Vuelta a España Stage 15: Avilés - Anglirú 144km

[Escarabajo]

The record books will show Cobo as the winner but for me Froome is the man.
at least Lance looked to be trying and kind of hurting when he battered everybody in the old days. That was ridiculous today.

No he didn't.

 

[hatcher]

Not all, but I wouldn't have made him ride 10 km at the front of the peloton into a headwind losing 30 seconds for no reason at all, while in the red jersey. Else than that their tactics have been fine.

No I would've spread my eggs over both baskets. Putting everything on a guy who's had a half-preparation due to injury when he looks like the second best cyclist on your team doesn't seem like the smartest idea to me.

The amount of work Froome has done since the TT is being wildly exaggerated.

On stage 12, the MTF when Froome was in red, with only Froome and Wiggins left for Sky, what would you have done when Nibali and then Mollema attacked? One of them had to close that gap.

 

[meandmygitane]

Guys let's be serious, that's one of the worst cycling tv coverage I ever saw... not just today, all Vuelta along.
A very nice stage, ruined like this, but fun anyway.
Grats to Cobo, nice win indeed, real guts.
Not over yet.

If you compare to the other stages, this was a positive surprise. I understand that people are dissappointed in general tough.

There were motorcycles falling left and right today.

I think the the commentators said Cobo used about 4'10 on kms 3 to 2 (or maybe it was km 4 to 3), that is about 14,4 km/h

 

[spalco]

anyone know how much time poor Kessiakoff lost?

He doesn't seem to be in yet after about half an hour (although I'm not sure if the Vuelta site is up to date, so far only 54 riders have been classified); I'm not sure if he'll finish at all or DNF.

 

[Spare Tyre]

don't read it then.

The difficulty with this approach is that you have to read something before you know the content of it.

 

[Parrot23]

Yeah, who doesn't. But in my case, I prefer to bet on... positive things.

Just joking.

Good question of yours whether Froome can attack.

Problem for SKY is GEOX looks mighty deep right now.

 

[gregod]

i love my GEOX driving mocassins. should i wear black socks with them?

 

[Gloin22]

Who would have thought that Sky could do 2-3 on GC. That's one hell of result for them !!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Have you ever tried climbing up a 23,6% slope with a big motorcycle with two adult men and equipment on it?

Which brings us to the question: why use these big-*** motorcycles on a climb like this? Why not work with more static camera's on every 5 km of the climb? Why won't the helicopter camera just pan backward so we can see how big the gap is? Why work with these heavy camera's?

I ride a motorcycle myself, and i can tell you there are dozens of bikes better suited for this kind of course. Give those cameramen lighter (and maybe of lesser quality) camera's, we don't care. Having inferior quality footage is better than having no footage at all because your (motor)bikes are filling ditches left and right.

 

[Moondance]

Who would have thought that Sky could do 2-3 on GC. That's one hell of result for them !!

1-3 would've been better

 

[dlwssonic]

SKY starting to learning how to do the schleck sandwich

 

[Descender]

If two adult men are the problem then use WOMEN!!!!

I like the idea.

 

[rzombie1988]

I don't think it's the end of Froome. All he has to do is win one stage and it's anyone's race. I think it's a possibility. Sucks to be Froome today though. He's done so much work and has nothing to show for it. Plus he's going to have to come back super hard the next few days while Cobo has Sastre and Denny to take care of him.

The Vuelta really should have had the helicopters out near the finish. Don't know why they didn't use them to film.

Cobo deserves a super raise after this. Not only might he win the Vuelta, but he's assuredly got his team in the ProTour for next year and invites to all the big races. Curious to see who gets chosen as the team captain between him and Menchov. Good result today for Menchov, but he should be the one in the lead, not a teammate.

I did find today's race to mostly be a bore though. I'd take most of the Giro's races over this one.

Was sad to see J-Rod getting tossed. I really thought he had a shot at winning this stage.

 

[gregod]

The difficulty with this approach is that you have to read something before you know the content of it.

ignore it then. or don't take things so personally. it is the internet. it is not real.

 

[Maxiton]

No I would've spread my eggs over both baskets. Putting everything on a guy who's had a half-preparation due to injury when he looks like the second best cyclist on your team doesn't seem like the smartest idea to me.

The thing is, Wiggo is the leader. A team has to know who its leader is.

Yeah, who doesn't. But in my case, I prefer to bet on... positive things.

Positive? Isn't that word a little premature?

 

[killswitch]

Cobo deserves a super raise after this. Not only might he win the Vuelta, but he's assuredly got his team in the ProTour for next year and invites to all the big races. Curious to see who gets chosen as the team captain between him and Menchov.

Only after November.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Maybe TGBM is going to overtake Gesink really soon?

I am confident a top form gesink could do better then mollema on this climb and probably the race on a whole. Just my opinion. But it is unlikely that gesink could make it to this stage unharmed

ANyway Mollema is making fine progress anyway.

Gesink, Mollema, Poels, Kruijswijk.. Been a long time since we dutch had so many talented GC guys.

 

[meandmygitane]

anyone know how much time poor Kessiakoff lost?

Dropped 21 minutes and is now 26th. He must be feeling very very sick today..

 

[spalco]

Kessiakoff in now at #140 with +21:45 - tough break for him.

 

[Frosty]

Kessiakoff made it home 21.45 down with a couple of team mates. Down to 26th overall.

 

[Gloin22]

1-3 would've been better

Obviosuly, but anyone who would say Sky having two riders on podium at this point in race and Wiggo beating likes of Rodriguez on Angrliu would be laughed off hard. That's why its such achievement no matter whether they win or not.

 

[Descender]

Which brings us to the question: why use these big-*** motorcycles on a climb like this? Why not work with more static camera's on every 5 km of the climb? Why won't the helicopter camera just pan backward so we can see how big the gap is? Why work with these heavy camera's?

I ride a motorcycle myself, and i can tell you there are dozens of bikes better suited for this kind of course. Give those cameramen lighter (and maybe of lesser quality) camera's, we don't care. Having inferior quality footage is better than having no footage at all because your (motor)bikes are filling ditches left and right.

Normally, bikes aren't a problem. Only in crazy steep climbs like this and the Zoncolan have we seen them give up.

Now your idea about static cameras is something I agree with. At least in the last kms here... I mean it wasn't hard to foresee what was going to happen, just take two or three static cameras up an elevated slope so we get to see everybody and not only the rider the only working camera can show (helicopters can't fly in this fog).

 

[dlwssonic]

I am confident a top form gesink could do better then mollema on this climb and probably the race on a whole. Just my opinion. But it is unlikely that gesink could make it to this stage unharmed

ANyway Mollema is making fine progress anyway.

Gesink, Mollema, Poels, Kruijswijk.. Been a long time since we dutch had so many talented GC guys.

You guys were actually right about the hyping of Mollema. At least it was better than our hyping of Kristoff(I meant it somewhat as a joke). He still has time to develop. At TGBM least he has more meat thank Gesink

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Sucks to be Froome today though.

Really? Two weeks ago he was a rider who didn't have a contract for next year and whose biggest results were things like winning the Anatomic Jock Race and the Mi-Aout Bretonne.

 

[LukeSchmid]

ignore it then. or don't take things so personally. it is the internet. it is not real.

There are rules, which I must admit I have pushed a couple of times, but really we should be keeping to them, including me. No doping talk outside the clinic, especially not direct accusations or strong hints about riders who have never tested positive.