Vuelta a España - Stage 14 Burgos - Peña Cabarga 178km

[royalpig180]

How good is N Roche in long TTs? Would be awesome if he can finish in the top 5 on GC.

2010 TdF Stage 19 (52km)
53 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:06:42

That's 6:42 behind Spartacus...
It was in the realm of Carlos Sastre and was mediocre to poor among the GC contenders.

I would expect he'd be pretty average among those who are in the top 10 right now, with Nibali and Danielson being the obvious stronger TTers

 

[luckyboy]

On a climb like this he always attacks, short climbs are his forté, he wins one-day races with climbs like these (well without the final steep KM part that is!)

I can't see him attacking in the big mountains. If he does, it will probably kill his own chances.

He'll try to hang on but blow.

 

[Mellow Velo]

On a climb like this he always attacks, short climbs are his forté, he wins one-day races with climbs like these (well without the final steep KM part that is!)

I can't see him attacking in the big mountains. If he does, it will probably kill his own chances.

All true, but taking Andorra as the bench mark, neither can Rodriguez, and Mosquera has to time his attacks, or he is liable to run out if gas, too.

Nibali only needs to limit his losses, as the pair are pretty lousy trialists and the potential Caisse dark horse ITTers have fallen away.

That leaves Tondo to finally last a 3 week Tour or the Irish or Luxembourg bloke.

All in all, the contenders are down to a very few, few.

 

[roundabout]

The real hard part begins tomorrow. Hopefully the real climbers can start getting time back from "mountain sprinters" from now on.

 

[van nelle]

What a shame, really sorry for Anton and Martinez, I hope they'll be ok. But I'm happy with Nibali in the red, I like the guy. It doesn't bother me, that he isn't best at anything (which is true), consistency is a virtue too... + good support from Kreuziger, he confirms that he can work for others when really needed.

Roche, and P. Velits suprising me, they are great a lot of big names behind them. And Purito is a lot stronger then I thought he'll be, still don't belive he will be on podium at the end.

 

[royalpig180]

The real hard part begins tomorrow. Hopefully the real climbers can start getting time back from "mountain sprinters" from now on.

Yeah... I expect Purito to get dropped on at least 1 or 2 more long climbs like he was in Andorra.

The way I see, the GC battle will be down to Nibali, Mosquera, and possibly Tondo

Nibali ftw!

 

[zapata]

All true, but taking Andorra as the bench mark, neither can Rodriguez, and Mosquera has to time his attacks, or he is liable to run out if gas, too.

Nibali only needs to limit his losses, as the pair are pretty lousy trialists and the potential Caisse dark horse ITTers have fallen away.

That leaves Tondo to finally last a 3 week Tour or the Irish or Luxembourg bloke.

All in all, the contenders are down to a very few, few.

Any chance Tondo can actually win this? I don't think I ever really took notice of him before paris-nice this year.

 

[royalpig180]

Praise to Xacebo again. Good for a continental team. Had a guy in kom. Today had a guy with Eze for some of the climb. Eze gets more from them than cuddles ever will from his pt team.

Newsflash: BMC is not a protour team

 

[Kazistuta]

Newsflash: BMC is not a protour team

Newsflash: PT doesn't mean "pro tour" in his sentence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_tempore

You're welcome

 

[Magnus]

You really think Fränk can pull +2m on Nibali AND hold enough time in the TT?

Fränk hasn't been able to climb top 5 in the entire Vuelta. So he isn't exactly getting better.

He did better today and in Andorra than stage 4 and 8.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

So?? Still not even close to level of the Vuelta-winner some predicted him to be or top 3 climber
And the reason he does better is because others literelly FELL away...

 

[The Hitch]

Praise to Xacebo again. Good for a continental team. Had a guy in kom. Today had a guy with Eze for some of the climb. Eze gets more from them than cuddles ever will from his pt team.

Newsflash: BMC is not a protour team

But they will be and "ever will" indicates future tense. Hence there is nothing false in my sentence and in a court of law it would hold up.

 

[Christomir]

That's actually a pretty good point. I just don't like to see Nibali winning because he isn't the best at anything. Just the king of limiting damage everywhere. It's boring.
And he couldn't limit damage to Anton, and I really hope he can't limit damage to Mosquera/Rodriguez or whomever tomorrow.

