Vuelta a España Stage 15: Avilés - Anglirú 144km

[Descender]

To me those times mean very little, because it depends on how the others are ridings, pace, etc at the beginning. What I want to see it's the last 6Km or less. That'll be more accurate measurement of performance.

Because what happens before doesn't have an influence on those final 6km?

 

[Andre.J]

Heras 41:47
Contador 43:14
Cobo 43:42

Don't know about Jimenez/Tonkov.

Is that time Heras on drugs?

 

[luckyboy]

Pretty unequivocal yes to that.

 

[cineteq]

Because what happens before doesn't have an influence on those final 6km?

You just answered your own question..well sort of. It does influence the time, that's why. If someone or few of the GC field decide to attack in the last few kms, after watching each other for most of the climb, do you think those times from the start of the climb will be a good reference to compare with previous years?

 

[humble]

Cobo was the one with the lowest gearing of the top favorites.

Cobo: 34x32
Froome: 36x28
Wiggins: 38x32
Mollema: 36x28

Thank you. Good info. I thought I saw Wiggins loose his cadence when he cracked. May or may not have made a difference, but his gearing left him no options. Being out of gears is demoralizing. With 10 cogs, you'd think they'd have left a go-to gear in just in case.

/h

 

[ScottyMuser]

just checked the CQ Ranking team ranking for 2011 and realised that with their performance today, Sky have now got the exact same number of points as Garmin-Cervelo do, and are now in 2nd place because of this. If the 2 of them (and I see no reason to suggest that either will crack big enough to lose enough time) stay in the top 3, could be enough to see them build an almost unassailable lead at the top ofthe classification. Such a better year compared to last, despite having a poor TDF outside of EBH.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

That's a tough bone to heal. Should be out of the worlds.

As a fan I truly enjoyed the stage. Sad Menchov lost all that time to a mechanical. He's just on the passenger seat during the mountains. Unable to do anything while his teammate goes away. I may join the Poels band wagon. Great ride.

Also surprised by the way this thread developed. Like the forum discovered today there's such thing as doping. Everybody obeys to the forum rules on other races, with other riders, but today...well, it's almost like doping isn't a problem, as long as you go unnoticed, as long as your performances don't make waves. Much like the bio passport.

it's the mods. normally they jump in and respond quickly. this time they've just disappeared. apparently there are no rules about this anymore.

 

[Chris L]

Wiggins actually had a lower gear than Froome and Mollema - gear inches calculated below so he might not have been undergeared:

Cobo - 34 x 32 - 27.9
Froome - 36 x 28 - 33.8
Wiggins - 38 x 32 - 31.2
Mollema 36 x 28 - 33.8

 

[virandociclista]

in the puppet team (sky) win who they choose.. it's like formule one.... the english teams are always the same thing even in differents sports...

the sky team lost the vuelta when choosed wiggles (a legitime britain) to be the leader... when the other, more strong, "african-english" was put like a slave...

Now they will cry while the "dirty-spaniard" steals the vuelta from the nobre-englishman

Go cobo!!!

 

[Andre.J]

Chapeau to Monfort!!!

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Just watched the stage. For years I've looked like an idiot for predicting Cobo to win races, and when I finally ignore him, he rides like this. Wout Poels is damn impressive as well. Weird Vuelta overall.

 

[The Hitch]

TGBMM beat TGBM.

 

[Ferminal]

Simply epic.

Fell asleep on the couch on Cordal and slept through the entire thing, so recorded a replay and caught up in the morning.

Nice to see Anton go for it, and his legs are coming back to him, we are simply left to ask - what if...

Cobo was amazing, I honestly thought he wasn't up to it after slowing at the end of Farrapona. Angliru just keeps going on and on, an absolute nightmare, yet he kept edging ahead, only giving time back in the last km.

As I said at the start of the thread, Sky can't be reactive, yet they tried to do exactly the same, and even worse, supported the weaker man for most of the climb. Froome was so strong yet again, the way he has looked this race I'm not sure he would still be behind if riding for himself.

Good to see Poels back it up, nice rides by Monfort and Duarte too.

