What's your opinion about the route of this first part of "Vuelta"?

[barmaher]

It has been a good start, that is for sure. Most days had good racing.

 

[Descender]

which stage? i didn't notice any stage ending in a descent. is there any change in stage profile. i am using steephill to look at the profiles. am i looking at the wrong place?

No stage ends on a descent. It was sarcasm.

 

[Flamin]

every stage.

probably you can claim that the one matthews won is different. but that was a stage that orica team was on the offensive.

Every stage? Clearly we have a different definition then. All stages were bunch/uphill sprints or stages where the GC guys were destined to battle it out in the final 5k. How is that giving 'more chances for attackers'?

 

[therhodeo]

In what stages?

The stage Martin almost won, the stage Stybar won.......

The entire vuelta is very sprinter unfriendly so no one brought their A-teams. The fact that Tony almost held them off solo is evidence of that. Had that been the tour they would have reeled him in with 10k to and went about business as usual.

 

[Flamin]

The stage Martin almost won, the stage Stybar won.......

The entire vuelta is very sprinter unfriendly so no one brought their A-teams. The fact that Tony almost held them off solo is evidence of that. Had that been the tour they would have reeled him in with 10k to and went about business as usual.

Both are ***-ups by the (non-existing) sprinter teams. That has nothing to do with stage design favourable to attackers.

 

[Pippo_San]

Great scenery, some nice emotions coming from the good ole guard (Papy Horner and Basso), and Der Panzer epic solo ride.

End of positives.

Everything else regarding this Vuelta is a boring crapfest, from the terrible design (Vuelta a Murito) to the attitude of the main favourites (very passive).

Still if Basso or Horner wins this'll be, DE-FACTO, the best Vuelta ever.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

You can have über-steep final climbs without finishing there. The greatness that was the 2010 País Vasco stage into Orio that Purito won (and the tragedy that was Txurruka crashing out from the lead) showed how to do that right. DOUBLE AIA.

País Vasco is absolutely chocked full of possibilities like that, and while there aren't always as many that are as super steep as they are in Euskadi, there is plenty of opportunity to have the same kind of destructively steep final climb without it having to be the finale all over the north of the country. Take this stage from the Vuelta a Asturias:

If you wanted to go all evil "make it harder!!!" on them, you could always replace the climb to Campo Dosango with Cruz de Linares; it would make the run-in to Oviedo longer, but the climb is 7km at 9%. That's more than enough to not need to be an MTF. And in Galicia, the Costiña de Canedo near Ourense is 2km at 13%, absolute Unipublic perfection, but it's only 10km or so to descend back into Ourense, so why not do that? The Vuelta can do it right, sometimes, you know. Try this from 2010:

Hell, they don't even necessarily need to move away from the Murito finishes if they make it so that more than the final 2km count; the Valdepeñas de Jaén stage this year was a step in the right direction in that it did entice a long range dart (though perhaps it would have been more interesting had Kiserlovski been able to stay with EBH and they worked together); take for example this from 2011:

Here you have the uphill finish, but there are lots of hills in the immediate vicinity of it - there are 4 climbs in the last 35km, and practically no flat. That gives the attackers a chance, even if it ultimately ends in the Murito-style bunch kick.

The Vuelta at the moment seems built for youtube cycling; sure you get fireworks for the last 15-20 minutes of the stage, but that's because they're not making it posisble, much of the time, for the fireworks to come at any other time. And the TT is being marginalised. It's like the organisers noticed the smaller gaps coming from mountain stages, and decided to increase the size of gaps by repetition of mountain stages, rather than by making better designed mountain stages, tougher mountain stages or more TT mileage to tempt more long-range attacks.

The scenery is still wonderful, especially the scenes along the coast in Galicia; those short bursts of exciting action in the HTF and MTF stages have been good once they've finally kicked off... I just wish that the riders had had to work a bit more so that they kicked off earlier.

 

[Arredondo]

I think its a nice Vuelta. A lot of unexpected winners (although Moreno isn't a real surprise of course), partly due to weaker form by the big names. I expected Horner before the Vuelta on the podium (to bad that i didn't record that)

Great to see a really strong NetApp team, with a really good Mendes and De La Cruz too. Remembers me a little bit of Colnago Giro 2008 style (lets hope that it will not have the same outcome).

Perhaps Valverde and Rodriguez can improve in the second week, because its not comparable with Froome's approach last year. Froome did peak on the Olympic time trial. To peak in Tour, OG and Vuelta is too much, but the combi Tour-Vuelta with four weeks without racing between it is possible. Remember Purito in 2010, where he won a stage on Pena Cabarga (end of the second week) and didn't show any loss of form in the last weak compared with the first.

Five riders will fight for victory, with Valverde the first one who will get a K.O.

 

[therhodeo]

Both are ***-ups by the (non-existing) sprinter teams. That has nothing to do with stage design favourable to attackers.

Did you read what I wrote? The entire race is unfriendly to sprinters which benefits the attackers, because no one brought a decent train or top sprinter.

 

[Piz Buin]

I loved the route. Since I really don't care for pan-flate stages. I didn't mind the muritos at the end at all. It made almost every stage interesting. At the tdf I had to skip every other stage.

 

[gustienordic]

I've loved it so far... Its been a great race and extremely interesting. Sure only a handful of guys have been capable of being close to a win, but its much more exciting than degenkolb murdering the field in every bunch sprint.

 

[Angliru]

I loved the route. Since I really don't care for pan-flate stages. I didn't mind the muritos at the end at all. It made almost every stage interesting. At the tdf I had to skip every other stage.

+1000! I live for the climbs and mountains. I love to see the selection process take place in the mountains where the real contenders are revealed and almost always a young rider makes his mark among the elite. The mountains are where the great stories of the sport's grand tours are made.

 

[Asturiano]

More opinions?.