Vuelta a España Stage 15: Avilés - Anglirú 144km

[Sylvester]

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 5.52.35 (35.65 km/h)
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.42
3 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.58
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 1.05
5 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.32
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 1.56
7 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 2.18
8 Oliver Zaugg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 2.28
9 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre 2.43
10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 3.01
11 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 4.08
12 David Moncoutié (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
13 Alberto Losada Alguacil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 4.30
14 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 4.44
15 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4.52
16 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 5.04
17 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 5.39
18 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre
19 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step 5.42
20 Gustavo Cesar Veloso (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 5.48
21 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
22 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 6.48
23 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 7.05
24 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 7.42
25 Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
26 Dominique Cornu (Bel) Silence - Lotto
27 Luis Pasamontes Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 8.03
28 Rémy Di Grégorio (Fra) Française des Jeux
29 Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 8.11
30 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 8.27

Lots of followers in the top 30 in 2008. Moncoutié sucking the wheel of Rebellin, Bruseghin and Bettini following Casar. Of course, the time differences are listed in seconds, not in minutes. Yeah, today absolutely nobody will attack Wiggins until the last km and Sagan will win in a reduced bunch sprint.

 

[wirral]

There will be a lot of Spanish fans pushing Cobo up the steep ramps. TV cameras will pan away. Expect him to do very well today.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Tour was quite interesting racing across 3 weeks. Many would agree that it was unpredictable and exciting.

Giro was just such a one sided affair that I didn't really care for the race in the end. This Vuelta has all the big gc riders not doing that great. A lot of 2nd tier riders are doing well here. NO disrespect to Froome, Kessiakoff, Mollema, Fuglsang, etc but they all being in the top 10 and some in the top 5 of a GT is a bit comedic.

Froome definitely; Kessiakoff, Mollema and Fuglsang are people that pre-race I wouldn't be surprised to see in the top 10, but would expect at the lower end of it. Froome is the only real shock, and he continues to confound and amaze.

The TdF wasn't interesting at all. If not for Bertie's kamikaze attack it would have been total boredom... I know you were excited because Evans but it doesn't mean the race was great.

It was unpredicatable and exciting. Everybody after the race on this forum were raving about what a entertaining race it was.

So your argument is that everybody on the forum were raving about how great it was... as a response to somebody on the forum talking about it being dull?

Highly doubt that.

I agree with Scirea.Two 'boring' weeks from top GC riders in defensive mode and waiting for some Alps show-down stage and/or ITT ...

Case closed. Not everybody thought it was entertaining. The GC battle was an embarrassment. When after two weeks Philippe Gilbert is in the top 10 without any big breakaways and without having put in a ride-of-your-life on the only climb to date like Voeckler did, you know that your race is not hard enough. And then they went and put a pan-flat stage on the penultimate weekend after 2 weeks of absolutely nothing happening other than crashing! The Tour started with the stage into Gap, and ended with the ITT. It was a 5 stage race. Not really becoming of the biggest race on the calendar. We've had 2 GTs this year. The Giro was one-sided and the Vuelta has been a tale of the big contenders having poor form and the few who are able to follow preserving what they've got.

Sagan vs Martin.

The last couple of days in Poland were very exciting - but the first few were a typical yawn with the usual city circuit sprint finishes.

what's the weather like in the area?i've heard is raining like hell?

The long range forecast said it would rain continuously on the last week of the race, but now it looks like the weather will be mostly pretty decent.

some people on here need stop complaining, they said yesterday would be crap it spilts, then when it spilts they give out about something else.

Enjoy the race guy, appreciate the way wiggins work, if i was better at grinding i wouldnt be attacking. I used to attack in a style that people love but sure id soon be out back if didnt work, however upping the tempo has seen me burn people off, enjoy the excitement of seeing people drop off one by one, enjoy the mayhem and realise the racing is alot better than you think.

