Vuelta Winner

[Michielveedeebee]

f.Schleck, his tour was really bad and he'd want a good season + he has a great team.
Menchov, no, peaked for the tour, don't see him preparing all too well for this Vuelta.
Nibali, will propably have an off-day as mentioned before.
Mosquera, nah, his team isn't good.
Anton, I don't see him rocking for 3 weeks.
Puerito Rodriguez already had 2 peaks.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Frank has won the queen stage of the grandady of them all twice, Alp de huez 06 and grand bornard 09. Anyone who has done that is a top climber. He has finished very high in tdfs. He has always been one of the best climbers. I would like to see Antons and Mosquerras perform, but Frank is the best climber in the race imo (barring andy who wont be on form).

Oh and as we saw in the tds he can tt these days too.

wow that is just pure scoreboard journalism. he wona lpe 2006 cuz of a breka he wasn't the best climber there at all nor was he at grand bornand where he wa slucky they didn't race at all cuzx andy kept waiting for his brother it was pathetic to see. frank isn't anywhere close to being one of the worlds best climbers. frank will never follow anton, mosquera or soler in topshape I give you this as a guarantee

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

No Leonardo Duque??? WTF!!!! Who is managing Cofidis? Monkeys??? Bah Leonardo deserves a better team

duque races in france to win the coupe de france which is the most important thing for french teams after the tour

 

[Roland Rat]

I've gone for FSchleck, but adding a caveat that when the Schelck Bros try to engineer a win for one of them, they usually f*** it up.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

mosquera is 33 now and its too late fora Protour team to snap him up.
with only 55 km of time trialling in total the course is more favourable to climbers so menchov and nibali are at a disadvantage.

mosquera has had a calm relaxed season and his legs will be fresh so my bet is still with him.

the reason mosdquera rides with xacobeo is because he is the leader there and he gets paid 500.000 euros a year so good luck finding a pt team that will give him those standards. he doesn't want to be a helper

 

[tretow95]

i sorry but xabocea galicia is probably one of the the strongest teams they won the teams classification last year and because theyare a small team the vuelta is all of their riders targets this season!!

liquigas trio of nibali kreuziger and kiserlovski will have an impact and if they go very aggresive they can do some serious damage to the field.

everyone is forgetting caisse d'epargne team: arroyo, leon sanchez, bruseghin and uran. if they concentrate their efforts arroyo or sanchez could definitely be a podium contender!

maybe evensome one like kashechkin at lampre...

 

[theyoungest]

i sorry but xabocea galicia is probably one of the the strongest teams they won the teams classification last year and because theyare a small team the vuelta is all of their riders targets this season!!

liquigas trio of nibali kreuziger and kiserlovski will have an impact and if they go very aggresive they can do some serious damage to the field.

everyone is forgetting caisse d'epargne team: arroyo, leon sanchez, bruseghin and uran. if they concentrate their efforts arroyo or sanchez could definitely be a podium contender!

maybe evensome one like kashechkin at lampre...

Unless one of them gets 12 minutes from a break, no way.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

uran comes back from injury and soler is even doubtful wether he starts, arroyo is overrated after his giro, ll sanches is even more overrated and bruseghin is done

 

[Arnout]

No argument that Frank is not the most consistent of riders, but maybe you could refresh me on Anton because I don't seem to remember him delivering the most consistent results either. I remember when he did well at the Vuelta a couple of years ago and then crashed, and he's shown well in some smaller stage races, but most of my impression of him is wildly inconsistent... I'm just curious where your obviously strong impression of him as a solid pick for the Vuelta comes from.

When he stays on his bike, he is. Remember Castilla y Leon in the beginning of this season. He beat Contador then (who was in fine form, judging by his performance in the classics some days after), and not only Contador, but also Mosquera and Soler, arguably three of the best climbers of the world. He showed in La Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege that is was no luck either.

When Anton is in good form, he can beat anyone uphill. He's stronger than before, more consistent and tougher.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

When he stays on his bike, he is. Remember Castilla y Leon in the beginning of this season. He beat Contador then (who was in fine form, judging by his performance in the classics some days after), and not only Contador, but also Mosquera and Soler, arguably three of the best climbers of the world. He showed in La Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege that is was no luck either.

When Anton is in good form, he can beat anyone uphill. He's stronger than before, more consistent and tougher.

1º 21 ANTON, Igor ESP EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI 4:07:09
2º 18 SOLER, J. Mauricio COL CAISSE D`EPARGNE a 13
3º 1 CONTADOR, Alberto ESP ASTANA a 13
4º 81 MOSQUERA, Ezequiel ESP XACOBEO GALICIA a 13
5º 63 BRAJKOVIC, Janez SLO TEAM RADIOSHACK a 01:10



frank schleck could neve follow the top4 here imo. but we will see

 

[van nelle]

I voted for Nibali. I think it is possible that he will have a good form and good team - he is better and more experienced rider now then in years before (natural, he's young) and I don't think he will make a big mistakes.

Then Anton and Mosquera, they will be strong. Maybe Menchov if he want's it.