 

[Parrulo]

i know this of little interest to most but still i would like to point it out if you guys don't mind

machado had a mechanical at the end of the cordal descent when he was just meters away from the main group that had split on the descent yet he still climbed 5 minutes faster then brajkovic who was clearly trying, and it doesn't make the 5 minutes down he finished all that bad tbh. if hadn't been ordered to wait for zubeldia yesterday he would be well inside the top 20 today.

maybe there is still hope for machado . . .

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Par I like machado, and think he could be a decent top 10 GT guy. We will see.

anyway for those comparing cobo and ac, consider that AC also had a tougher stage.

http://cyclingheroes.tripod.com/cyclingheroes.english2/id2362.html

three prior cat 1 climbs rather then one, and a smaller climb in a 200km stage.

 

[Bennyl]

very entertaining weekend of racing!! Really enjoying watching the race actually. Was gunning for Cobo, what a great rider. Geox looking very strong now... Froome is a machine, Wiggins probably doesn't quite have it IMHO, however without his back luck this year?.. who knows. Without any monster stages, hopefully the remaining race is attacking and entertaining.

 

[greenedge]

I can sympathise with Wiggins. He lost out on the TDF when he probably had his best chance ever. However he should work for Froome. Nice ride by Cobo and good to see Menchov riding well, we soon get to see him ride as a superdoestique. I still think Froome is strongest here. Nice ride by Monfort. Nibali is looking hard pressed to make the top 5. Same story for JVDB as with Wiggins but at least there is next year. He can target a stage win maybe to make it 5 GT stages this year and earn some WT poins for Lotto-Ridley.

 

[greenedge]

Poor Kessiakoff as well. Nice to see Anton and JROD try win a stage along with Moncoutie. I was willing on Dan Martin as well.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Any news on what happened to Nibali?

 

[Descender]

You just answered your own question..well sort of. It does influence the time, that's why. If someone or few of the GC field decide to attack in the last few kms, after watching each other for most of the climb, do you think those times from the start of the climb will be a good reference to compare with previous years?

But why limit ourselves to half the climb? What happens before getting to the bottom of it also has an influence. Previous climbs, length of the stage, position of the stage, riders... of course every Angliru ascension is different and to an extent incomparable to the others.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Wiggins actually had a lower gear than Froome and Mollema - gear inches calculated below so he might not have been undergeared:

Cobo - 34 x 32 - 27.9
Froome - 36 x 28 - 33.8
Wiggins - 38 x 32 - 31.2
Mollema 36 x 28 - 33.8

Exactly. Four teeth in the back make a hell of a lot more difference than 2 in the front.

 

[jens_attacks]

Angliru
2011:12,6 km@10%---43:57---average speed 17.20 km/h(Juan Jose Cobo)
2008:12,6 km@10%---43:12---average speed 17.50 km/h(Alberto Contador)
2002:12,6 km@10%---43:41---average speed 17.30 km/h(Roberto Heras)
2000:12,6 km@10%---41:55---average speed 18.03 km/h(Roberto Heras)
1999:12,6 km@10%---44:50---average speed 16.86 km/h(Jose Maria Jimenez-Pavel Tonkov)

last 6 km
24:25 contador 14.74 km/h
23:51 cobo 15.09 km/h

grande cobo!next year we might see the battle of the youngsters who used to battle at the beginning of the 2000's.i just hope cobo will stay sane.

 

[Shark attack]

Hi guys,
I'm an Italian user and I'm fan of "lo Squalo dello Stretto" also because I live in the same city (Messina)
I'm really disappointment of the débacle of the Shark in this Vuelta, but I think the Liquigas have many faults this year specially in the preparation...
Now I would like to show you some of my calculations:
Cobo climbed the last 7km of Angliru in 28'19'' and he marked the third best time of ever then Heras (2000-2002)
The Vam, calculate in 6.3km from 705m to 1575m of altitude, is ca 1900m/h
He generated approximately 430W with 6.3W/Kg
I says only one word "AMAZING"...

PS I'm sorry for my bad English

 

[Lexman]

Chapeau to Monfort!!!

indeed, quite a surprise after VDB last year Belgium might have another top 5 place in a GT this year....

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Cobo wasn't the only rider with a 34 inner ring.

Wout Poels also rode a 34, but with 28 as lowest choice at the back..