I appreciate the way he works - but that doesn't mean we can't long for something less effective but more visually appealing. Should Wiggins be darting off the front and starting a back and forth? No, of course he shouldn't, because slowly grinding people off his wheel one by one is going to be much more effective for him. It's a lot harder to be immediately drawn in by "Wiggins is carrying a group behind him, they are all trying to pokerface it so it just looks like formation riding with occasionally someone dropping off" than "and now Rodríguez goes! He's pulled back by... Van den Broeck, Cobo and Mollema! Wiggins grinding back up to the rear wheel... now someone else goes!". However, Wiggins' pace is too hot for most of them to do anything BUT follow.

 

[Mellow Velo]

At 28 minutes down, Moncoutié must fancy another stage win and I can't see Sky being overly eager to chase.
After yesterday's early attackers blew so badly, I wonder if we'll get 2 races.

 

[Sylvester]

Moncoutié does not really excel on the super steep stuff, I'm afraid.

Surely Katusha must work for Moreno now? He was 10th here in 2008 while his form was a lot worse and he was only the 2nd lieutenant of Valverde (the first being Joaquin Rodriguez). He might be able to move up to 5th or so in the GC, while Rodriguez can only hope to make the top 10, even if he performs very well (which I doubt, by the way).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Can certainly see Moncoutié in the break though. There's 10 points available for Cordal, and if he gets that he can sit back and relax with his jersey until we get to Bilbao, then attack for the points if anybody threatens his jersey in the Gasteiz stage.

 

[mc_mountain]

Obvious reasons? His presence would have slowed Cobo down? Only one Geox rider attacking confused the opposition? He will be given more leeway to attack today as the 10th placed rider in GC than he would be if he were 9th?

If he could have bridged alone, he would have; no-one in GC contention deliberately conceded time yesterday.

i think that's point being made - he would most likely have taken wiggins, froome and mollema with him so better to leave cobo to it...

 

[Tuarts]

Bit late to the discussion but whilst you'll never get me to say a race was boring, or which GT can **** higher on the wall of excitement, the Tour could have been improved somewhat if in the 11 stages it had someone a bit more than just 2 classics finishes. That said, a lot of the sprint finishes weren't your typical "TDF" finish and there was a bit of mix up happening but nothing concerning the GC in it got to the Pyrenees.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Froome definitely; Kessiakoff, Mollema and Fuglsang are people that pre-race I wouldn't be surprised to see in the top 10, but would expect at the lower end of it. Froome is the only real shock, and he continues to confound and amaze.

So your argument is that everybody on the forum were raving about how great it was... as a response to somebody on the forum talking about it being dull?

Case closed. Not everybody thought it was entertaining. The GC battle was an embarrassment. When after two weeks Philippe Gilbert is in the top 10 without any big breakaways and without having put in a ride-of-your-life on the only climb to date like Voeckler did, you know that your race is not hard enough. And then they went and put a pan-flat stage on the penultimate weekend after 2 weeks of absolutely nothing happening other than crashing! The Tour started with the stage into Gap, and ended with the ITT. It was a 5 stage race. Not really becoming of the biggest race on the calendar. We've had 2 GTs this year. The Giro was one-sided and the Vuelta has been a tale of the big contenders having poor form and the few who are able to follow preserving what they've got.

The last couple of days in Poland were very exciting - but the first few were a .

No that's not my only argument. The last week was super entertaining and full of suspense. The 1st week was without drama and hard racing. The 2nd week had some dramatic racing thorugh the massif central. The Pyrenees were a bit of a fizzer but in saying that I still found those stages reasonably good. Most of the time I find mountain stages entertaining due to the brutality of those stages. Luz Ardiden was quite good although Plateau de Beille was a bit of a dissapointment. I think like some others found it quite a captivating GT especially compared to past years or other GT's this year.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Well, for once these days, I find myself in agreement with ACF.
As modern Tours go, the 2011 edition was the best for a for a number of years.
ALL GTs have portions that are extremely dull and this year, the award went to the Pyrenees. The rest of the race I found very entertaining.

