Vuelta a España - Stage 20 San Martín de Valdeiglesias - Bola del Mundo 172.1km

[The Hitch]

Wtf? All I know is that the world certainly isn't flat, tomorrow.
I see the jokers have beaten me to the punch over Dekker Tifosi.

I was going to say that all this thread proves, is that by throwing the Bola into tomorrow's melting pot, nobody can predict how it will eventually play out........
..........'cept the aforementioned "Nostradamus" of the CN forums.
(thought I'd throw another historical figure into the mix.)

I have a feeling that unless Frank Schleck does another "Cortobello", we will have a staring match, until those final 3 kms.
Of course, unlike DT, I could be wrong.

lol brilliant

 

[khardung la]

I find the discussion about the roundness of the Earth quite appropriate on the thread of the stage to Bola del Mundo, which translates to English as World Ball

Really good . Apparently the origin of the name, as I was told by an old man from the region, is precisely that, it looked like a World Globe to the people naming it. "Bola del Mundo" is how a child or a bit illiterate adult would call the World Globe, while in more correct spanish it would be "globo terraqueo" or "globo terrestre"

 

[The Hitch]

I don't mean to be rude, but you're still missing the point.

The earth was 'discovered' to be round circa 330 BC, and it's an utter myth that people in the middle ages believed otherwise, or that the Catholic church killed anyone for espousing that. Indeed, the spherical earth is explained in the summa theologica, the central work of Catholic theology of the middle ages.

You are confusing the flatness/roundness of the earth with heliocentrism - whether or not the earth rotates the sun, or vice-versa.

Christopher Columbus has absolutely nothing to do with this, and the debate over it occured roughly 100 years after the beginnings of the reformation, so it is very much a Protestant issue as well as a Catholic one.

Look at my edit 2:

I will repeat it for your benefit. You are right. I remember coming accross this before. Yes its clear in my head now. It is general ignorance on my part to say that Colombus discovered the world was not flat. Its probably that stupid song in my head

But i will contend that Protestantism begins in 1520s.

Though no more on this thread.

 

[Parrulo]

nibali will keep his jeysey imo. he just needs to pace himself. eze doesn't seem to be able to pace himself well enough as seen in the andorra stage where he started losing power and got passed by anton. back then nibali cracked to eze cus he followed him. but if he follows his own pace i can see nibali keeping it steady while mosquera brakes and gains btw nothing and just a few secs.

the stage will prolly go for big bro shleck who will pull a tiago machado and attack at the first km of the last climb and recover a bunch of time on every1 and reach the podium. the victory overall seems impossible tho. unless nibbles and eze had an awfull day.

thats my prediction

 

[icefire]

It's a pity that Andy Schleck was forced out of the race. He would have liked to know that the highest bar in Madrid is just next to the stage finish. Oh, wait... they close at 19:00

 

[The Hitch]

Back on topic (for now)

Several people have said these threads are better than the live ticker.

I think cn should start advertising this as their live ticker. It is so much better.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Look at my edit 2:

I will repeat it for your benefit. You are right. I remember coming accross this before. Yes its clear in my head now. It is general ignorance on my part to say that Colombus discovered the world was not flat. Its probably that stupid song in my head

But i will contend that Protestantism begins in 1520s.

Though no more on this thread.

Happy to agree with both of those (well, not that happy that Protestant began, but I can accept it did...)

P.s. Mosquera to win it all, by the margin of a mechanical.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Nah, considering the luck Nibali usually had this Tour (except the time trial), Mosquera will probably ride away 1'30, only to flat the last kilometer, than the wheel change goes a bit slow, and then just when he still has 40 seconds advantage + boni's left, he gets abducted by space aliens 200m from the finish line.

 

[The Hitch]

Nah, considering the luck Nibali usually had this Tour (except the time trial), Mosquera will probably ride away 1'30, only to flat the last kilometer, than the wheel change goes a bit slow, and then just when he still has 40 seconds advantage + boni's left, he gets abducted by space aliens 200m from the finish line.

lol. Nicely done.

Your right. Nibali has had a lot of luck but still has space for more. He only got 16 seconds in the tt. In the giro he got 1 minute 20 on eventual 4th and 5th giving him a podium spot which i think others deserved more.

 

[icefire]

No team cars will be allowed in the last 3kms, only neutral service

 

[hrotha]

I must have missed something. Does Antón crashing count as Nibali being lucky?

