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Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2021: Stage 11 (Antequera - Valdepeñas de Jaén, 133.6 km)

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Mas will probably be a Tour-Vuelta lifer like Sastre, doing both races in great condition and riding for top 1-5 the next many years and not be seen that much outside of those races. But they should definitely look at this buildup - I assume the Tour is still the most important race for the team, so if youd choose between what race you'd peak for, it should be the Tour and try to do the Vuelta at 95%. This year its the other way around.

Dont know if he should contest Catalunya and Pais Vasco, but he should definitely be better at Dauphine
Sastre managed to win a Tour. Not sure Mas will especially having to compete against Pogacar and Roglic among others but he has progressed. I guess most people didn't expect Sastre to win the Tour and both he and Evans won it late in their careers.
 
No wonder Bike Exchange is having a poor season with their horrendous tactics - Matthews is never going to win a stage on a hilly finish with GC riders, especially when there is an 8 km 5% climb not long before the wall - Common-sense dictates that he needs to be in a break to win this type of stage - Bike Exchange are guilty of 'old school tactics' which rarely work in today's peleton
 
No wonder Bike Exchange is having a poor season with their horrendous tactics - Matthews is never going to win a stage on a hilly finish with GC riders, especially when there is an 8 km 5% climb not long before the wall - Common-sense dictates that he needs to be in a break to win this type of stage - Bike Exchange are guilty of 'old school tactics' which rarely work in today's peleton

They did try to get Mezgec into the break early on, but whether they just missed hitting the right break, if Matthews thought he had great legs or if the DS was simply disappointed with their results yesterday, I can't say. I agree that it would have been better to clsoe down the breakaway right away and then try get someone into the next one, or simply had sat up for the rest of the stage and saved themselves for tomorrow.

In the end they did somethign that didn't work out at all, but at least it might have made the stage better.
 
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They did try to get Mezgec into the break early on, but whether they just missed hitting the right break, if Matthews thought he had great legs or if the DS was simply disappointed with their results yesterday, I can't say. I agree that it would have been better to clsoe down the breakaway right away and then try get someone into the next one, or simply had sat up for the rest of the stage and saved themselves for tomorrow.

In the end they did somethign that didn't work out at all, but at least it might have made the stage better.

Yes - But it's not helping an under-performing team - You need to be more strategic and cunning to win a stage - I was even more frustrated when they had Schultz riding on the front on the cat 2 climb - He was in the three strongest in stage 9, so should have been resting today, to prepare for stage 11, which is even more suitable - Finally, for some reason the team has an aversion to putting Matthews into a break.
 
Brutal ending to the stage. And Cort almost repeating his stage win on such a steep climb, maybe he should be a GC rider now.
Awesome win by Roglic at the end.

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I don't know if the rules are still the same, but Combativity award was usually granted by public vote of Spanish viewers from a pool of three riders... total nonsense.

Yeah, still the same

Most combative rider award.

This prize rewards the rider who displayed the most generous effort and best sporting spirit. This award is given only for linear stages and is determined daily by a jury made up of the Technical Directors, presided by the General Director of the race. They will decide on three riders whom they believe to be deserving of the prize that day. TV viewers will then be able to cast their votes among the three chosen via a telematics system (by phone or internet). The rider to earn the most votes will be named the Most Combative Rider of that day. In the event of a tie, the General Director of the race will intervene and decide on the winner.

Article 12, paragraph 6

 
I feel like Mas needs 2 minutes on Roglic in the time trial and even that's tight. Assuming he'll lose before 17/18, he could need to gain 3 minutes on Roglic there to win this race. I'm not sure he can do that unless Lopez is willing to go 100% for Mas cos if Roglic is suffering, he'll likely have Kuss at least with him to help.
He might not need that much. Mas can do a decent TT. And Roglic has been disappointing every time he's done done a TT late into a GT and there's getting to be a decent sample size. Maybe this is where he turns that around.
 

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