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

[bambino]

Re: Re:

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

Not even remotely enough. He will be 5 min behind Froome after TT.

Lopez is not Froome's main worry. Currently I guess his biggest threads to mark are Nibs and Kelderman.

I don't actually think anyone worries Froome atm. The race seems over.

He has a one minute lead over a multiple GT winner and 2-3 minutes over several other dangerous riders. With two of the hardest mountains ever done in pro cycling still to come, while his form is getting worse. I'd say he's concerned. A lot of pressure on him to put in a big time trial now.

Normal TT is more than enough. He will 2 minutes to Nibali, 3 to Kelderman and 4-5 for all the rest. That is more than enough for Froome even with fade.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

I bet that Meintjes already knows by heart the bib numbers of all the riders in this year's Vuelta.

:lol:

 

[Richeypen]

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.

That was a 17km hilly TT route.

In 2013, Quintana beat Porte in the TT to win the Tour of the Basque Country. On that day he came 2nd only to Tony Martin.

Basically, one swallow doesnt make a summer

 

[Irondan]

Re:

I bet that Meintjes already knows by heart the bib numbers of all the riders in this year's Vuelta.

No doubt..

 

[HelloDolly]

One thing I learnt from this Vuelta is all the type of climbs Nibali is terrrible on

 

[skippo12]

Re:

I'm starting to think that Froome's biggest worries are Contador creating a random ambush, or MAL taking off on La Cobertoria.

MAL was insane today. Took time out of Froome on the Monachil, then took time out of Froome while sharing work on half the Sierra Nevada and soloing the other half, whereas Froome didn't put his nose in the wins one bit.

Contador is allowed to do what ever he wants because he is no danger. The only one who isn`t allowed to attack is Nibali...he was chased hard and at least reduced the Sky train with his move.
Depending on his time trial performance Lopez won`t get as much freedom either.
Kelderman and Zakarin are contend to follow the train and gain seconds for the podium.
Honestly I think the race is over.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Problem is Machucos suits Froome perfectly

Compare it to Pena Cabarga

Machucos is absolutely nothing like Peña Cabarga. It's much, much more irregular. And much, much steeper. It's far more like the last 7km of Angliru.

That's not to say it wouldnt also suit a top form Froome; but looking at Peña Cabarga as a precedent is completely wrong imo.

 

[Aguirre]

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

Sky kills cycling. The team is ridiculous. Puccio pushing in El purche and almost not loosing ground with Lopez and Contador. Then Moscon, Nieve :surprised: and Poels almost looking he could drink a coke can (again)

Froome doesnt deserve to be one of the greatest, never will.

 

[HelloDolly]

SKY's Puccio & Moscon dropping very good climbers is a total cunundrum

 

[Richeypen]

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

Sky kills cycling. The team is ridiculous. Puccio pushing in El purche and almost not loosing ground with Lopez and Contador. Then Moscon, Nieve :surprised: and Poels almost looking he could drink a coke can (again)

Froome doesnt deserve to be one of the greatest, never will.

Not losing ground? Lopez and Contador pulled out well over a minute. Sky were riding within themselves as neither rider was a threat. As soon as Nibali attacked and they had to up the pace, Moscon blew.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Problem is Machucos suits Froome perfectly

Compare it to Pena Cabarga

Machucos is absolutely nothing like Peña Cabarga. It's much, much more irregular. And much, much steeper. It's far more like the last 7km of Angliru.

That's not to say it wouldnt also suit a top form Froome; but looking at Peña Cabarga as a precedent is completely wrong imo.

Kms 3-7 are identical to Pena Cabarga, and then there are the alternative 25% ramps followed by flat for a couple of kilometres before that, which does make it different, but overall it's pretty similar to Pena Cabarga. Not to mention Froome will at least have teammates for the flat sections before the long sustained double figure gradient section

 

[Aguirre]

when in a group of 25 there are 4 skys (pushing!), consider this!!! someone will tell me that there is not such hegemony?

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Los Muchachos.. @Irondan

Did you miss this memo?

Nibali is awful in this type of climbs

26%... wtf?

Who isn't awful in climbs of this type...

Yeah, this profile is straight out of a Mayomaniac design . With one major difference though: I can pronounce the climb's name . Nasty one for sure.

 

[pastronef]

Re:

when in a group of 25 there are 4 skys (pushing!), consider this!!! someone will tell me that there is not such hegemony?

when they were 25 there were still a few Oricas too

 

[Richeypen]

Re: Re:

when in a group of 25 there are 4 skys (pushing!), consider this!!! someone will tell me that there is not such hegemony?

when they were 25 there were still a few Oricas too

And Astana

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Los Muchachos.. @Irondan

Did you miss this memo?

Nibali is awful in this type of climbs

26%... wtf?