 

[jens_attacks]

you heard it here first:

1.Andrey Kashechkin
2.Mauricio Soler
3.Ezequiel Mosquera
4.Igor Anton
5.Vincenzo Nibali

at least that's what i hope for,but more important i don't want to see a coward's race,defensive bullshiit like last year.

 

[icefire]

There are serious grades in many climbs, unlike in the TdF. Those big slopes favour Soler, Mosquera and Purito Rodriguez over F. Schleck. There will be a bunch of moments with 15-23% slopes quite at the end of hard stages. Xorret del Cati, Rat Penat, Pena Cabarga, Cotobello and Bola del Mundo require explosivity and acceleration since they are short but brutal efforts.

Somehow I don't see Frank being better than the spanish specialists in those slopes. I would like him to win though. What if in the future the 2 brothers would compete for the leadership at the TdF?

As for how good FS tts....well, let's see. I find it hard to believe that he has improved that much with respect to the last years.

Cotobello is not in that category of steep climbs. It's more of a constant gradient climb, 10kms at 8.5% average, oscillating between 8%-10%. Reports of grades above 10% in that climb are greatly exaggerated. It's demanding, but not a wall.

 

[icefire]

you heard it here first:

1.Andrey Kashechkin
2.Mauricio Soler
3.Ezequiel Mosquera
4.Igor Anton
5.Vincenzo Nibali

at least that's what i hope for,but more important i don't want to see a coward's race,defensive bullshiit like last year.

Last year's cowards are out of contention this year. We'll have different cowards this year

Nevertheless, they'll have to face some really steep climbs, so I hope to see something similar to what we saw last year in La Pandera, even if time gaps between contenders are below 1 minute.

 

[la.margna]

Sastre? Too tired after 2 GT's?

 

[movingtarget]

Van De Velde will be fresh and is the best time triallist apart from Menchov. I think he can win but not sure if he has enough racing miles in his legs. Frank Schleck won't win because he cannot time trial and usually has at least one bad day in the mountains. The time trials in the Vuelta are usually short and dull which will favour riders like Anton and Rodriguez. A Spanish winner would not surprise this year. Sastre can't win, in his third GT for the year. One of the returning druggo's could also figure. VDV's luck has to change sooner or later. He will probably be happy just to finish considering the horror run he has had. Menchov and Nibali have probably already peaked this year but a Menchov win would not surprise as he knows how to ride a grand tour successfully. My podium is Menchov, Anton and VDV.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No argument that Frank is not the most consistent of riders, but maybe you could refresh me on Anton because I don't seem to remember him delivering the most consistent results either. I remember when he did well at the Vuelta a couple of years ago and then crashed, and he's shown well in some smaller stage races, but most of my impression of him is wildly inconsistent... I'm just curious where your obviously strong impression of him as a solid pick for the Vuelta comes from.

Mainly from the Vuelta Castilla y Leon this year, and indeed the Vuelta where he crashed out, where in my opinion he was already one of the top 3 climbers.
We are 2 years later and Anton is in my opinion one of the very few who can actually threaten Contador uphill.

 

[Nick C.]

I went with Nibali. I see the TDF guys as not caring and the Spanish riders as not gonna put enough time into him nor do it every day. It would be nice if Mozquera gets onto the podium and he of all the Spanish riders would be my pick. Sentimetally Sastre or VDV but that seems like wishful thinking. As an aside shouldn't the Schleck's start thinking about maybe winning this or the Giro unles they want to go down as their generations Poulidors or Ullrichs rather than Gimondis.

 

[markene2]

I think Menchov will win this year, he was among the 3rd best climbers this year at the tdf. And can TT very well when he is on form. Kascheskin can get top 10 if he got some form. He will probably return to the old level he had before next year.

It will be a fun vuelta!

 

[El Pistolero]

I can't possibly see F.Schleck keeping up with Anton and Mosquera. He is terribly inconsistent uphill and will lose time a few mt stages.
And he isn't a TT star either. Can't see him win really

Nibali, maybe, but he usually has 1 offday where he suddenly loses 2/3 minutes uphill. Again doubt that he will make all that up in the TT(s).

Mosquera and Anton are my favorites.

I can't see Mosquera winning something.

 

[Zoncolan]

I have no idea what kind of form Mosquera is on, but I would like him to podium/win. With so many MTF and so few TT miles, this could be his year.
The TTT is short, so I doubt Xacobeo will lose a huge amount of time there.

1. Menchov
2. Frank Schleck
3. Mosquera
4. Sastre
5. Nibali
6. Anton
7. Rodriguez
8. Kreuziger
9. LL Sanchez
10. Andy Schleck

If Andy Schleck decides to go for the win, then he will win. In that case, my top 10:

1. A. Schleck
2. Menchov
3. Mosquera
4. F. Schleck
5. Nibali
6. Rodriguez
7. Anton
8. Kreuziger
9. LL Sanchez
10. Sastre

I really want to see what Van Garderen can do in a GT.

 

[Cobblestoned]

Menchov wins - easily

 

[Nick C.]

I really want to see what Van Garderen can do in a GT.

I would too. But I fear they will have him on lead out train duty.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I expect he wouldn't do much. It is his first season as a pro, still a baby.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Many on the start list have their 2nd GT and are uncertain of their form.
And many others are unproven in GTs

Will be a weird vuelta no matter what