Who will win La Vuelta 2018?

[Eyeballs Out]

I guess at some point, the prep racing that Mas missed after his crash at the end of July is going to cost him

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I guess at some point, the prep racing that Mas missed after his crash at the end of July is going to cost him

Or it may help him. It seems like he may have come into the race a little undercooked, but is coming into peak form just now.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I guess at some point, the prep racing that Mas missed after his crash at the end of July is going to cost him

Or it may help him. It seems like he may have come into the race a little undercooked, but is coming into peak form just now.

Should have picked him off the beach

 

[Asero831]

can there really be a selective 5 or 6 riders in tomorrow's climb? The gradient is not steep enough

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

I don't really think Mas will risk doing something crazy. Nobody will work with him

I don't think so either. But perhaps he doesn't need to. If Yates cracks, all he has to do is outclimb Valverde by a considerable margin. Not extremely likely, but Valverde hasn't looked too good on longer climbs.

He was not worse than Mas, so I fail to understand the logic here...

 

[Red Rick]

The thing that speaks for Mas isn't the longer climbs, it's that his form trajectory is clearly the most positive. And he knows Andorra like the back of his hand.

Anyway. I don't think very much will happen anymore. Jack Haig and Adam Yates will make sure that any early aggression has no chance. Valverde will have to straight up drop Yates on Collada de Gallina.

 

[DanielSong39]

Looks like Yates or Valverde now, with four longshots (you know who they are).

 

[Lexman]

imagine Yates losing time but still holding the lead with let's say 3 seconds, Valverde might want to try to grab the seconds at the final sprint in Madrid?

Shouldn't he start already tomorrow trying to get the bonus seconds?

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

What Man o Man?

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re: Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

What Man o Man?

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

Nothing will be between MAL and MAS, if Yates implodes it would be Valverde who takes the win, like it or not

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re: Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

Nothing will be between MAL and MAS, if Yates implodes it would be Valverde who takes the win, like it or not

We will see.. see you on Saturday evening (sorry, on Sunday, Valverde will fight at Madrid...)

 

[Akuryo]

Re: Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

Nothing will be between MAL and MAS, if Yates implodes it would be Valverde who takes the win, like it or not

He struggled momentarily at Covadonga but no one put the pressure on. IF Yates implodes it is not unlikely that Mas can also distance Valverde! I'm not saying it's gonna happen but it is a possibility.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

Nothing will be between MAL and MAS, if Yates implodes it would be Valverde who takes the win, like it or not

He struggled momentarily at Covadonga but no one put the pressure on. IF Yates implodes it is not unlikely that Mas can also distance Valverde! I'm not saying it's gonna happen but it is a possibility.

That was likely because he was momentarily wasted as a domestique for Quintana.

I think Valverde knows himself too well to lose a minute to Mas. He is pretty incredible at limiting losses.

And I don't think Mas will be better than Valverde anyway. This is his second Grand Tour, and he is likely to fade as well, even though everybody seems to think otherwise. But you can just compare his trajectory to that of López last year.

 

[Bolder]

I would be surprised if there's some kind of reckoning on Rabassa tomorrow -- I could see 10, maybe 15 seconds to gain or lose among the top 5 riders. Saturday's stage, on the other hand, looks like a very short, painful nightmare, and anyone who hasn't expended the absolute minimum amount of energy on friday could very well be spat out the back halfway through.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Yesterday was said he should have started it today.
If Yates implodes it would be between MAL & MAS.

Nothing will be between MAL and MAS, if Yates implodes it would be Valverde who takes the win, like it or not

He struggled momentarily at Covadonga but no one put the pressure on. IF Yates implodes it is not unlikely that Mas can also distance Valverde! I'm not saying it's gonna happen but it is a possibility.

Yeah after bringing back Yates on Huesera and that same Mas right after that, and then again he reeled back Mas close to the finish and chased Lopez right until the end, and despite all of this finished in front of Mas
Some struggle it was

 

[Sciatic]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

 

[Red Rick]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

The fact that Quintana has become irrelevant due to becoming a domestique now should make Kruijswijk a lot more aggressive.

 

[Blanco]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

I think Yates will react personally only if Valverde attacks. If anybody else attacks, aka Kruijswijk, Lopez, Mas, Quintana, he will use Haig and Adam to chase that down and keep in control.

 

[Inquitus]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

I think Yates will react personally only if Valverde attacks. If anybody else attacks, aka Kruijswijk, Lopez, Mas, Quintana, he will use Haig and Adam to chase that down and keep in control.

I would agree he needs to keep a very close eye on Valverde, but can be a bit more circumspect with the rest, he has some leeway to let Haig and his brother manage any gaps to Mas, MAL and Kruijswijk.

 

[Leinster]

If Mas adds a GT to all of Quickstep ‘s other wins this season, everyone else might as well take up posting their bikepacking diaries on YouTube.

 

[Sciatic]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

I think Yates will react personally only if Valverde attacks. If anybody else attacks, aka Kruijswijk, Lopez, Mas, Quintana, he will use Haig and Adam to chase that down and keep in control.

Haig may ride on the front to try to discourage attacks, but I kinda doubt Haig is equipped to chase down attacks on the climbs by the likes of SK, MAL, or Mas. He's not Poels. So that chasing will be up to Adam.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

I think Yates will react personally only if Valverde attacks. If anybody else attacks, aka Kruijswijk, Lopez, Mas, Quintana, he will use Haig and Adam to chase that down and keep in control.

Haig may ride on the front to try to discourage attacks, but I kinda doubt Haig is equipped to chase down attacks on the climbs by the likes of SK, MAL, or Mas. He's not Poels. So that chasing will be up to Adam.

A rider doesn’t have to be able to complete the whole climb in the same time as an attacker to be able to control their attacks. Haig can put everything into a portion of the climb, while chasing guys who can’t blow themselves up with half the climb to go

 

[Sciatic]

If he's recovered enough from the Balcon de B. climb, I think SK still has a chance to, perhaps not win, but to make things interesting. He has shown a willingness to launch from farther out than the other contenders, and that will be interesting to see how Michelton-Scott will respond if he goes up the road. I think they will latch on to any moves by MAL or Mas, but perhaps will give SK some leeway.

Hopefully the others will play it cool and leave it to the Yates brothers to follow every move. I don't think Simon has shown any cracks physically so far, but he did show some psychological cracks when Quintana was shadowing him last week. Is that something other teams can take advantage of? (genuine question).

I think Yates will react personally only if Valverde attacks. If anybody else attacks, aka Kruijswijk, Lopez, Mas, Quintana, he will use Haig and Adam to chase that down and keep in control.

Haig may ride on the front to try to discourage attacks, but I kinda doubt Haig is equipped to chase down attacks on the climbs by the likes of SK, MAL, or Mas. He's not Poels. So that chasing will be up to Adam.

A rider doesn’t have to be able to complete the whole climb in the same time as an attacker to be able to control their attacks. Haig can put everything into a portion of the climb, while chasing guys who can’t blow themselves up with half the climb to go

I look forward to watching and seeing if that's the case