Who isn't awful in climbs of this type...

Yeah, this profile is straight out of a Mayomaniac design . With one major difference though: I can pronounce the climb's name . Nasty one for sure.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the uglier it gets...

 

[Richeypen]

Re: Re:

Los Muchachos.. @Irondan

Did you miss this memo?

Nibali is awful in this type of climbs

26%... wtf?

Who isn't awful in climbs of this type...

Yeah, this profile is straight out of a Mayomaniac design . With one major difference though: I can pronounce the climb's name . Nasty one for sure.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the uglier it gets...

Meh, finish at 1.2%....Trentin FTW

 

[klintE]

Los Machucos means 'it hurts' (right?)

I suppose some of the riders will suffer there and some will climb just like that:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Froome really does love medium-length and steep climbs though, ones that are too long to punch over but not long enough to become true endurance suffer-fests. In addition to his history at Peña Cabarga (5,6km @ 9,4%), you have La Planche des Belles Filles (5,8km @ 8,5%), Allanadas del Santo (5,5km @ 9,6%), Cumbre del Sol (3,8km @ 10,3%), Cumbres Verdes (5,0km @ 9,0%), Jabal al-Akhdar (2014 variant)(5,7km @ 10,5%), Ax-3-Domaines (7,8km @ 8,2%).

The one that he didn't do so well on, the exception to this rule, was La Camperona, although he did his usual yo-yo job in the end. The thing that sets Los Machucos apart from most of these, however, is how the really brutal stuff is right at the bottom. With a lot of these, Froome's recipe for success has been either for the team to set a high tempo and then him to just ride everyone away when he feels good, or to ride his way into the climb and do the patented yo-yo trick letting others burn themselves out attacking before dosing his efforts back to them. The big issue is that those first super-brutal ramps will get rid of a lot of people at the start of the climb, and even if Froome can keep some of his domestiques with him, setting a consistent tempo to work their usual tactics will be very difficult (cross-reference Arroyo screaming at Jeannesson to calm down as the Frenchman tried to pace him up the Zoncolan in 2010 but the horrible gradients made setting a good, consistent tempo impossible), and if he is starting to fade and so the yo-yo technique is favoured, the distance that could be lost on those steeper ramps may make fighting back on harder. The irregularity of Los Machucos is such that it could be a difficult one to find too many precedents for.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Re:

Struggling to work out the vuelta organisations reasons for the combativity prize. Surely Yates should have won today, and how did Mate win yesterday.

Mate surprisingly won it on stage 7 as well, so I think he has some connections somewhere.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Problem is Machucos suits Froome perfectly

Compare it to Pena Cabarga

Machucos is absolutely nothing like Peña Cabarga. It's much, much more irregular. And much, much steeper. It's far more like the last 7km of Angliru.

That's not to say it wouldnt also suit a top form Froome; but looking at Peña Cabarga as a precedent is completely wrong imo.

Kms 3-7 are identical to Pena Cabarga, and then there are the alternative 25% ramps followed by flat for a couple of kilometres before that, which does make it different, but overall it's pretty similar to Pena Cabarga. Not to mention Froome will at least have teammates for the flat sections before the long sustained double figure gradient section

It's not at all similar to ride - they are completely different kind of climb. I have ridden both and Mahucos is much harder - Peña Cabarga is just your standard murito - it's a 10% grind until the last 2km before one big 5 minute effort and a sprint finish. On Machucos though the fact that the super steep sections come at the start transforms the rest of the climb. In Peña Cabarga, the steep bit is at the end, so is basically an extended sprint to the finish. On Machucos the steep bits are early and put everyone in the red, before the upper section. And the steep bits peak at 30%, with sustained sections at 25%. That's steeper than the Cuena les Cabres - steeper than anything Zoncolan has to offer.

And the upper section is also nothing like Peña Cabarga - it's way more irregular, with loads of pitches of 18% mixed in with slightly flatter sections. Team mates will be next to useless for the whole climb.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

Los Machucos means 'it hurts' (right?)

I suppose some of the riders will suffer there and some will climb just like that:

"Los muchachos" means "the kids"
Edit: forget what I wrote

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Los Machucos means 'it hurts' (right?)

I suppose some of the riders will suffer there and some will climb just like that:

"Los muchachos" means "the kids"

Is that you pushing your bike ?

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Los Muchachos.. @Irondan

Did you miss this memo?

Nibali is awful in this type of climbs

26%... wtf?

Who isn't awful in climbs of this type...

Yeah, this profile is straight out of a Mayomaniac design . With one major difference though: I can pronounce the climb's name . Nasty one for sure.

Thanks, I take that as a compliment.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

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

According to Kelderman the last climb had headwind, not the predicted tailwind. He said that made it really difficult