Who will win the 2023 Vuelta a España

[Tricycle Rider]

True, Giro this year dosen't count , it was a mickey mouse event won by Simon gerrans.

Oooops, I completely forgot about this year's Giro! I swear I did watch it, but couldn't even remember the results.

I'll still go with Rogla though because Vingo is the more recent Jumbo GT winner.

 

[Volderke]

Jumbo knows Vinge watts, so they must be confident he can with with ease. Just wait until the Angliru and then he can gain minutes.

While I agree with about everyone around here and out there in the wider universe that Vingegaard at top level is the favourite, why do you assume Vingegaard can take minutes on Angliru? Steep climbs aren't the best place to take minutes, and going by how well Remco went up steep climbs last year, and given that Pogacar beat Vingegaard on 2 steep finishes in this Tour, I don't see Vingegaard smashing the competition on all of the climbs, and maybe the least on the very steep ones (but more likely on climbs like Tourmalet).

 

[IndianCyclist]

True, Giro this year dosen't count , it was a mickey mouse event won by Simon gerrans.

Thomas is already planning that. While the others attack, crash and have mechanicals and are basically looking at each other, he wants to quietly slip into 1st.

 

[Rob5091]

Vingegaard's been at home on the Chesterfield, playing with his kid and eating red sausage (when he's not been down the local old people's home), so he's not in top shape (just look at the past couple of years form for him post-Tour).
So it'll be Giro Redux! Only now the weather should be better and the Alps are n't involved (let's hope that Covid stays away too).
The ITT on stage 10 is 25.8 km but two thirds of it, is out and back with next to no corners and flat - hello Remco! (and Ganna of course)

So any climbers who can n't TT are, as Pogacar would say, f*cked! I would not be surprised if the order of the GC guys at the TT are the same as the final podium (barring accidents). It's a shame too that the TT is after the first rest day and not before (Jumbo will have a whole day to re-con the course in minute detail again).
Edit -add - if Vingegaard wins this TT, I'll ask for the entire thread to be put in the Clinic section!

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Head - Jumbo
Heart - Remco or Mas

 

[perico]

I'll vote for Mas out of loyalty, but I think Roglic is probably the best bet since we just don't know what exactly to expect yet from Jonas. Even with what ended up being a decisive victory in terms of time gap, that duel between him and Teddy was pretty brutal. I just don't know how well he will have recovered after that and he was kind of crap last year after the tour (at least by the standards we set for the great GT riders these days).

 

[noob]

Oooops, I completely forgot about this year's Giro! I swear I did watch it, but couldn't even remember the results.

I'll still go with Rogla though because Vingo is the more recent Jumbo GT winner.

To remind you; giro was supposed to be this ultra cool dance party with lots of great solo performances, but it got too wet so people fell on top of each other and those landed on landed themselves in the hospital. Participants voted on cancelling. So for a while they all sat down and the audience booed! There was this virus guest playing swinging out some of the best solo dancers too. Only when the sun rize in the morning the dancers started solo dancing like tribal madmen up the hills. Oh and Roglič won the overall best performance by the help of another Slovenian ski jumper.

There was a dog crashing the party too?

 

[Tim Cahill]

Great to see UAE's El Tridente back in action, hopefully they do their usual plan of 'yeah just do whatever you want lads'.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Juan motherfucking Ayuso. I think he will start slow, but be the best uphill on stages 13 and 14. I think those suit him brilliantly, the harder, the better. Thats my analysis of him as a rider anyways.

 

[Netserk]

Damn, maybe Ayuso is even more overrated than Evenepoel.

 

[ice&fire]

Great to see UAE's El Tridente back in action, hopefully they do their usual plan of 'yeah just do whatever you want lads'.

Other teams would designate their most veteran rider as road captain to put some order in their tactics. At UAE that's Soler.

 

[Andy schleck]

Damn, maybe Ayuso is even more overrated than Evenepoel.

Personally i think he has more potential than evenepoel for grand tours.....but he needs to prove that. I don't have a lot of arguments to my statement, just some perfomances by him, some abilities that he showed, combined with is age that make me think that.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Other teams would designate their most veteran rider as road captain to put some order in their tactics. At UAE that's Soler.

Honestly, Soler kinda killed that meme on Col de la Loze.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Juan motherfucking Ayuso. I think he will start slow, but be the best uphill on stages 13 and 14. I think those suit him brilliantly, the harder, the better. Thats my analysis of him as a rider anyways.

The Spanish Robo-Basso

 

[Red Rick]

I really wonder how people think Roglic and Vingegaard will fail to work together.

I'm very sure they'll manage as far as not chasing each other and both mainly going for their own GC is concerned.

 

[roundabout]

I really wonder how people think Roglic and Vingegaard will fail to work together.

I'm very sure they'll manage as far as not chasing each other and both mainly going for their own GC is concerned.

Longshot scenario, but here goes

Evenepoel attacks, one of Roglic/Vingegaard follows at first, but then has to let go.

What happens next? Do they chase each at his own pace, or does one wait for the other and then work together?

