Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2021: Stage 18 (Salas - Alto d'El Gamoniteiru, 162.6 km)

[Netserk]

Seems to have been a change remnant of old Vuelta routes IMO. 2011 and 2008 and 2009 all had a bunch of grinder finishes. 2008 was like 3 weak MTFs, Angliru, big ITT and Navacerrada MTT. Contador attacked and dropped Leipi every single MTF and still only won by bonis despite getting 5th and 3rd in ITTs.

IIRC Contador would have won by less than a second without bonus seconds.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Seems to have been a change remnant of old Vuelta routes IMO. 2011 and 2008 and 2009 all had a bunch of grinder finishes. 2008 was like 3 weak MTFs, Angliru, big ITT and Navacerrada MTT. Contador attacked and dropped Leipi every single MTF and still only won by bonis despite getting 5th and 3rd in ITTs.

2009 wasn't so much like that, it had the toughest Sierra Nevada side climbed yet (since they haven't been all the way to the top via Hazallanas yet), through El Purche and Las Sabinas, Xorret del Catí (this was when Taaramäe redefined the bonk) and La Pandera. It just paced the mountain stages horribly and had a pretty soporific péloton, with Caisse letting the break take every stage, Mosquera recovering from crashes in week 1, and Evans sulking after the poor neutral service he was given.

 

[Red Rick]

Anyway I still liked Gamoniteiru. It was just the racing situation that was similar to even Zoncolan getting entirely neutralized in 2014.

I think it's much better if you put it on the 3rd Saturday or Friday, and a team that wants to really put the hammer down can just go 6.5W/kg on the Cordal and go brrrr.

 

[Koronin]

Nice stage win for Lopez. He and the team needed that. It looks like he and Mas are closer to securing their podium spots as long as they don't collapse between now and then end of the final day ITT.

 

[Red Rick]

Passive as hell pace confirmed. This climb can do so much more damage with one aggressive team.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1433511491752402951

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1433511491752402951

 

[Nickname]

I think these stages of Asturias were great. Lagos de Covadonga stage was epic, no doubt about it. This stage in Gamoniteiro was good enough.

The problem was organizers should put a resting day between these two stages. It was obvious riders were too tired.
I think this Vuelta is being really hard but "hard" and "spectacular" are not always the same.

The stages were great but the riders are the ones who create this spectacle and we know Movistar's riders are not real fighters and they have had a lot of problems (ex: bike fallings).

Edward Bernal (in good shape from the beginning) and Tadej Pagaçar (if he had wanted to come to Vuelta and in good shape) had been good figthers for the race. The story had probably been different with them.

But Asturias is a magic place with a stunning landscape and full of extreme climbs and it has created most of the epic moments in Vuelta and these ones usually create more spectacle than the small ones. But riders write the story of the race. Put the blame on them.

By the way, in a circle of 10 kms around Pola de Lena you can find the beginning of Cordal/Angliru, Cobertoria/Gamoniteiro, Cubilla, Cuitu Negru, etc.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

[/QUOTE]

Passive as hell pace confirmed. This climb can do so much more damage with one aggressive team.

Bahrain with the snailpacing tactic to make others team not go hard earlier, they knew Haig wouldn’t be able to match his closest opponents Lopez and Bernal.

 

[Red Rick]

I think these stages of Asturias were great. Lagos de Covadonga stage was epic, no doubt about it. This stage in Gamoniteiro was good enough.

The problem was organizers should put a resting day between these two stages. It was obvious riders were too tired.
I think this Vuelta is being really hard but "hard" and "spectacular" are not always the same.

The stages were great but the riders are the ones who create this spectacle and we know Movistar's riders are not real fighters and they have had a lot of problems (ex: bike fallings).

Edward Bernal (in good shape from the beginning) and Tadej Pagaçar (if he had wanted to come to Vuelta and in good shape) had been good figthers for the race. The story had probably been different with them.

But Asturias is a magic place with a stunning landscape and full of extreme climbs and it has created most of the epic moments in Vuelta and these ones usually create more spectacle than the small ones. But riders write the story of the race. Put the blame on them.

By the way, in a circle of 10 kms around Pola de Lena you can find the beginning of Cordal/Angliru, Cobertoria/Gamoniteiro, Cubilla, Cuitu Negru, etc.

I don't actually think the lack of rest day was the problem. THe two guys who wanted to attack didn't have the team to make it super hard. That doesn't really change by adding a rest day. Sometimes you just have a GC situation where the guy that wants/needs to attack doesn't have the legs/team.

The problem with this Vuelta for me was most defintely the 2nd week not being hard enough for the GC riders.


Bahrain with the snailpacing tactic to make others team not go hard earlier, they knew Haig wouldn’t be able to match his closest opponents Lopez and Bernal.
[/QUOTE]
It was so obvious as well.

 

[topcat]

Mal needs to attack Mas for 2nd place (and attack a few spectators). He needs to make it look like he's attacking Roglic, get Roglic to follow and share the work and then Mal outsprints Roglic for the stage win, 2nd place and the combativity award. Tactics. Up here for thinking, down there for dancing.

Called it.

 

[Koronin]

One more thing to note about Movistar. They came into the race with two riders as climbing help in the high mountains for Mas and Lopez. Those two riders being Valverde and Verona. Both of those riders were out of la Vuelta as of yesterday. Mas and Lopez have no climbing help left.

 

[Breezy1985]

Lol, Bahrain was working for the team classification?

