Vuelta a Espana 2011 Stage 6: Úbeda - Córdoba 196,8 km

[Climbing]

If they weren't really interested in the stage win, they should have made it simple: gift the victory to Lastras and have Nibali get 2nd for 12 sec bonus.

They needed to define what was the ultimate goal as they were approaching the finish.

4 teammates in the break of 5 and not getting the stage win? that would be foolish.
Just a little mistake from Agnoli, nothing dramatic... this Vuelta has Nibbles written all over it, with Anton out and Menchov and and Wiggins far back, only Rodriguez and Scarpa could challenge Vincenzo.
Of course there are some though stages where someone can falter, but I feel he's the clear favorite.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

I think Nibali has almost wrapped up the GC already, or at least he is looking very solid. He can afford to lose a lot of time to Rodriguez in the mountains and still overcome him in the TT. Also someone like Wiggins is already so far behind that he cannot possibly overtake Nibali in the GC, since he will get max 2 minutes on Nibali in the TT (right now that would put Wiggins only 1 minute ahead, which Nibali will take back on Angliru easily).

I think it's way to soon to make such a judgement. The time gaps are not very big yet (only some 40 seconds on van den Broek for example) and Nibali might be a great guy, but he's not a dominant rider.

 

[Descender]

There, happy? I'm not Find me a better if you can, had to edit it to make the size and luckily doesn't show much of Kittel

No problem, I like the not much of Kittel part.

 

[just some guy]

Race bike takes out Mathias Frank - he kept going but still............

Frank crashed after 70 kilometers when an official motorbike couldn't make a sharp right turn. "I went down on my hip and elbow and it hurt pretty bad at the beginning, but as I kept riding

 

[Fergoose]

I don't have time to read through everything so apologies if this is repetition - feel free to disregard it. But it looked like Nibali was clear with one other inside 1k and that they'd dropped Lastras. They then appeared to sit up Sagan (7) and whoever number 8 is. If so that was... well, daft and has denied Nibali a further 20 seconds. It would explain why Nibali seemed more concerned about talking to his teammates at the end rather than celebrating.

I've not see the comments here calling Nibali ultra defensive so I'm not knocking anyone. But the man plays to his strengths and that doesn't include bold solo attacks going uphill. It doesn't make him defensive though, as a stage like this shows.

I hope Wiggins suddenly going to the back at the summit of the last climb was due to a mechanical. Bad timing.

 

[LaFleur]

I don't have time to read through everything so apologies if this is repetition - feel free to disregard it. But it looked like Nibali was clear with one other inside 1k and that they'd dropped Lastras. They then appeared to sit up Sagan (7) and whoever number 8 is. If so that was... well, daft and has denied Nibali a further 20 seconds. It would explain why Nibali seemed more concerned about talking to his teammates at the end rather than celebrating.

I've not see the comments here calling Nibali ultra defensive so I'm not knocking anyone. But the man plays to his strengths and that doesn't include bold solo attacks going uphill. It doesn't make him defensive though, as a stage like this shows.

I hope Wiggins suddenly going to the back at the summit of the last climb was due to a mechanical. Bad timing.

Taaramae blogged today that he is seeing Wiggins in the back very often after his TdF crash. He was with Taaramae in the back of the group in the start of the climb if I understood correctly.

 

[Fergoose]

Taaramae blogged today that he is seeing Wiggins in the back very often after his TdF crash. He was with Taaramae in the back of the group in the start of the climb if I understood correctly.

Hmm, well Wiggins was right up the front about a third of the way up the climb and looking in no difficulty. I really must find this Taaramae blog. Good of him to spend the time doing that.

 

[roundabout]

I think Liquigas deliberately left the gap for Lastras to close but he was strong enough to do it and have enough left to spoil the gameplan in the sprint.

Wiggins seemed to be toward the back of the group near the end of the climb unless I have mistaken him for some other rider in a white jersey and black shorts.

 

[Frosty]

Taaramae blogged today that he is seeing Wiggins in the back very often after his TdF crash. He was with Taaramae in the back of the group in the start of the climb if I understood correctly.

Yeah the translation i have in google chrome isnt great but it suggests that Wiggins is doing a Moncoutie?

http://www.rattaprofid.ee/?id=1587&author_id=43

Team sky review of the day doesnt mention Wiggins having a mechanical at all. Maybe he just doesnt want to end up in any tangles at the front

http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,22762_7124253,00.html

 

[Frosty]

I think Liquigas deliberately left the gap for Lastras to close but he was strong enough to do it and have enough left to spoil the gameplan in the sprint.

Wiggins seemed to be toward the back of the group near the end of the climb unless I have mistaken him for some other rider in a white jersey and black shorts.

Yeah i think the idea was to try and drop Lastras or force him to sprint to close the gap and hopefully drain his sprint.

ITV4 guy called Wiggins at the back with another sky guy.

 

[The Hitch]

No bonus for Nibali....hmm.

Stupid Agnoli.

Doesnt turn out so bad for Nibali. Moreno is 1 second ahead so if they finish together on 8 Nibali Liqui dont have to defend on 9 (though obviously Moreno isnt staying with him on tt)

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Wiggins was at the front near the top of the climb (just behind Seeldrayers when he and De La Fuente attacked) but, yes, clearly near the back of the line a few kms down the descent

 

[Fergoose]

Thanks for the links (I couldn't find the Rein Blogg).