 

[Red Rick]

Longshot scenario, but here goes

Evenepoel attacks, one of Roglic/Vingegaard follows at first, but then has to let go.

What happens next? Do they chase each at his own pace, or does one wait for the other and then work together?

I doubt they'll follow attacks with one guy unless they're close to dropping. If both get dropped you ahve a problem, but I assume both will ride their own pace unless they're at fairly equal level at which point chasing together would make sense anyway

 

[Rackham]

Longshot scenario, but here goes

Evenepoel attacks, one of Roglic/Vingegaard follows at first, but then has to let go.

What happens next? Do they chase each at his own pace, or does one wait for the other and then work together?

They wait for each other & work together.

That would be my guess. But I'll say the Roglič/Vingegaard entente will work best if Evenepoel poses a very real, credible GC threat all the way through the first two weeks. Co-captaincy is better when it's used to defeat a rival of equal or stronger strength.

My question is what happens if they're the two best riders in the race? That's when sh*t can hit the fan. It's a situation they've never been in before. Other than that, there's a whole load of little questions relating to who targets which stage & stuff like that, i.e. questions Jumbo will be working on right now. There's also questions relating to the red jersey, i.e. if one of Rog or Vinge has the jersey whilst the other is only 30 seconds or so behind (for example), then that rider might want freedom to attack the leader.

An extreme example of this type of scenario was the infamous Lance-Contador situation in the 2009 TdF When L.A. was desperate for yellow because he reckoned it would give him tactical immunity.

 

[Bonimenier]

They wait for each other & work together.

That would be my guess. But I'll say the Roglič/Vingegaard entente will work best if Evenepoel poses a very real, credible GC threat all the way through the first two weeks. Co-captaincy is better when it's used to defeat a rival of equal or stronger strength.

My question is what happens if they're the two best riders in the race? That's when sh*t can hit the fan. It's a situation they've never been in before. Other than that, there's a whole load of little questions relating to who targets which stage & stuff like that, i.e. questions Jumbo will be working on right now. There's also questions relating to the red jersey, i.e. if one of Rog or Vinge has the jersey whilst the other is only 30 seconds or so behind (for example), then that rider might want freedom to attack the leader.

An extreme example of this type of scenario was the infamous Lance-Contador situation in the 2009 TdF When L.A. was desperate for yellow because he reckoned it would give him tactical immunity.

They have been in that situation, although not in a GT. In the Dauphiné of 2022 they were clearly the 2 best riders. Back then Vingegaard looked the best, but probably didn't dare challenging the leader, but with 2 Tour victories a lot has changed in the pecking order.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Oh no, what if they‘re the two best riders, wouldn’t that be terrible for them?

 

[Bonimenier]

Oh no, what if they‘re the two best riders, wouldn’t that be terrible for them?

Chandler vibes

 

[topcat]

I voted for Roglic for the win but I feel it’s far too easy to just pick the winner. How about a prediction game where players predict the top 5 and the winner’s prize is a weekend with RR and Netserk which involves them torturing the winner until they become a Roglic fan.
The Topcat Top 5:
1. Remco
2. Ayuso
3. Roglic
4. Vingo
5. Almida

 

[Sciatic]

Vingegaard's been at home on the Chesterfield, playing with his kid and eating red sausage (when he's not been down the local old people's home), so he's not in top shape (just look at the past couple of years form for him post-Tour).
So it'll be Giro Redux! Only now the weather should be better and the Alps are n't involved (let's hope that Covid stays away too).
The ITT on stage 10 is 25.8 km but two thirds of it, is out and back with next to no corners and flat - hello Remco! (and Ganna of course)

So any climbers who can n't TT are, as Pogacar would say, f*cked! I would not be surprised if the order of the GC guys at the TT are the same as the final podium (barring accidents). It's a shame too that the TT is after the first rest day and not before (Jumbo will have a whole day to re-con the course in minute detail again).
Edit -add - if Vingegaard wins this TT, I'll ask for the entire thread to be put in the Clinic section!

Good point about the length and layout of the ITT—I doubt someone like Mas will be able to stay as high in GC.

Why “red” sausage though? Is that some kind of Danish delicacy?

 

[Rackham]

Oh no, what if they‘re the two best riders, wouldn’t that be terrible for them?

For the fans watching on tv it will be amazing, for Jumbo though...

I don't see why this is an iffy concept or something, i.e. co-captaincy has often produced some funky stuff in GT's. I mean what do people expect? One Jumbo rider to take the red jersey & the other co-captain to just fall in line & choo-choo the team train all the way to Madrid?

 

[Sciatic]

To remind you; giro was supposed to be this ultra cool dance party with lots of great solo performances, but it got too wet so people fell on top of each other and those landed on landed themselves in the hospital. Participants voted on cancelling. So for a while they all sat down and the audience booed! There was this virus guest playing swinging out some of the best solo dancers too. Only when the sun rize in the morning the dancers started solo dancing like tribal madmen up the hills. Oh and Roglič won the overall best performance by the help of another Slovenian ski jumper.

There was a dog crashing the party too?

😎 awesome recap!