Vuelta a España 2019 stage 15: Tineo - Santuario del Acebo > 154.4 km

[Lequack]

 

[Leinster]

Anyone think Soler crosses the line and straight away called his agent to say “get me a transfer to Jumbo for next year; they might let me win a stage when I’m leading with 3km to go.”

 

[Koronin]

Anyone think Soler crosses the line and straight away called his agent to say “get me a transfer to Jumbo for next year; they might let me win a stage when I’m leading with 3km to go.”

Soler will have leadership opportunities at Movistar next year. Remember Quintana and Landa are leaving. Movistar's 3 leaders next year should be Valverde, Enric Mas and Soler. It's likely each one gets 1 GT as the main leader. My guess would be Soler to the Giro, Mas to the Tour and Valverde the Vuelta.

 

[Lequack]

Tadej Pogacar's power number for today's stage. Crazy high numbers, and that means Valverde and Roglic were having a spectacular day.

 

[Red Rick]

So they rode it like a Unipuerto stage.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Anyone think Soler crosses the line and straight away called his agent to say “get me a transfer to Jumbo for next year; they might let me win a stage when I’m leading with 3km to go.”

No. Soler have no problems with riding for Valverde (or Landa for example). The problem in Andorra was a really special case and it’s pointless trying to make the narrative that Soler doesn’t like to work for the team. He was one of the best domestique sin the Tour and he’s been doing a lot of great efforts for team leaders the past years. No need to exaggerate to make him look bad.

 

[Red Rick]

No. Soler have no problems with riding for Valverde (or Landa for example). The problem in Andorra was a really special case and it’s pointless trying to make the narrative that Soler doesn’t like to work for the team. He was one of the best domestique sin the Tour and he’s been doing a lot of great efforts for team leaders the past years. No need to exaggerate to make him look bad.

In fact he rode so fast on the Izoard because he was trying to catch Quintana.

 

[Lequack]

So they rode it like a Unipuerto stage.

Well the first climb was brutal as well.

 

[Singularitarian]

Folks who "criticize" how this stage was ridden (like unipuerto) should realize tomorrow is not a rest day, but yet another mountain beast. Perhaps worth a suicidal make or break long range attack (MAL has nothing to lose, not even white jersey

 

[Red Rick]

Well the first climb was brutal as well.

5.9 W/kg for 20 minutes is fast but it's not leg breaking. After that they had a few hours to recover.

 

[Red Rick]

Folks who "criticize" how this stage was ridden (like unipuerto) should realize tomorrow is not a rest day, but yet another mountain beast. Perhaps worth a suicidal make or break long range attack (MAL has nothing to lose, not even white jersey

It's not a criticism. It's an observation. It expected a bit more tempo on the penultimate climb in the peloton but it was always gonna have the bunch together at the bottom of the climb.

Parcours wise, you could complain about the pacing, but not really since the MTF was by far the hardest climb of the day today and it fully delivered.

 

[Leinster]

5.9 W/kg for 20 minutes is fast but it's not leg breaking. After that they had a few hours to recover.

Is 4.5 W/kg over 2 1400m mountain passes what counts as “recovery” to you?

 

[Red Rick]

Is 4.5 W/kg over 2 1400m mountain passes what counts as “recovery” to you?

Not to me.

But it's nothing special for elite climbers lol.

Fabio Jakobsen was in the bunch on those 2 climbs. You think Roglic and Valverde were having a hard time?

 

[ppanther92]

Tadej Pogacar's power number for today's stage. Crazy high numbers, and that means Valverde and Roglic were having a spectacular day.

This Vuelta is generally spectacular regarding climbing times.

 

[Bolder]

The reason it was ridden like a unipuerto is the 30 km of downhill before the last climb, which also I think had the steepest gradients, though it wasn't the longest. no way was any attack from the second to last mtn going to succeed. it would have been a suicide mission. But no matter, the three Cat. 1s softened up everyone's legs except Kuss', Roglic's and Valverde's...

Regarding Soler: He should definitely get his chance at Movistar next year. He's been a beast this race. The question is whether he's a Carapaz or a Landa, in terms of results matching talent. TBH I didn't know much about him before last year but realize that he also won Avenir, in 2015. He's a good to better than good TT'er and seems like he can handle all types of climbs.

 

[Lequack]

The Cycling Podcast Stage 15 | Tineo - Santuario Del Acebo | Vuelta a España 2019

Stage 15 | Tineo - Santuario Del Acebo | Vuelta a España 2019

Sepp Kuss, a young American on the Jumbo-Visma team, won the 15th stage of the Vuelta a España at the summit of Santuario Del Acebo while his teammate Primoz Roglic tightened his grip on the red jersey of race leader.

audioboom.com

 

[Anderis]

Kuss got his first win outside of USA today and It stroke me that there are a lot of American riders who if win in Europe, then mainly in Spain and not anywhere else.
Horner had 5 out of his 7 European wins in Spain, including the last 5 ones of his career.
Van Garderen 3 of 5 including his first 3 ones.
Danielson 2 of 3
Ben King 2 of 3
I see a pattern here
The exception is Talansky who had 4 wins in France and 0 in any other European country.

 

[tobydawq]

Kuss got his first win outside of USA today and It stroke me that there are a lot of American riders who if win in Europe, then mainly in Spain and not anywhere else.
Horner had 5 out of his 7 European wins in Spain, including the last 5 ones of his career.
Van Garderen 3 of 5 including his first 3 ones.
Danielson 2 of 3
Ben King 2 of 3
I see a pattern here
The exception is Talansky who had 4 wins in France and 0 in any other European country.

Armstrong won a couple of times in France.

 

[Anderis]

Armstrong won a couple of times in France.

Actually Armstrong has more wins in France alone than all of the guys I listed alltogether in Spain and that's without all of his TdF results that were taken away!

 

[Carols]

Kuss got his first win outside of USA today and It stroke me that there are a lot of American riders who if win in Europe, then mainly in Spain and not anywhere else.
Horner had 5 out of his 7 European wins in Spain, including the last 5 ones of his career.
Van Garderen 3 of 5 including his first 3 ones.
Danielson 2 of 3
Ben King 2 of 3
I see a pattern here
The exception is Talansky who had 4 wins in France and 0 in any other European country.

I remember some guy named Andy Hampsten winning some Big race in Italy; the Giro!

 

[Lequack]

Tadej Pogacar's power number for today's stage. Crazy high numbers, and that means Valverde and Roglic were having a spectacular day.

For comparison, Sepp Kuss performance today

 

[hayneplane]

The funny thing about Movistar is everybody talks about their leaders and the team always end winning the team classification.
Makes me think the team ranking is what matters to the management and the individual GC is left to riders to sort it out between themselves.

They might as well rename it the Movistar Award in all the Grand Tours. I bet they must have won around 70% of the Grand Tour Team Classifications this decade.

 

[Koronin]

Soler won Paris-Nice last year.

I'm fairly sure a guy named Greg Lemond has some success in France.

My guess is why Spain is where many American riders find success is maybe the terrain a bit more like the US south western terrain is?

 

[This Charming Man]

nice win kuss go usa

 

[Red Rick]

Soler won Paris-Nice last year.

I'm fairly sure a guy named Greg Lemond has some success in France.

My guess is why Spain is where many American riders find success is maybe the terrain a bit more like the US south western terrain is?

I'm not sure there's enough data to call it a big trend to be honest.