"(VGA comic because other teams will defend their leader in front of bunch, just severely kukkund Wiggins is on tour moncutie style taken over)"

I have no idea what he is driving at there. Wiggins going after the King of the Mountains? An earlier post is inadvertantly hilarious when translated

A very tough day out, uh! Waking in the morning was better to beat a Nazi

But I'll bet his English is better than my Russian (or Estonian?).

A very bad sign for Wiggins if there was no mechanical. If he was strong enough he would have been at the front. We saw today the not entirely unpredictable results of not being at the front and it already happened to Menchov earlier on in the race - so it would be something Sky would be looking out for surely? I was expecting Wiggins to have a shot at leaders jersey at the Time Trial and then fade into relative obscurity after that (maybe 10th to 15th overall). If he struggled on that climb (which is easily done in the heat and you are not a climber), I think he's no chance of a top 20.

As for Lastras, all they had to do was keep Sagan on his wheel and then he was a complete non-factor. That'd leave Nibali free to get the victory. Four against one - I still think that was executed very poorly.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Also looking back at the tv pics, it's noticeable how much Tony Martin was doing on the front of the Chavanel / Rodriguez group to try and close the gap on the Liquigas riders. Has he got a team for next season yet ?

 

[LaFleur]

Thanks for the links (I couldn't find the Rein Blogg).



I have no idea what he is driving at there. Wiggins going after the King of the Mountains? An earlier post is inadvertantly hilarious when translated



But I'll bet his English is better than my Russian (or Estonian?).

A very bad sign for Wiggins if there was no mechanical. If he was strong enough he would have been at the front. We saw today the not entirely unpredictable results of not being at the front and it already happened to Menchov earlier on in the race - so it would be something Sky would be looking out for surely? I was expecting Wiggins to have a shot at leaders jersey at the Time Trial and then fade into relative obscurity after that (maybe 10th to 15th overall). If he struggled on that climb (which is easily done in the heat and you are not a climber), I think he's no chance of a top 20.

As for Lastras, all they had to do was keep Sagan on his wheel and then he was a complete non-factor. That'd leave Nibali free to get the victory. Four against one - I still think that was executed very poorly.

About the first sentence, he made a few spelling mistakes there, that's why it's wierd , here's the correct translation(i'll start from a little before cause it wouldn't make much sense.): About 10km before the climb we were on a quiet but a tricky road, where the group sprung long. But Moncoutie doesn't like to ride on the front, so I had to protect my leader in the back (It's very funny because other teams protect their leaders in the front with the exception of Wiggins, who has taken the style of Moncoutie because of his hard crash in the TdF)

The 2nd one (He kinda used a slang word in that one): A very hard day is over: uh! My pulse was a little bit better when I woke up.

Ask me when you read it and can't quite understand it

 

[roundabout]

I watched the video again and Wiggins looked good on the climb.

Scroll to about 01:26:15 in this video and tell me the rider 3rd from last isn't Wiggins though.

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/...spana-6-etapa-ubeda-cordoba-25-08-11/1182356/

Or at 01:27:50

 

[Bavarianrider]

Nice ride by Tony today. He prooved that he can actually climb. Certainly some sort of a small redemption.

 

[Frosty]

Thanks for the links (I couldn't find the Rein Blogg).



I have no idea what he is driving at there. Wiggins going after the King of the Mountains? An earlier post is inadvertantly hilarious when translated



But I'll bet his English is better than my Russian (or Estonian?).

No idea what kukkund means. The first link on the internet was this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7bW5O9Wfok

I think we can safely say that Wiggins wasnt doing that during the race today

 

[hrotha]

Nice ride by Tony today. He prooved that he can actually climb. Certainly some sort of a small redemption.

He proved he can climb at the level of De la Fuente.

 

[cineteq]

This the highlight of today's stage, when Liquigas starts the TTT towards the finish @ 1:35:00

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/...spana-6-etapa-ubeda-cordoba-25-08-11/1182356/

 

[LaFleur]

No idea what kukkund means. The first link on the internet was this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7bW5O9Wfok

I think we can safely say that Wiggins wasnt doing that during the race today

Haha, nice one. Under 18 year olds, please do not try to google translate the first word of the youtube video name!!! Anyway kukkund is kind of a short word for kukkunud, we leave the letter "u" out from "nud", and kukkunud means fallen.

 

[The Hitch]

The obligatory "He everybody, i was right, look how clever i am"

Peter Sagan.

 

[Frosty]

I watched the video again and Wiggins looked good on the climb.

Scroll to about 01:26:15 in this video and tell me the rider 3rd from last isn't Wiggins though.

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/...spana-6-etapa-ubeda-cordoba-25-08-11/1182356/

Or at 01:27:50

Yeah just before Martin attacked he was in about fifth place. Then he seemed to take a drinks bottle from a soigneur and lose a few places.

At 1:24:00 the commentators are talking to someone on the course who is talking about Wiggins. Anyone got any idea what he is saying? Suppose if he is climbing well then it doesnt matter for the big picture.

 

[LaFleur]

Kangert just released his blog in that site aswell: "About 10km before the final climb the pace quickly jumped to very quick and the group strung up and then Kiserlovski told me that "this must be Cancellara pulling there". Then I thought that it couldn't be possible that one man could do this."

 

[hrotha]

Kangert just released his blog in that site aswell: "About 10km before the final climb the pace quickly jumped to very quick and the group strung up and then Kiserlovski told me that "this must be Cancellara pulling there". Then I thought that it couldn't be possible that one man could do this."

Heh, Kangert hasn't been in many races with Cancellara before, has he.