Vuelta a Espana Stage 9: Villacastín - Sierra de Bejar. La Covatilla 183,0 km

[Parrulo]

How can you watch cycling regularly and not recognize Bauke Mollema? He has a funny sounding name and a funny looking nose. He stands out.

and a funny looking riding style. Portuguese eurosport guys love him lol not just for this years vuelta, they have been hyping him for over a year

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Didn´t see the stage, but it mustn´t have been that selective if a second-tier rider like Mollema is in the red.

TT will be exciting.

Not selective but enough to drop Rodriguez and Scarponi and put serious time into them.

Yawn.

 

[icefire]

and a funny looking riding style. Portuguese eurosport guys love him lol not just for this years vuelta, they have been hyping him for over a year

They must have been lurking around here

 

[killswitch]

Nibali is absolutely still the favourite. There are three MTFs and one significant uphill finish left in the race. Wiggins was great today but remember his great Tour in '09, he was right with the best on the first few mountain stages and started to fade in the second and third weeks. I think he will have a bad day on one or both of stage 14 (multiple hard climbs in succession) and stage 15 (insane gradients).

Nibali has a much better pedigree of putting on a sustained climbing performance over a grand tour.

There is only Pena Cabarga in the last 7 days.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Didn´t see the stage

You should just have stopped right there.

 

[Moondance]

Didn´t see the stage, but it mustn´t have been that selective if a second-tier rider like Mollema is in the red.

TT will be exciting.

O ye of little faith

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

still I'd back nibbles to take 30 seconds from wiggo in the rest of the vuelta.

Well 30 seconds will probably not be enough if the TT goes normal. Because if it does Wiggins will take two or two and a half minutes out of Nibali.

 

[Mellow Velo]

You should just have stopped right there.

Nailed.

How much more has Wiggin's taken out of himself going from the front, than Nibali et al, struggling and eventually failing to keep up?

I'd say nothing. He'll be in red tomorrow. I just don't see Nibali staying with 50 seconds of him, or Swansong at just 23 seconds.

 

[thehog]

You should just have stopped right there.

Very good !

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Nailed.

How much more has Wiggin's taken out of himself going from the front, than Nibali et al, struggling and eventually failing to keep up?

I'd say nothing. He'll be in red tomorrow. I just don't see Nibali staying with 50 seconds of him, or Swansong at just 23 seconds.

Precisely, and natural TTers will make more of a bad situation anyway. Jrod is going to be demoralised, drained, and he was up against it without that.

 

[movingtarget]

ears also..

TGBM sounds like a troll........ears, nose, riding style..........obviously none of this has slowed him down !

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Nailed.

How much more has Wiggin's taken out of himself going from the front, than Nibali et al, struggling and eventually failing to keep up?

I'd say nothing. He'll be in red tomorrow. I just don't see Nibali staying with 50 seconds of him, or Swansong at just 23 seconds.

probably very true. i'd expect wiggo to have a min lead or more after this.

 

[just some guy]

probably very true. i'd expect wiggo to have a min lead or more after this.

45 seconds i recon

with Nibbles and birdsong about the same time after tomorrow

 

[movingtarget]

probably very true. i'd expect wiggo to have a min lead or more after this.

If he does that could be enough to win the race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm going to assume the guys who got dropped and were fighting for every second will have lost more from their legs today than the guy controlling the pace.

Also, in a situation where everyone is tired, with no rest day to recover in pre TT, I'll always back the bigger, natural TTers to keep it all together far better than the riders desperately trying to thrash out something respectable. I would expect the gap between an exhausted Wiggins and an exhausted Jrod to be even wider than if they were both fresh.

As I said, I will still back him to out-TT all the other GC contenders, but I'm just not sure that he'll take the 2 minutes on Nibali required for the poster's assertion that he'll be in red with a lead of a minute going into the rest day. I think he'll beat Nibali, maybe stick more than a minute into him, but I'm not convinced he'll do it by 1'51" or more.

He may well do - but I would be surprised and slightly disappointed with Nibbles' performance if he did.

 

[hrotha]

If he does that could be enough to win the race.

Only if he remains among the 2 or 3 best climbers for the rest of the race. One minute is nothing compared to what's coming.

 

[cycladianpirate]

It might be worth noting that, without the effects of the TTT, the gap between Wiggins and Nibbles would only be 13s. On the whole I think Wiggins (with no small help from Froome) has done rather well and deserves to be second favourite in the betting.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

If he does that could be enough to win the race.

possibly could also make for a great race.

 

[Poursuivant]

Chuffed to see Wiggins climbing so well. I thought he would lost time to Nibali, Scarponi, Rodriguez etc, so to see him actually making time was superb. Froome again, exceptional. The good thing about Wiggins is, he never panics when their is an attack, he just rides his own tempo. To be honest I think he needed that, because the TT was not going to be enough. He has a great chance now of a podium, at the very least.

 

[Frosty]

My impression of Rodriguez from the Tour 2010 and Giro 2011 is that he does better as a grand tour goes on. Therefore today's performance was perhaps not as bad as it may seem, especially with the effect of the wind in the last few kilometres. However, it does make me wonder why katusha were working quite hard to bring back the break? Suggests they thought he stood a good chance.

 

[cineteq]

45 seconds i recon

with Nibbles and birdsong about the same time after tomorrow

30 sec. or less I reckon. Don't forget Monfort, he'll be in the mix too.

 

[killswitch]

My impression of Rodriguez from the Tour 2010 and Giro 2011 is that he does better as a grand tour goes on. Therefore today's performance was perhaps not as bad as it may seem, especially with the effect of the wind in the last few kilometres. However, it does make me wonder why katusha were working quite hard to bring back the break? Suggests they thought he stood a good chance.

Euskaltel were also working... Leopard too.

 

[Parrulo]

Chuffed to see Wiggins climbing so well. I thought he would lost time to Nibali, Scarponi, Rodriguez etc, so to see him actually making time was superb. Froome again, exceptional. The good thing about Wiggins is, he never panics when their is an attack, he just rides his own tempo. To be honest I think he needed that, because the TT was not going to be enough. He has a great chance now of a podium, at the very least.

the thing is: on the angliru keeping a steady pace is impossible. will wiggins be able to deal with that?

 

[will10]

Struggling to see how some have come to the conclusion that because Wiggins did all the work he'll be more tired than everyone else - hello? Nibali was f8cked! and those that got dropped, they're going to be less tired are they, how does that one work??

 

[icefire]

Struggling to see how some have come to the conclusion that because Wiggins did all the work he'll be more tired than everyone else - hello? Nibali was f8cked! and those that got dropped, they're going to be less tired are they, how does that one work??

Did you see Rodríguez yesterday?