 

[khardung la]

Something I feel curious about and still did not have the chance to clarify with no one: I know the cars are not allowed up there (there is no space to park and the climb is very narrow)...so how the heck the riders are going to get down to Navacerrada?? I do not think they can bike down because other bikers will be ascending and (again) it is narrow and not the best road surface.

I assume they will take the ski cable, which is not in the top of Bola del Mundo. But at the same time I cannot imagine it, since those ski cables are "open", one merely sits down in a narrow seat and goes down (no confortable cabin there). If it is windy it moves quite a lot....After the effort, and specially if it rains, it can be quite surrealistic.

Can anyone clarify this?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I must have missed something. Does Antón crashing count as Nibali being lucky?

Yup, just as much as Bruseghin and Uran crashing and getting hurt. Especially Bruseghin could've done much damage to Nibbsi. And Anton would ofcourse pretty much have won the Vuelta by now.

 

[salixcycling]

Hitch - thankyou for the intro, very well written and definitely sets the scene.

Now it's down to the GC riders to give us what you have promised

 

[hrotha]

Yup, just as much as Bruseghin and Uran crashing and getting hurt. Especially Bruseghin could've done much damage to Nibbsi. And Anton would ofcourse pretty much have won the Vuelta by now.

Then surely Mosquera has been just as lucky as Nibali? Urán would probably have hurt Nibali more because of his style, but Brushegin and Antón would hurt Mosquera exactly the same.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ofcourse, but I rather have Mosquera win than Nibali.
On the basis that Mosquera doesn't go backwards everytime a rider attacks on an MTF.

edit: and yes I know I'm being completely irrational about this, or about everytime it's about Nibali.

 

[khardung la]

In a newspaper http://noticias.lainformacion.com/deporte/ciclismo/la-subida-a-la-bola-del-mundo-de-la-vuelta-minimizara-su-impacto-ambiental_FwY9NB4xRZL14njFmXh4B2/ the vuelta director said that they "probably" will use the ski cable to help the cyclists to go down. He even said that "maybe" they could also use helicopters.

Wow, the main problem for me is that those "probablies and maybes" were said the last 27th of July I hope they know what they are doing. A day with bad weather could make things awful, and lots of cyclists could complain big time.

 

[Christomir]

Ofcourse, but I rather have Mosquera win than Nibali.
On the basis that Mosquera doesn't go backwards everytime a rider attacks on an MTF.

edit: and yes I know I'm being completely irrational about this, or about everytime it's about Nibali.

Yeah, we know that already. There is a rider you want to see fail and one that you want to see win, so when the former does well, he is always "lucky" in your eyes, no matter what actually happened, no matter if the latter benefited from the same piece of "luck" as well.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's kind of like being a Norwegian Hagen fan and hoping Cavendish will fail.

 

[theyoungest]

It's kind of like being a Norwegian Hagen fan and hoping Cavendish will fail.

Maybe more like being a Gesink fan and not wanting to see an (in your eyes) "lesser" rider being more successful in GTs?

 

[luckyboy]

Like Evans fans and everyone who beats him.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Maybe more like being a Gesink fan and not wanting to see an (in your eyes) "lesser" rider being more successful in GTs?

Spot on, yeah.

 

[Climbing]

Like Nibali not working full time for Basso wouldn't have won the Giro...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Like Nibali not working full time for Basso wouldn't have won the Giro...

People overestimate the 'work' he did for Basso.
Most of the work consisted of just hanging with the first group so he could do some wok on the final downhill or flat in the mountain stages with downhill/flat finish. Only ever time he really 'worked' for Basso was in the muddy stage and on the Zoncolan.
Most of the work was done by Szmyd. Nibali rode large parts of the race more as 2nd leader than as helper.
Without Basos, Nibali still would have finished 3rd or maybe even lower actually.
In that race Nibali wasn't better than Scarponi or Evans anyhow. He got 'lucky' there as well. But lets not fire up another discussion we'll never ever ever agree on

 

[theyoungest]

Like Nibali not working full time for Basso wouldn't have won the Giro...

I think it's quite obvious that Basso was the strongest rider in the Giro. In the final stage he even had to defend Nibali's podium position by outsprinting Scarponi for bonus seconds, when Nibali had already been dropped.