Vuelta Stage 15: Alcalá la Real - Sierra Nevada (129.4 km)

[Arredondo]

Re:

Great stuff from Lopez. I think Froome was vulnerable today; he leant on Poels until the final 200m, normally he'd have gone with Zakarin - especially with a rest day tomorrow. Unfortunately only Lopez had the balls and legs to take advantage of the weakness.

Lopez is a big threat now to Nibali I think. Could easily take another few minutes on Angliru and Machucos on this form.

Froome indeed was vulnerable. But the opposition was even weaker.

Aru is tired after the Tour
Chavito is not at the same level as last year
Nibali tried, but didn't have the legs at the end
Kelderman is a negative rider who only follows

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Great stuff from Lopez. I think Froome was vulnerable today; he leant on Poels until the final 200m, normally he'd have gone with Zakarin - especially with a rest day tomorrow. Unfortunately only Lopez had the balls and legs to take advantage of the weakness.

Lopez is a big threat now to Nibali I think. Could easily take another few minutes on Angliru and Machucos on this form.

Contador tried as well. He just didn't have the legs.

True - that's kind of what I meant. Lopez was the only one with the balls and the legs to take advantage. I bet there could be a couple of guys who finished in that main group wishing they had gone with the Contador/Lopez move. With someone like Zakarin or Kelderman working as well Froome could have been losing well over a minute.

 

[skippo12]

Interesting to see that today they gave 2s time gaps but yesterday they didn`t.

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Froome without sky, wouldn't have half of his palmares

On the contrary, Froome would arguably have an extra Tour and two extra Vueltas if it wasn't for Sky

Maybe he would have lost the 2015 tour without SKY though. It's not that simple

The Sky system would replace Froome with someone else that would beat the world with that team. Froome would not be invincible at say Trek or Cannondale, but he's still amazing.

 

[movingtarget]

Monster ride by Lopez and nice gain by Zakarin. Brave effort by Yates. I thought Nibali might have gone after Zakarin. Froome doing enough to keep it under control.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Does Lopez have a reasonable TT?

Think he's a bit of an unknown quantity, he's barely done a flat TT of any length since joining Astana. But he's clearly the freshest and strongest of the GC guys right now, which will help a lot.

"A strong time trial in the penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse has given Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) overall victory in the nine-stage WorldTour race.

Lopez went into the stage 8 individual time trial in second overall, 21 seconds behind leader Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), before posting the second fastest time of the day. Ion Izagirre (Movistar) clinched the stage, completing the hilly 16.8km effort in 21:31 (46.8km/h average) while Lopez was 18 seconds behind."
Not flat but still...

Well yeah, he did a decent hilly TT in Euskadi as well I remember. Of course he's going to be fairly competent on hilly or mountainous terrain. But am struggling to think of anything notable on a flat course; he's an unknown quantity. Will be interesting to see what he can do.

 

[HelloDolly]

Froome looks knackered ....Lopez looks cool

 

[hazaran]

Re: Re:

True - that's kind of what I meant. Lopez was the only one with the balls and the legs to take advantage. I bet there could be a couple of guys who finished in that main group wishing they had gone with the Contador/Lopez move. With someone like Zakarin or Kelderman working as well Froome could have been losing well over a minute.

:lol: Jesus man you've been spamming all over the forum how Froome is weak, how he is bluffing, now he again extends his GC lead and here you are back to the same old story. It's getting soo old.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Zakarin gets stronger as races progress. He can TT well. If he can stay upright (and that's a big if), he's a wildcard.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Vuelta Stage 15: Alcalá la Real - Sierra Nevada (129.4 k

What a bummer !

Not to take anything away from Lopez (Chapeau!), but I feel very sorry for Yates, and very very sorry for Contador.

Man... .

 

[bob.a.feet]

Chaves very disappointing after a good first week

 

[IndianCyclist]

Lopez attacks are possibly the closest to Pantani

 

[TMP402]

So after Froome's weekend in hell the net effect was he gained 2" on Nibali.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

Zakarin gets stronger as races progress. He can TT well. If he can stay upright (and that's a big if), he's a wildcard.

He is a wheelsucker. He will be happy with third place

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

So after Froome's weekend in hell the net effect was he gained 2" on Nibali.

He will be scarred for life..............

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

True - that's kind of what I meant. Lopez was the only one with the balls and the legs to take advantage. I bet there could be a couple of guys who finished in that main group wishing they had gone with the Contador/Lopez move. With someone like Zakarin or Kelderman working as well Froome could have been losing well over a minute.

:lol: Jesus man you've been spamming all over the forum how Froome is weak, how he is bluffing, now he again extends his GC lead and here you are back to the same old story. It's getting soo old.

He was clearly a lot weaker today than he was at the start of the race. He leant on his team the whole way today, and got comfortably outsprinted for bonus seconds. Plus he let a dangerous climber gain a minute on him.

He's probably got enough of an advantage to hold them off in the last week, but that's all he's doing now. He's leaning more and more on his team and trying to limit losses (good luck doing that on Angliru or Machucos) - not showboating and attacking like he was earlier in the race.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Lopez in this Vuelta reminds me of Quintana in 2013 Tour

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Zakarin gets stronger as races progress. He can TT well. If he can stay upright (and that's a big if), he's a wildcard.

He is a wheelsucker. He will be happy with third place

Seems he was the only GC rider to come out from wheels to attack in the last couple K's..

 

[Laplaz]

How much time can Lopez gain on Froome on Angliru? I would say 2 minutes.

 

[hazaran]

Re: Re:

He was clearly a lot weaker today than he was at the start of the race. He leant on his team the whole way today, and got comfortably outsprinted for bonus seconds. Plus he let a dangerous climber gain a minute on him.

He's probably got enough of an advantage to hold them off in the last week, but that's all he's doing now. He's leaning more and more on his team and trying to limit losses (good luck doing that on Angliru or Machucos) - not showboating and attacking like he was earlier in the race.

What losses? Better look up the results sheet.

 

[spalco]

Re: Re:

Does Lopez have a reasonable TT?

He was great at Swiss last year..

He's the real deal then. Amazing uphill attack, and he can sustain it. Really impressive.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

True - that's kind of what I meant. Lopez was the only one with the balls and the legs to take advantage. I bet there could be a couple of guys who finished in that main group wishing they had gone with the Contador/Lopez move. With someone like Zakarin or Kelderman working as well Froome could have been losing well over a minute.

:lol: Jesus man you've been spamming all over the forum how Froome is weak, how he is bluffing, now he again extends his GC lead and here you are back to the same old story. It's getting soo old.

He was clearly a lot weaker today than he was at the start of the race. He leant on his team the whole way today, and got comfortably outsprinted for bonus seconds. Plus he let a dangerous climber gain a minute on him.

He's probably got enough of an advantage to hold them off in the last week, but that's all he's doing now. He's leaning more and more on his team and trying to limit losses (good luck doing that on Angliru or Machucos) - not showboating and attacking like he was earlier in the race.

He leaned on his team in the Tour as well but still won. Looks like textbook Sky to me.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Astana 1st overall.

Quite satisfying results of the stage.

 

[Laplaz]

Btw Lopez didn't looked tired at the finish

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Anyway the perfect Sky train doesn't make these stages exciting. You know it's all pointless. We have to thank Lopez for basically being a GOD tier climber, otherwise he would have been caught as well.