Re:
deValtos said:
I'm sure it used to be that the break needed 7+ mins at the base of a mountain top finish to have a chance 10+ years back. These days if they have 2 mins they have a great chance at holding off even the top climbers at full speed.
The type of climbs have changed, as well as the types of riders getting into those breaks. The Vuelta has always had some differences to other GTs in that respect in that you have people riding for Worlds preparation often meaning quite strong climbers not riding for GC (take Cunego in 2009 for example), but there's also a few other factors.
- The rise of the Unipuerto stage and reduction in the number of mid-stage obstacles means that the fatigue factor of riding in the break compared to the péloton is reduced compared to over a big multi-col stage
- The early GC shakedown in the race means a lot of people who are reasonably strong climbers have been eliminated from contention early on, meaning they've reverted to stagehunting and not bothered with trying to recuperate their GC positions (like Majka, for example)
- A greater level of tactical awareness within the breakaway of what is needed to dose the efforts, power meter and radio racing is good for this because an advantage of being cabeza de carrera is that you don't have to change up paces to respond to moves
- A preference on the part of GC riders not to blow up the race early on means that the favourites group often rides at the pace of super-domestiques for lower slopes - while they can be putting the hurt on, they wouldn't catch the fugitives as quickly as if it was a direct head to head against a specialist leader
Anyway, davaj Kamaz, we could be on for what I think would be the first Muslim GT podium on this form.
What the race really needs, however, is a Monte Abantos ITT on Saturday.