Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2022, stage 15: Martos - Sierra Nevada. Alto Hoya de la Mora. Monachil, 152.6k

[staubsauger]

Tao Geoghegan Hart fully exploded after closing the gap for Rodriguez and trying to come back himself.

22 minutes time loss!

 

[YavorD]

DSM to lose Arensman next

They already did.

I wonder will Ayuso and Pogacar get on if they're in the same GT. Could be the best 1-2 punch ever or could be Contador/Lance cold war 2.0

Let's wait and see how Ayuso develops, shall we? He may never do the last step.
My point: Contador has won all the GT's back then, Lance was Lance.
Ayuso looks damn impressive for a not even a 20, but not exactly like Pog being 20, so he's yet to prove he can be at that level.[/QUOTE]

 

[Jagartrott]

LOL. You got that right, the fight for the top 10 has been brutal!!!!
Aresman, Meintjes, O'connor, Uran, Hindley, Polanc, Kelderman.
It doesn't get more Ninja than these riders. Zubeldia would be proud of this race.

Meintjes and Arensman both won a stage in this Vuelta though, so that's pretty poor Ninja-ing.

 

[BR2]

In my opinion it was absolutely Mas' duty to ride and pull today, as he is quite likely to be the winner of this Vuelta if something happens to Evenepoel. Lopez couldn't ride for the stage win or the podium today, so in my opinion he had less responsibility today. But I admit, I will just never become a Mas fan anymore.

 

[YavorD]

I'm disappointed by the stage. I expected more, at least some meaningful gaps. Lopez and Mas attacked 7-8km away and all they took was 35 seconds. The only one who imploded was Rodriguez.

I don't blame the riders though, they rode the best they could, but having glorified false flat for the last 15km didn't helpg

Thanks god for JV making it funny What was the point of having 2 riders in the break and 5 at the beginning of Hazallanas when Roglic was alone within 500 metres?
Like, were Oomen and Dennis weaker than Vervaeke or they waited early? You don't need riders on Hazallanas, having them for the grinder is much more important.

 

[Big Doopie]

don't understand ineos going after arensman.

another similar rider with similar attributes to all their other top ten (but no podium) candidates.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So Mas is the wheelsucker who attacks and almost took second place in gc and Roglic is tactically perfect to sit on Remco's wheel till very late to gain 15 seconds or so? I am confused, really.

Yes of course, logic definitely isn't this forum's friend at times.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm disappointed by the stage. I expected more, at least some meaningful gaps. Lopez and Mas attacked 7-8km away and all they took was 35 seconds. The only one who imploded was Rodriguez.

I don't blame the riders though, they rode the best they could, but having glorified false flat for the last 15km didn't helpg

Thanks god for JV making it funny What was the point of having 2 riders in the break and 5 at the beginning of Hazallanas when Roglic was alone within 500 metres?
Like, were Oomen and Dennis weaker than Vervaeke or they waited early? You don't need riders on Hazallanas, having them for the grinder is much more important.

I too had hoped for more from today, and for Mas and MAL the change to the main road was pretty terrible.

 

[YavorD]

I too had hoped for more from today, and for Mas and MAL the change to the main road was pretty terrible.

I think I'm applying for your whiners club..

Mas and MAL tried. There's so much you can do with that profile. Astana 2015 could kill that stage even after the change.

 

[Red Rick]

I think I'm applying for your whiners club..

Mas and MAL tried. There's so much you can do with that profile. Astana 2015 could kill that stage even after the change.

I'm not gonna lie AG2R closing that gap was disgusting.

 

[YavorD]

I'm not gonna lie AG2R closing that gap was disgusting.

O'Connor was good. They probably hoped for a stage win and he could've been close. We've seen far worse, meaningless and laughable chases by some other teams.
It was...strange but O'Connor finishing with Roglic kinda justified it.

 

[Ari]

At the time Almeida joined Ayuso and Rodriguez, they were taking time for remco group. So Almeida was the fastest from the favourites by far, at that time.
I wonder if his positioning was better most of the Times he has to recover, where he Will be now?

 

[carolina]

When Contador was showing the climb and spoke about the importance of the positioning when entering the climb, the first thing that crossed my mind was "Almeida is going to screw this up"... and oh boy, did he...

Incredibly strong today, but did a tone of work alone, wasting a lot of energy. I think he could have gone with Mas/Superman.

 

[Riek s]

At the time Almeida joined Ayuso and Rodriguez, they were taking time for remco group. So Almeida was the fastest from the favourites by far, at that time.
I wonder if his positioning was better most of the Times he has to recover, where he Will be now?

in the same place he is now.

