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

[Armchair Cyclist]

Red jersey and lime green shorts is not a good look

 

[El Pistolero]

I was under the impression that Spanish teams do actually care about the Vuelta team classification?

Yes, they do.

 

[XlandaluzeX]

what a beautiful move from Euskaltel

with Oroz in the flat, Nieve could do the job in Cobertoria and Txurruka launch one of his massivemonster attacks in Cotobello

go Amets go !!!

 

[RedFury]

La Vuelta Live -- Eurosport feed

 

[roundabout]

Now Nibali has 6 helpers.

 

[Ney the Viking]

Yes! Go Txu-Txu go! Would love to see Amets with a stage win, even more so after the usual euskatel luck with Anton.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

La Vuelta Live -- Eurosport feed

That feed is consistently .5km behind the spanish feed - YMMV!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Liquigas is making very sure that the breakaways don't get a big gap. At least so far.

 

[Ferminal]

Are we at the penultimate climb yet? Ticker hasn't updated.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Oroz job done - drops back

 

[Mellow Velo]

Another crazy fast day.
Almost 20 minutes ahead of the fastest race schedule, again.
The breakaway breaks up.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Cancellara leading the peloton now and immediately riders drop

Lund and Larsson just behind him.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Are we at the penultimate climb yet? Ticker hasn't updated.

Yes. Just at the start of it.

Edited: Maybe not. That looks like it was one of the foothills of the climb. It should be very soon anyway.

 

[icefire]

Saxo leading the group. We're back in the TdF

 

[roundabout]

Didnt really expect to see Saxo Bank working

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Lavuelta.com has the López/Plaza group at 1 min 40something, and the red jersey 45s odd behind that (2 1/2 mins altogether), which fits with my reading of GP (Grupo Persuiante) and P (peloton) on the TV screen.

However, commentry claims that the 5 man group is at 45 seconds, and the main challengers' group at 1:45 to the leaders. Can anyone confirm my suspicion that this is merely Sean being confused?

 

[roundabout]

Man, Caisse have really gone off the boil the last few days

 

[icefire]

Didnt really expect to see Saxo Bank working

They're all drunk and don't know what race they're on

 

[Ney the Viking]

maybe an early attack by Fränk? Todays climbs does seem to suit him better than the ones over 10%

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Didnt really expect to see Saxo Bank working

That one was pretty obvious to be honest.

It's Shlecks best (and maybe last) chance to gain some time. Although he probably won't be able too, atleast Saxo Bank - in usual fashion - will claim that they did their best and that they have ridden a good race.

 

[thrawn]

cancellara is putting some guys into serious difficulty. peloton very small now, nibali down to one helper.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Large numbers dropping out of the peloton.

 

[Ney the Viking]

That one was pretty obvious to be honest.

It's Shlecks best (and maybe last) chance to gain some time. Although he probably won't be able too, atleast Saxo Bank - in usual fashion - will claim that they did their best and that they have ridden a good race.

Can't really see anything wrong in trying, it's not like they have anything to lose by it. And with the usual comments in here with soft pedalling, noone risking anything for the GC etc. we should be happy for some action even though it might end up being useless in the end.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

That's it for Cancellara after destroying much of the peloton. Now here goes Frank.

 

[Jamsque]

The EuskaTrain was pretty fun to watch, but I think it was probably wasted effort. This break is gonna get brought back.

[edit] Well, I guess Frank really DOES want to win the Vuelta. Time for Liquigas to put in some hard graft.