So, where has Fränky boy showed he can hang with the spaniards in the hills so far? Look at his GC placing. Like you said, he's even behind Nicolas Roche

No, concerning Fränk Schleck, each mountain day so far, including today, shows I am right about him

Yeah, indeed it was a pretty good point - whoever wins this Vuelta will have been helped by Anton dropping out. Boy, you really must hate Nibali. But when he wins it all, I hope you'll give him credit for being good enought at everything (even if he's not the best at anything). Will you?

As for Fränk - you forget that he is actually short of race fitness and he should get better and better with every stage. I'm still not confident he will be able to make the podium, cause those consecutive MTFs might have come a little bit too early for him (would have preferred them in the third week)... But at least he will try and can surprise you. So don't hate on him either.

 

[Arnout]

Reaction from Anton:

"I have been living in a dream for the past 14 days. I was victorious in 2 stages, I was GC leader in the Vuelta and I proved I can be a really good cyclist that can deliver results. When I come back, I will do so with the intention of winning the overall. I am staying calm in this situation. When things were going well, I stayed on the ground with two feet and now that everything is the other way around, I will behave the same. I have encountered more problems in my life (personal as well, his mother had cancer this year for example) and by now I know how to deal with these situations. I have some scratches on my body, but it could have been much worse if you consider how fast we were going. I do not know what happened and I didn't have time to react. I want to thank my teammates, they did an outstanding job protecting me and I hope they will keep on going. I will come back even stronger in 2011."

No words on Martinez yet and it seems Anton didn't break anything.

 

[The Hitch]

Since we are talking about Nibalis strenghts lets quickly mention one which hasnt been mentioned - his team.

For all his good work on the Grappa and Mortirolo Nibali only beat Scarponi due to the ttt. Thats just the ttt, and not mentioning all the work Liqui put in for Basso but also for him. I think without the ttt cuddles would also have ben challenging nibali for podium, and lets not forget the time which cuddles lost in Holland due to no team, and the 0 help he recieved throughout.

Here he also has the advantage of super domestique Kreuziger and got time over both Rod and Eze in the ttt.

 

[jilbiker]

Nibali similar to Basso

Basso, his mentor and colleague, I guess. Very similar style. Basso is also a steady rider and does not perform well when attacked. I can't recall Basso doing an out of saddle attack or reacting fiercely to an attack like AS and AC. Nibali is similar, just attack him and he crumbles. Anton is an AC style attacker and could have won this Vuelta easily, his crash is one less for Nibali but there are others.

On a seperate item Basso was lucky in the Giro this year, that punishing mountain he won on was long and hard and fitted his style perfect, steady climbing, you just couldn't attack on that mountain. Not to take away from his skills and deserved victory

 

[El Pistolero]

With Anton leaving can't help but to feel the current field of (in form) GT contenders in this Vuelta is pretty weak. Sure there are many cyclists out there in this Vuelta with a better palmares than Anton, but the guy is just incredibly unlucky. He was climbing with the best in the Vuelta of 2008 before he crashed out(Contador, Wheelsucker, Valverde,etc).

Also think Fränk could have done better if he didn't break that collarbone. Ok, if he didn't break it he would've finished the Tour, but I'm talking about a hypothetical situation here.

 

[El Pistolero]

Since we are talking about Nibalis strenghts lets quickly mention one which hasnt been mentioned - his team.

For all his good work on the Grappa and Mortirolo Nibali only beat Scarponi due to the ttt. Thats just the ttt, and not mentioning all the work Liqui put in for Basso but also for him. I think without the ttt cuddles would also have ben challenging nibali for podium, and lets not forget the time which cuddles lost in Holland due to no team, and the 0 help he recieved throughout.

Here he also has the advantage of super domestique Kreuziger and got time over both Rod and Eze in the ttt.

Yes, but Cuddles is always going to lose time somewhere in a GT(by accident or not), so it doesn't really matter.

 

[The Hitch]

Reaction from Anton:

"I have been living in a dream for the past 14 days. I was victorious in 2 stages, I was GC leader in the Vuelta and I proved I can be a really good cyclist that can deliver results. When I come back, I will do so with the intention of winning the overall. I am staying calm in this situation. When things were going well, I stayed on the ground with two feet and now that everything is the other way around, I will behave the same. I have encountered more problems in my life (personal as well, his mother had cancer this year for example) and by now I know how to deal with these situations. I have some scratches on my body, but it could have been much worse if you consider how fast we were going. I do not know what happened and I didn't have time to react. I want to thank my teammates, they did an outstanding job protecting me and I hope they will keep on going. I will come back even stronger in 2011."

