so I took a second look. For someone so far ahead of the rest and keen to put himself on that pillar, he sure has his crybaby moments when the rest is trying to figure out ways to do something about it.

Instead of taking it as a compliment, an official complaint... sheesh.

 

[The Hitch]

They don't necessarily have to win. But I like there to be the possibility of a miscalculation that allows the break to win.

To add to this:

See Giro stage 5 this year into Nova Ligure.

Had Cav been there it would probably have been a boring bunch sprint. Instead you had an epic Giro stage. It was 2.50 with 30 k to go so it looked like they would get caught. But the whole last 20 k was a fingerbiting will they catch them, won they catch them. Going into the flame rouge it looked like the peolton had won. Had this happened it would still have been an epic stage. But Arashiro kicked Pinnou and Fouchard followed and the rest is history.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

But why would you want to watch more then just the last 5km of a flat stage in a stage race anyway(unless it has cobbles or something else that makes it exciting)?

I didn't watch a single km of today's stage, still knew exactly what was going to happen, and it did. I dislike the very existence of stages like this as long as race-spoiling teams like HTC are around.

At least at this level HTC are fighting other top teams rather than like at the Tour of Britain or the Tour of Turkey. Jeez, it's like every race needs ISD at it. They're like the anti-HTC.

 

[theswordsman]

Ha, no. The complaint is that ***. Someone should show them footage of Horner towing Tejay up a mountain.

Sorry, didn't you you'd already posted it - I just saw it at Cyclismag.

Yeah, it's kind of funny coming from Cav - I bet Boonen's healthy knee and Julian Dean's head started to hurt for no reason as it was filed. I can't wait to see his first big race against Greipel.

It's been that kind of year. I followed a lot more riders on twitter back during Tour Down Under, and a number of them complained about a sprinter being literally pushed up Willunga Hill by teammates.

 

[tgsgirl]

Sorry, didn't you you'd already posted it - I just saw it at Cyclismag.

No worries. You actually had a link! (an English one, I mean)

 

[stefrees]

Sorry, didn't you you'd already posted it - I just saw it at Cyclismag.

Yeah, it's kind of funny coming from Cav - I bet Boonen's healthy knee and Julian Dean's head started to hurt for no reason as it was filed. I can't wait to see his first big race against Greipel.

It's been that kind of year. I followed a lot more riders on twitter back during Tour Down Under, and a number of them complained about a sprinter being literally pushed up Willunga Hill by teammates.

From what I read it's not the fact that 2 rivals are working together as such, more so on the intermediate sprint weylandt and farrar both deliberately closed the door on cav. Consideing the cry baby antics of hushovd, garmin and a fair few others against cav/htc I don't think it's as straightforward as that. Some people will turn any news item to please themselves at times and distort the truth- 92% of the time on here I'd guess at

 

[stefrees]

No worries. You actually had a link! (an English one, I mean)

But if you read the article it's about weylandt and farrar closing the door on cav more so

 

[The Hitch]

Seeing as cav is in the autobus a lot, it would be nice if everyone got their revenge by, next time, flying away from him and make him do the mountain all by his lonesome. Some people need to realise they benefit from proffesional comerdadeship as well.

Its always nice when before every race you see riders from different teams laughing and talking. Does cav only talk with his htc teammates?

 

[tgsgirl]

But if you read the article it's about weylandt and farrar closing the door on cav more so

Please point me to it. I don't see that mentioned anywhere at all.

“Wouter’s helping Farrar and that’s going to make it more difficult for us to control the points competition,” Cavendish said. “If you’ve got two guys from different teams working together that’s always going to be more difficult.”

 

[goggalor]

Maybe Cav should stop complaining and start making some friends of his own.

 

[stefrees]

Cavendish made an official protest to race officials about an intermediate sprint early in stage 13, at Calahorra, when he said the two blocked him in but said it was unsuccessful.

"One went left, the other went right and they deliberately closed the door on me."

"I've never ever made a protest about this sort of sprint before but I feel I was put at a disadvantage."

which is quoted from

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10092...h-accuses-rivals-second-stage-win-spain.html?

 

[Frosty]

I didn't watch a single km of today's stage, still knew exactly what was going to happen, and it did. I dislike the very existence of stages like this as long as race-spoiling teams like HTC are around.

At least at this level HTC are fighting other top teams rather than like at the Tour of Britain or the Tour of Turkey. Jeez, it's like every race needs ISD at it. They're like the anti-HTC.

HTC didnt do all the chasing today. From the live feed it seemed that Garmin and Quick step were doing a lot of the chasing. HTC had a man in the break yesterday so Garmin did a load of work that day too. Are you going to say you hate them too?

I agree its predictable but its the way the race goes. Back in 2008 Columbia had problems with no-one helping them chase and the break stayed away. A similar thing happened in 2009 at the tour. Since then they seem to make an extra effort. Its just the effect of having the fastest sprinter. FWIW i like the stages where it isnt clear whether the break will make it or not until the finish line such as Cav's first win in 2008 (stage 5?) where Vogondy was only caught in the last 100 metres.

 

[tgsgirl]

which is quoted from

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10092...h-accuses-rivals-second-stage-win-spain.html?

I had a different link, sorry.

 

[jaylew]

Hopefully the entire HTC team misses the time cut .

Even lead-out men extraordinaire, P Velits and TGTJVG?