Vuelta speculation

[Valv.Piti]

Pete Kennaught must be absolutely furious. :lol: Glorious!

Cant wait for this race now.

 

[fauniera]

Re:

No Spilak despite the persistent rumours

Spilak in the Vuelta heat would be murder.

 

[Red Rick]

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

Orica: Bewley, Chaves, Cort, Haig, Juul Jensen, Tuft, Verona, A.Yates, S.Yates. No Plaza is a bit of a surprise considering his Giro and this very mountainous route, but Haig can step up. No Howson or Kreuz either.

I'd certainly prefer to see Plaza in this team ahead of Verona after his excellent Giro & stronger TT but there may be a backstory to this we do not know. Would probably have preferred Hepburn to Tuft.

Is there outside BMC QS and Orica a team that can win the TTT?

With three lightweight GC men in the team, Orica isn't even going to "be at the party" when it comes to the opening TTT; they will just be hoping to minimise the time loss. One less GC man and either Howson/Kreuziger in and Plaza in for Verona .... then they could've been contending

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

 

[bob.a.feet]

The two big favourites (Nibali and Froome) both have decent teams, but Sky is clearly stronger. Also Trek's team doesn't look too good for Contador but he can still do well regardless.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

There's three Vuelta winners at the start, Nibs, Berto and Aru. Alejandro and Nairo would make five, does that makes sense?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

There's three Vuelta winners at the start, Nibs, Berto and Aru. Alejandro and Nairo would make five, does that makes sense?

Whatever floats the boat. If both are in, it's 5 Vuelta champs, if only one of them is in, we count Froome and have 5 GT champs.

 

[May0maniac]

Astana also have some serious climbing firepower:
BILBAO Pello
CHERNETCKII Sergei
STALNOV Nikita
SANCHEZ Luis Leon
HANSEN Jesper
LUTSENKO Alexey
DE VREESE Laurens
ARU Fabio
LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re:

Astana also have some serious climbing firepower:
BILBAO Pello
CHERNETCKII Sergei
STALNOV Nikita
SANCHEZ Luis Leon
HANSEN Jesper
LUTSENKO Alexey
DE VREESE Laurens
ARU Fabio
LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel

With this team Aru could win it. But who knows, maybe Lopez will be the surprise of the Vuelta

 

[Ikbengodniet]

FDJ

FOURNIER Marc
MANZIN Lorrenzo
COURTEILLE Arnaud
HOELGAARD Daniel
ROUX Anthony
LE BON Johan
EIKING Odd Christian
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
MAISON Jérémy

Why is Reichenbach not there?

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

FDJ

FOURNIER Marc
MANZIN Lorrenzo
COURTEILLE Arnaud
HOELGAARD Daniel
ROUX Anthony
LE BON Johan
EIKING Odd Christian
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
MAISON Jérémy

Why is Reichenbach not there?

Out of form after a virus contracted during Tour de Suisse.

With that team, they'll hope for a miracle sprint victory with either Manzin/Hoelgaard, or an uphill sprint with Roux.

 

[Forever The Best]

I hope I can see the 3 declining stars having a great form and battling between themselves for the win one last time. (Contador, Nibali, Froome (Yes, Froome is declining as well, though not as much as Nibali and Contador so I still think he is the favourite for this Vuelta and TDF next year (especially with the long TTT))

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

So we should probably call it the battle of the five armies since nobody knows what's the fifth army :lol:

 

[sir fly]

Difficult race to predict the outcome.
Froome is the main favourite, off course, and that's all I'm certain of.
Everybody else could or could not be in the mix, depending on their form and goals.
Should be an exciting race, as always is.

 

[Lequack]

Top 30 GC contenders, according to PCS:

 

[wansteadimp]

Re:

FDJ

FOURNIER Marc
MANZIN Lorrenzo
COURTEILLE Arnaud
HOELGAARD Daniel
ROUX Anthony
LE BON Johan
EIKING Odd Christian
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
MAISON Jérémy

Why is Reichenbach not there?

Chained up in Kirby's basement

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

If only they invited W52 last minute, just to spice things up.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

Aru is no king...

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Top 30 GC contenders, according to PCS:

You mean according to LaFlo ?

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Shame that Valverde or Quintana isn't there, then we could've called it "The War of the Five Kings"

Who would have been the 5th if one of them were present, Aru?

Aru is no king...

He has been crowned "King of the Vuelta" once.

 

[Nirvana]

They added the terrible "Alto de Nimes" in the TTT.
I think that when the Tour years ago put a KOM on a bridge was harder than this

 

[Breh]

Pont Saint Nazaire has its top at 66meters above sealevel. Rewarding it with 1 KOM point is just marketing, just like it is with Alto de Nîmes.

I don't mind.

 

[Alexandre B.]

AG2R

Romain Bardet
Clément Chevrier
Nico Denz
Axel Domont
Julien Duval
Alexandre Geniez
Alexis Gougeard
Hugo Houle
Domenico Pozzovivo

Pozzovivo to be GC contending, Bardet to do whatever he feels, others will chase stages and/or be on domestic duties.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

They added the terrible "Alto de Nimes" in the TTT.
I think that when the Tour years ago put a KOM on a bridge was harder than this

Wasn't it the Vuelta that started in the Netherlands and just literally put a white line on a piece of flat road just so the KOM could have a first leader?