 

[Bolder]

Arensman looks like a quality rider, Ineos at worst have themselves another a very good mountain dom. (But they said the same thing about Sosa and De Plus, I'm sure...). Is he a future GT winner? No way to tell...

JV indeed have a terrible team around Roglic at this point, but you could say the same about QS and Remco. Remco bounced back well; Roglic not able to sustain 2 hard days at his best level at this point. Mas doing Mas things and Ayuso hanging tough for a kid.

Overall, kind of a meh stage given the initial chaos outside of Guejar Sierra.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Roglic wheelsucking his way up the climb just to attack in the final 2k and taking 15s.
Awww, give the big boy some candy. What a champ.

 

[Red Rick]

When Contador was showing the climb and spoke about the importance of the positioning when entering the climb, the first thing that crossed my mind was "Almeida is going to screw this up"... and oh boy, did he...

Incredibly strong today, but did a tone of work alone, wasting a lot of energy. I think he could have gone with Mas/Superman.

That's how Contador gapped Froome in 2015 Ruta del Sol. Gaps were insane that day on a 23 minute climb.

 

[staubsauger]

That's how Contador gapped Froome in 2015 Ruta del Sol. Gaps were insane that day on a 23 minute climb.

Yep, Basso excellently cornered him into the ascend that day.

Maybe that's what Oomen had in mind in fact!

 

[Phillip O'Garner]

don't understand ineos going after arensman.

another similar rider with similar attributes to all their other top ten (but no podium) candidates.

Ineos should forget about Vuelta stage winners in favour of who precisely? Seriously, who do you think they should sign?

 

[groogster]

in the same place he is now.

Those watts he spends closing gaps by not being well positioned at crucial moments of stages cost him a few seconds at the end, like on today's stage, where he lost 15 seconds to Ayuso in what? 500 meters? Where could he be if not, probably around the same time as Mal and Rodriguez but just that tiny bit better.

 

[Fergoose]

Jumbo's attack at the foot of the climb was the right thing to do but seemed messy and not sustained enough, then Roglic didn't have the legs. If Mas had ambitions of the overall he had to have a dig on the lower slopes.

That said I cant remember ever seeing a stag with so many successful attacks by climbers against diesels on mild gradients. Everything seemed a bit backwards.

 

[Riek s]

Those watts he spends closing gaps by not being well positioned at crucial moments of stages cost him a few seconds at the end, like on today's stage, where he lost 15 seconds to Ayuso in what? 500 meters? Where could he be if not, probably around the same time as Mal and Rodriguez but just that tiny bit better.

You make a few assumptions here:
1) him dropping on those climbs early is due to bad positionning.
But he is being dropped before the favorites attack. Almeida has a very good base speed, but his 'boost' speed seems to be severly lacking. I don't think he can handle the speeds on the start of the climb.
2) assuming his steady pace performance wouldn't be affected when he follows the others on those boost speeds. But the reason why they go slower is due to those boost speeds already sapping some of the power, which he doesn't have in those yoyo games.


I'm not sure if he does it deliberatly, chosing his own pace because he thinks it is more efficient for him or if it is because he lacks the part to go above a certain treshold. I think he lost time on ayuso because he needed to pull ayuso on those lesser sections as this allows Ayuso to hop over Rodriguez. (Same way how Roglic took 15seconds on Remco).

Also the gap to lopez is 1m36, besides the TT where he stupidly lost 20seconds or more, i don't see any other place where he could have done better with his current way of riding.

 

[Big Doopie]

Ineos should forget about Vuelta stage winners in favour of who precisely? Seriously, who do you think they should sign?

it’s all the same type of rider tho. Rodriguez, Tao, Sivakov and now Arensman. They could literally go 6-9 in any GC and no one would be surprised.

At least it ensures no return to the Ineos train as they are nowhere near having the rider to launch at the end.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Roglic wheelsucking his way up the climb just to attack in the final 2k and taking 15s.
Awww, give the big boy some candy. What a champ.

I wish Roglic had attacked earlier, certainly. But Roglic did set the pace for several kms on the lower slopes.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Ineos should forget about Vuelta stage winners in favour of who precisely? Seriously, who do you think they should sign?

Exactly, there are only so many likely GT winners or serious Tour contenders in the peloton. When they aren’t on the market, all a team can do is sign the kind of riders who are possible GT winners if they improve in certain reasonably attainable ways if they develop as hoped.

Last year Bora had Sagan’s salary to spend but no top GT contender on the market, so they signed a bucket load of guys who might develop into GT contenders. It worked for them. There are no guarantees it works for anyone else, but what are the other options? At least these sort of riders will be useful to have, as superdoms or one week racers or stage hunters even if they don’t ever reach the very top,