The 2011 Giro on the other hand, had a few spectacularly exciting stages, but a whole lot of tedium and predictability, as well.

The Vuelta could go either way, given it's final week. So far, it's been reasonably entertaining.............if you aren't Spanish.

I would agree that collectively, the 2011 stage racing season has been dire, with the usual highlights ending up as low points.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No that's not my only argument. The last week was super entertaining and full of suspense. The 1st week was without drama and hard racing. The 2nd week had some dramatic racing thorugh the massif central. The Pyrenees were a bit of a fizzer but in saying that I still found those stages reasonably good. Most of the time I find mountain stages entertaining due to the brutality of those stages. Luz Ardiden was quite good although Plateau de Beille was a bit of a dissapointment. I think like some others found it quite a captivating GT especially compared to past years or other GT's this year.

What was the dramatic racing in the Massif Central? As far as I recall, we had nothing more than Vino's attack, Costa's solo for the last handful of km, and the car crash. If you take crashes out of it, everybody was on their TTT times until Luz Ardiden. Cuddles gained about 11-12 seconds on those contenders that didn't make it to Mur-de-Brétagne with the lead group and 3 on Mont des Alouettes, but apart from that nothing meaningful happened until Luz Ardiden. And then, nothing meaningful happened until Gap.

As a one week race, the Tour was one of the best races of the year. But over three weeks? This race is supposed to be our sport's showpiece, the great race, the one point where everybody's eyes are on the sport, where the sport can show what it has to offer... and it served up sprint after sprint, GC men riding in formation, crash upon crash, and poor pacing putting a meaningless, actionless flat rest-day-on-bikes on the final weekend, a complete travesty when you consider that all we had to come was the only GC-relevant stages of the race.

 

[dlwssonic]

I hope the angliru can mess up wiggins and froome's boring tempo riding.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I think you seem to expect an all out attacking race every single stage of a Grand tour. I don't think it was that bad and I think you are painting it in a glass half empty way.

 

[hatcher]

I hope the angliru can mess up wiggins and froome's boring tempo riding.

Yeah, tempo riding. That's what they're doing.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I hope Angry Lou is hungry tonight!

 

[auscyclefan94]

I'll never post here again if a BMC rider top 5's today

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think you seem to expect an all out attacking race every single stage of a Grand tour. I don't think it was that bad and I think you are painting it in a glass half empty way.

I expect to see some kind of GC action other than a TTT in the first two weeks of a three week race.

I also expect that, if we've been made to wait 2 weeks for anything relevant to happen, that we won't have thinned the GC down to bare bones thanks to crashes, and that given the riders have had to wait 2 weeks for a chance to put time into each other, they won't just ride up in formation because they're too afraid of dropping Thomas fricking Voeckler.

 

[Havetts]

I'll never post here again if a BMC rider top 5's today

For the love of God BMC, do it.

 

[dlwssonic]

I think ACF will be staying on this forum for a very long time

 

[auscyclefan94]

It's a safe bet on my behalf. See you all later!!

 

[dlwssonic]

If BMC top 10 this stage
I will put up a profile pic of your choice forever!

If BMC top 20 this stage
I will put up a profile pic of your choice for a month!

 

[auscyclefan94]

A picture from Jesus Hernandez last night from the Angliru. Scarily steep!

 

[spalco]

According to my tv program, Eursport starts showing the stage at 16:30 CET. I think I remember Harmon hearing saying something about time-delay. Does anyone know if they just step in live at that point (which should still be ok for the crucial action I think) or if they show it delayed (which is completely pointless imo)?

 

[dlwssonic]

Looks like the spanish think Manuel Quinziato can win

 

[auscyclefan94]

According to my tv program, Eursport starts showing the stage at 16:30 CET. I think I remember Harmon hearing saying something about time-delay. Does anyone know if they just step in live at that point (which should still be ok for the crucial action I think) or if they show it delayed (which is completely pointless imo)?

I can't believe they would show it delayed. ITV are so stupid though luckily SBS are still showing the stage live.