Vuelta a España - Stage 16: Gijón - Cotobello 181.4 km

[Arnout]

Great win for Nieve, and for the whole team. Who would've thought that after Anton, Martinez and Intxausti abandoned.

 

[roundabout]

Rodriguez requires an above par TT and a below par climb by Nibali on Saturday.

Hope Nibali takes minutes out of the rest in the TT.

 

[Highlander]

I think that Frank Schleck may turn out to be the big winner out of today - besides Rodriguez. Nibali will probably take the jersey back after the TT. However, if Schleck can TT at all like he did back in Switzerland, then he has a nice chance to move ahead of Mosquera and even get close to Rodriguez. Purito lost over a minute in the Swiss TT, which was nearly 20K shorter than what they'll do on Wednesday. After watching him TT in the Tour as well, I don't think that he can be very confident in this individual test, but there are still climbs to get the time back.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Not very. He was interviewed by daddy before tdf tt and said he was expecting to lose minutes to Canc which he did.

He's not a brilliant time triallist by any means, but in the company around him he's not bad at all. It's not as if the top 10 is filled with time trial beasts of the Contador / Armstrong variety. He can reasonably hope to gain rather than lose time on most of the top 10, but he will definitely lose time to the likes of Nibali.

 

[El Pistolero]

If they started 5km earlier Nibali would have easily lost 1 to 2 minutes here.
I hereby declare the entire Vuelta field idiots.

Cgts to Nibali. He is going to win. This field lacks some aggresive mountain goats. With Anton gone there is no hope left.

It's pretty obvious all Rodriguez had left was a final sprint uphill... You know, he's good at that

And Fränk Schleck showed today that he really is a GT contender. You have to remember that he is better at climbs with a steady % instead of the % fluctuating to steep and not so steep all the time. Which this Vuelta had a lot of climbs of. And he also didn't have the perfect preparation for this Vuelta. I'm 100% sure he would've done better if he wouldn't have broken his collarbone(without doing the Tour that is).

--

I hope Nibali loses and Rodriguez wins. Nibali would be boring to win it. Hasn't impressed me at all this Vuelta. Hope he flops at the time trial and Rodriguez maintaining the lead.

 

[roundabout]

However many climbs are left Rodriguez will wait til the last 2 kilometers.

 

[Arnout]

Funny that even the Cyclingnews reporter cannot spell Euskaltel correctly. You would expect some knowledge from a paid journalist...

 

[hrotha]

I don't understand all the comments directed against Kreuziger here. Surely he was doing his job and it's up to the others to attack to isolate Nibali?

I didn't expect Nibali to lose so much even when he cracked, 37 seconds to Purito is a lot of time (and in less than one kilometer, too). This should be interesting. It's hard to predict what will happen in the TT because most people up there suck at it. Nibali is good but it's not like he's a specialist either, and if he doesn't have a good day he will not take a lot of time on his rivals.

I'm a fan of Tommy D but seeing him attack feels wrong for some reason.

edit: also, good to see Fränk was not cool with being a non-factor.

 

[ferryman]

Could this come down to the time bonuses up for grabs on Saturday? How exciting would that be

 

[Descender]

I laugh at people who say the Bola del Mundo is not a hard climb... it's got 339 on the APM index. HC climbs start usually around 230-250. It is by far the hardest climb of this year's Vuelta, and one of the hardest in Spain.

http://www.altimetrias.net

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's pretty obvious all Rodriguez had left was a final sprint uphill... You know, he's good at that

And Fränk Schleck showed today that he really is a GT contender. You have to remember that he is better at climbs with a steady % instead of the % fluctuating to steep and not so steep all the time. Which this Vuelta had a lot of climbs of. And he also didn't have the perfect preparation for this Vuelta. I'm 100% sure he would've done better if he wouldn't have broken his collarbone(without doing the Tour that is).

--

I hope Nibali loses and Rodriguez wins. Nibali would be boring to win it. Hasn't impressed me at all this Vuelta. Hope he flops at the time trial and Rodriguez maintaining the lead.

You do realise they only let F.Schleck go because he was no direct threat to either Nibali or Rodriguez and Mosquera.
Rodriguez made up 15 seconds in the final km and Mosquera 5 seconds.
F.Schleck was definately having a good day today, but I don't think he has got what it takes.

 

[The Hitch]

Could this come down to the time bonuses up for grabs on Saturday? How exciting would that be

Would be bad for those of us who have to listen to Harmonn. Probably would start congratulating someone for winning the Vuelta up untill the results came in.