No words on Martinez yet and it seems Anton didn't break anything.

A big step up from people laughing at him when he tried to sprint with Valverde at the tour of Romandie. He would have crushed this Vuelta. Hes only 27 though. Still plenty of gts left in him. Cant see him not winning one.

I have said before that Caisses season would have looked so great without Valverdes suspencion.
Well
How good would EEs season look without crashes - Txurruka - Pais Vasco
Samu podium at Tour
ANton Vuelta Gc
All destroyed by crashes. Shame really

Hope next year Anton goes for Tour and Samu gets the Vuelta. Or they could both do 1 of the gcs and then EE would have some awesome cards to play.

Basso, his mentor and colleague, I guess. Very similar style. Basso is also a steady rider and does not perform well when attacked. I can't recall Basso doing an out of saddle attack or reacting fiercely to an attack like AS and AC. Nibali is similar, just attack him and he crumbles. Anton is an AC style attacker and could have won this Vuelta easily, his crash is one less for Nibali but there are others.

On a seperate item Basso was lucky in the Giro this year, that punishing mountain he won on was long and hard and fitted his style perfect, steady climbing, you just couldn't attack on that mountain. Not to take away from his skills and deserved victory

Basso, like Nibali was lucky with his superteam but to be fair, after Laquilla the had to fight on 2 fronts , 1 against Arroyo and his lead, 1 against GC contenders - Scarponi and CUddles.

Since he won from that situation i think he was a deserved winner

 

[The Hitch]

Basso, his mentor and colleague, I guess. Very similar style. Basso is also a steady rider and does not perform well when attacked. I can't recall Basso doing an out of saddle attack or reacting fiercely to an attack like AS and AC. Nibali is similar, just attack him and he crumbles. Anton is an AC style attacker and could have won this Vuelta easily, his crash is one less for Nibali but there are others.

On a seperate item Basso was lucky in the Giro this year, that punishing mountain he won on was long and hard and fitted his style perfect, steady climbing, you just couldn't attack on that mountain. Not to take away from his skills and deserved victory

Basso, like Nibali was lucky with his superteam but to be fair, after Laquilla the had to fight on 2 fronts , 1 against Arroyo and his lead, 1 against GC contenders - Scarponi and CUddles.

Since he won from that situation i think he was a deserved winner

 

[hrotha]

Wait, people laughed at Antón before this Vuelta/season? Oh well. Actually, Antón was due for a big performance since he popped up in the scene in 2006. His 2008 season saw him finally delivering on his promise, until that crash. What can I say, some riders are genuinely unlucky.

 

[peloton]

Wait, people laughed at Antón before this Vuelta/season? Oh well. Actually, Antón was due for a big performance since he popped up in the scene in 2006. His 2008 season saw him finally delivering on his promise, until that crash. What can I say, some riders are genuinely unlucky.

or have very bad bike handling skills?
Anton himself caused the crash today, hitting his team mates wheel, lucky for the other riders it was a very wide road but he still took many down with him...

 

[Arnout]

or have very bad bike handling skills?
Anton himself caused the crash today, hitting his team mates wheel, lucky for the other riders it was a very wide road but he still took many down with him...

His bike handlings are indeed awful. That is the reason he prefers to hang in the back normally.

 

[luckyboy]

Hope next year Anton goes for Tour and Samu gets the Vuelta. Or they could both do 1 of the gcs and then EE would have some awesome cards to play.

If they did the Giro, Anton could do that and Sanchez could do the Vuelta. They'd both be right up there for the win in each, and they could both do the Tour taking it relatively easy and hunting for stage wins with the rest of Euskaltel.

 

[CycloErgoSum]

Poor Igor, gotta feel bad for him. He seemed to take it well...was he a bit concussed?

Maybe he reads Montaigne: expect the worst and don't be disappointed when it happens.

He's a bad bike handler? Oh dear, I guess that makes him less of a man, huh?

He's not a bad bike rider when he manages to stay upright, though. That's why he's a pro.

All bike riders crash, all bike riders have scars. Falling off a bike is as easy as falling off a bike.