It's the cool thing to do now. Movi, BMV and Ineos are all at it

"In the future all teams will fight for their 5 minutes to win the team classification"

 

[Breezy1985]

One more thing to note about Movistar. They came into the race with two riders as climbing help in the high mountains for Mas and Lopez. Those two riders being Valverde and Verona. Both of those riders were out of la Vuelta as of yesterday. Mas and Lopez have no climbing help left.

Valverde never ever entered a race to help someone else.

 

[burning]

Valverde never ever entered a race to help someone else.

IIRC, the only time that he was exceptional as a helper was on the Formigal stage in 2016. He repeatedly attacked on false flat sections to drop Froome and Chaves' domestiques, and also did fake attacks on Formigal to disrupt the tempo of the chasing group.

 

[Koronin]

Valverde never ever entered a race to help someone else.

Except Mas literally said Valverde was a huge help to him in both GT's last year. He said without Valverde he doesn't finish in the top 5 in either of those races. Yes Valverde did want to get after a stage in this Vuelta.

 

[Lequack]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUrM9A8vu7Y

 

[perico]

Valverde has done a lot of work for Mas the last 2 years.

 

[Gigs_98]

There's been plenty of worse Vueltas that just get an inflated rep cause they were "close". In reality Roglic didn't have more than half a minute until he joined an attack at more than 60km to go in the third week. 2007-2011 were all worse from my memory.

I know people around here don't like "small gaps" as an argument for why a race was good but let's just say, I rather watch a stage with nothing happening and small gaps than a race with nothing happening and big gaps. 2011 had some horrendous racing, but then the fact that even a small split in the peloton could change the outcome of the entire race did keep me excited. Now 2011 was actually the first Vuelta I had ever watched so I can't say anything about the ones before that, but of those Vueltas I have seen this years has been clearly the worst for me.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I know people around here don't like "small gaps" as an argument for why a race was good but let's just say, I rather watch a stage with nothing happening and small gaps than a race with nothing happening and big gaps. 2011 had some horrendous racing, but then the fact that even a small split in the peloton could change the outcome of the entire race did keep me excited. Now 2011 was actually the first Vuelta I had ever watched so I can't say anything about the ones before that, but of those Vueltas I have seen this years has been clearly the worst for me.

Sure, the smaller time gaps mean each move is more significant, but that's often because the number of places where action takes place is reduced or compressed. And of course the other issue is that then reductio ad absurdum gives us a defence of the 2012 Giro, and ain't nobody got time for that.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Sure, the smaller time gaps mean each move is more significant, but that's often because the number of places where action takes place is reduced or compressed. And of course the other issue is that then reductio ad absurdum gives us a defence of the 2012 Giro, and ain't nobody got time for that.

Least of all poor Purito. 2012 was just not his year for heart warming’s.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Miguel Ángel López for taking the stage win.

Roglič was rather close to take another stage win but for me it's OK on how it unfolded. Both Kuss and Kruijswijk hanging on was really nice to see. At the very end Roglič controlling other favourites mano-a-mano style. Rightful owner of the maillot rojo so far for sure. I would say in the last two days other favourites proved they targeted Vuelta and did a good job. Theories on how they did not do that are hence in my opinion bogus. Contrary to some claims i feel that we have seen some good and hard racing at this years addition of the Vuelta. Three stages still to go and lets see what is still ahead!

 

[Oldermanish]

One more thing to note about Movistar. They came into the race with two riders as climbing help in the high mountains for Mas and Lopez. Those two riders being Valverde and Verona. Both of those riders were out of la Vuelta as of yesterday. Mas and Lopez have no climbing help left.

And Movistar has had the most collaborative and successful duo in some time. We may be seeing the opportunity for Valverde to gracefully transition out and allow Movistar to spend money on true support riders. It's overdue.
Also, I think today's stage was one of the best examples of all teams in the GC battle putting themselves out there to improve their position, rather than preserving their lesser podium or top ten placings. Great to watch hard efforts and strategy.

 

[Sciatic]

IIRC, the only time that he was exceptional as a helper was on the Formigal stage in 2016. He repeatedly attacked on false flat sections to drop Froome and Chaves' domestiques, and also did fake attacks on Formigal to disrupt the tempo of the chasing group.

That was indeed superbly done. Perhaps my favorite stage of all-time.

 

[Koronin]

And Movistar has had the most collaborative and successful duo in some time. We may be seeing the opportunity for Valverde to gracefully transition out and allow Movistar to spend money on true support riders. It's overdue.
Also, I think today's stage was one of the best examples of all teams in the GC battle putting themselves out there to improve their position, rather than preserving their lesser podium or top ten placings. Great to watch hard efforts and strategy.

I suspect he'll race one more year. I can't see him leaving this year after crashing out of la Vuelta. He's going to want to race it one more time to say good bye properly to his fans. I do think when Mas was brought in he saw someone he could be comfortable turning the leadership of the team over to. We did see the start of that last year. Maybe we'll see this even more next year with going to races where Mas and/or Lopez are the leaders. In this Vuelta Mas has proven he can lead the team and keep them together when Valverde had to abandon the race. Yes I do think Valverde will be comfortable leaving the team in Mas' hands once he's ready to stop racing. At this point it's going to come down to him being ready to leave.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Lol, Bahrain was working for the team classification?

Bahrain is the new Movistar

 

[RedheadDane]

More silly faces!