 

[Sophistic]

Now i'm very curious about what Schleck can do at the ITT, if my timing/calculations are correct, he averaged ~450 Watts over the last 10k...if he can just somewhat translate that perfomance into the ITT like he did at the Tour de Suisse, he is definietly a threat.

 

[Sasquatch]

Rodriguez couldn't attack earlier because the climb didn't suit him. He needed to wait for the steeper part, which he did.

Nibali showed signs of fatigue today. Yes he will get it back in the TT, but saying he'll win the overall is a bit premature.

Two category 1 climbs and then a huge 20+km climb with steep bits. If Rodriguez can get 30 seconds on him today, he can get a lot more if his team and Xacobea work hard on the first two climbs.

This race is far from over. We'll see what sort of advantage Nibali can get. If Rodriguez can stay within a minute of Nibali, then Rodriguez has to be favourite.

 

[icefire]

I don't understand all the comments directed against Kreuziger here. Surely he was doing his job and it's up to the others to attack to isolate Nibali?

True. The presence of Kreuziger so late in the last climb is not his fault but his merit. It was just a symptom of a boring stage.

 

[The Hitch]

I laugh at people who say the Bola del Mundo is not a hard climb... it's got 339 on the APM index. HC climbs start usually around 230-250. It is by far the hardest climb of this year's Vuelta, and one of the hardest in Spain.

http://www.altimetrias.net

Intersting.

Do you have APM ratings for Alp, Ventoux, Zonvcolan, Mortirolo, Stelvio etc just out of interest for comparison??

 

[Sasquatch]

I laugh at people who say the Bola del Mundo is not a hard climb... it's got 339 on the APM index. HC climbs start usually around 230-250. It is by far the hardest climb of this year's Vuelta, and one of the hardest in Spain.

http://www.altimetrias.net

Rodriguez will be licking his lips when the last 6km come around.

 

[El Pistolero]

You do realise they only let F.Schleck go because he was no direct threat to either Nibali or Rodriguez and Mosquera.
Rodriguez made up 15 seconds in the final km and Mosquera 5 seconds.
F.Schleck was definately having a good day today, but I don't think he has got what it takes.

You do realize that they let Schleck go because

1) Kreuziger was riding for Nibali thus doesn't care for GC
2) Nibali wouldn't be able to follow
3) Rodriguez wouldn't be able to follow. He has a good uphill sprint for the final km, but he can't climb with the likes of Frank Schleck when he's in form. He's also more of a guy for the really steep not too long climbs.
4) Carlos Sastre reacted, but couldn't follow
5) Danielson reacted, but couldn't follow
6) Roche couldn't follow and if he could he would've because who doesn't want a better place at the GC?
7) Mosquera couldn't follow or he would've attacked like he usually does and Schleck is most certainly a threat for him.


Who am I missing here?

 

[roundabout]

Your missing that it will kill DT to admit that he was wrong. Watch out for more spin.

 

[khardung la]

The climb to bola del Mundo: those houses down there (1880 m) are where the Puerto de Navacerrada has historically finished in La Vuelta. Check out what comes next in those curves that go up to the antenna. Consider that it is probably 3 m wide, and that is rough cement. In many of the curves the slope reaches 18-20%. Cars will not be allowed, and I guess the riders will have to descend using the ski-cabs (that is my guessing).

To the north the flats of Castilla y Leon. To the south the flats of Madrid. It is very windy and exposed up there.

 

[XlandaluzeX]

old skool cycling from Euskaltel today, atacking with 75 km and 3 cat.1 climbs to go, whout looking backwards, without asking for relays...

 

[icefire]

Forget about numbers of the Bola del Mundo.

Look at the pictures here

 

[Spanky]

At the tour Roche finished down 0.59 on Contador and 0.28 on A. Schleck. He's no world beater but he's improving. Can't see why he couldn't take time out of Rodriguez and mosquera. Whatever way he's having a great Vuelta and very proud of him.

 

[hrotha]

old skool cycling from Euskaltel today, atacking with 75 km and 3 cat.1 climbs to go, whout looking backwards, without asking for relays...

That's a bit melodramatic. They did get plenty of relays.

But yeah, it was good to see the team has remained focused after losing Antón. Although it's probably hard not to try to pull stuff like this when you have Txurruka in your team.

 

[search]

does anyone if the grupetto is still on it's way? fast stage today, timecut is at ~41 minutes and numer 76 in the ranking already was 25 minutes back. Could be crucial for some of the sprinters, didn't see Cav the whole day

edit: ah, okay, now everyone is in there with ~36 minutes behind, so no problem