Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2024, stage 14: Villafranca del Bierzo - Villablino, 200.4k

[QueenStagiaire]

Benji dropping strange Belgian memes

https://twitter.com/x/status/1829897656807612528

View: https://twitter.com/BenjiNaesen/status/1829897656807612528

Don‘t think there are any monkey habitats in Belgium since they gave up the Congo.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Was Bittner just dead or did he have a mechanical? He couldn't open his sprint, and even Mas finished ahead of him in the end.

 

[JosefK]

Best possible outcome today--no crashes down the stretch.

 

[Potomac]

Groves now the favorite for Il Lombardia

 

[Libertine Seguros]

But it did look pretty

Let's go with this from PRC then, with the super steep Acebo, then the version of Leitariegos with 3km at 9% at the start before joining the last 30-35k of today's stage instead.

 

[AmRacer]

Groves now the favorite for Il Lombardia

Emilia

 

[Sciatic]

Van Aert was literally freewheeling on that last climb, not even breating, he was fit enough to go in the break with teammates.

Ok, but they would still have to control other riders in what would be a big break. You think his chances were 90-100% of winning then?
Wout could have attacked over the top the climb-that would have been an alternate scenario.

 

[Taxus4a]

Leitariegos is one of the mountains pass first closed in winter time for the snow, so it is quite amazing for an spanish like me a pure sprinter can win here, but in modern cycling I knows this things happens.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Wout is going to get his revenge against Groves in tomorrow's bunch sprint

 

[noob]

The weird thing is they did all go very fast :O

 

[Netserk]

If only Kuss would have pulled for Van Aert on the climb to drop the sprinters.

 

[yaco]

I suspect that if Groves was in the break he would not have won the stage. i further suspect that if Groves was in the break with VWA he would lose the stage.

 

[ice&fire]

Let's go with this from PRC then, with the super steep Acebo, then the version of Leitariegos with 3km at 9% at the start before joining the last 30-35k of today's stage instead.

I don't get why people is so mislead to think this pretended to be a mountain stage. This was an undercover flat stage.

 

[zlev11]

what a waste of a saturday stage

 

[SHAD0W93]

Here I was thinking PCS got hacked when I saw the top 3 but turns out it happened. What a stage…

 

[Samamba]

Ok, but they would still have to control other riders in what would be a big break. You think his chances were 90-100% of winning then?
Wout could have attacked over the top the climb-that would have been an alternate scenario.

It's never 100% but at least you don't sacrifice your whole team to just get beaten by the faster rider. But like you see it was nowhere near 100% the way they rode today. They overestimated the last climb and underestimated Groves here.

 

[Rob5091]

Chapeau Groves for the win and his teammates for hanging in there. WvA 2nd best but KOM & Green Jersey leader so not bad.

Once again people get mislead by the Vuelta's mountain categorys which have nothing to do with how hard they are.

 

[AmRacer]

It's never 100% but at least you don't sacrifice your whole team to just get beaten by the faster rider. But like you see it was nowhere near 100% the way they rode today. They overestimated the last climb and underestimated Groves here.

VLAB should've let the break have it.

 

[Tim Cahill]

What happened to Valter there, it felt like he was the 'drill the last few k to get rid of the sprinters' guy but he just hit the front a bit then was like nah.

 

[Valv.Piti]

What happened to Valter there, it felt like he was the 'drill the last few k to get rid of the sprinters' guy but he just hit the front a bit then was like nah.

He's just not very strong. Underperforming

 

[search]

It's never 100% but at least you don't sacrifice your whole team to just get beaten by the faster rider. But like you see it was nowhere near 100% the way they rode today. They overestimated the last climb and underestimated Groves here.

I guess everyone did, though? Groves himself still went on a totally pointless attack yesterday instead of saving himself for this stage.

 

[Lequack]

How is Kuss supposed to defend this Vuelta with all the team helping Wout?

 

[Valv.Piti]

How is Kuss supposed to defend this Vuelta with all the team helping Wout?

He can start with being able to follow the 10 best climbers in the race

Is this actually serious?

 

[Samamba]

I guess everyone did, though? Groves himself still went on a totally pointless attack yesterday instead of saving himself for this stage.

I doubt Groves even looked at todays profile in detail before this morning... It looks like a mountain stage but the last climb is just a fake climb.

 

[Sciatic]

VLAB should've let the break have it.

And what would they gain from that? They swept the podium here last year, they’re not likely to be content to just passively sit in the peloton like some teams. They had a card to play, they played it.