Who will win the Vuelta (rest day 2)

[klintE]

Re: Re:

Not sure Angliru is a Lopez climb. Seems more like Quintana i.e. best suited to high altitude big mountains, Angliru is lower and steep

Kitzbuhel Horn where he won at last Tour of Austria is pretty similar. Even steeper.
Different field of course but he seems to be in an incredible shape now and his rivals will have 2 GT in their legs on L'Angliru

BTW,
Distance this year:
Zakarin - 12444 km
Nibali - 11476 km
Froome - 9763 km
Kelderman - 7532 km
Lopez - 5307 km

 

[ice&fire]

Froome is just defending and will increase his lead after the ITT
Nibali is the only one with a remote chance to win, but he's alone figthing Sky and not strong enough to make a gap
Contador is attacking because of boredom, not strength
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT
The rest is riding for GC position, be it podium, top-5 or whatever
Watching 60 riders together over Hazallanas made me fear the worst. Watching 25 over Monachil and recalling how the race exploded there in 2009 confirmed my fears. Sky train and a combined bunch of cowards are turning his Vuelta into a replay of the Tour.
Only an accident will prevent Froome's win.

 

[zepecat]

Re:

Froome is just
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT.

How do you know what he wants? Did he tell you?

For all I know, if he only wanted stage wins, he would only attack in the final 1 or 2 kms, so to keep himself rested.

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Froome is just
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT.

How do you know what he wants? Did he tell you?

For all I know, if he only wanted stage wins, he would only attack in the final 1 or 2 kms, so to keep himself rested.

If he wanted to win GC he would take his turns when he's riding at the head of the race with the likes of Contador and Bardet.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Froome is just
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT.

How do you know what he wants? Did he tell you?

For all I know, if he only wanted stage wins, he would only attack in the final 1 or 2 kms, so to keep himself rested.

If he wanted to win GC he would take his turns when he's riding at the head of the race with the likes of Contador and Bardet.

Did we watch the same race?

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Froome is just
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT.

How do you know what he wants? Did he tell you?

For all I know, if he only wanted stage wins, he would only attack in the final 1 or 2 kms, so to keep himself rested.

If he wanted to win GC he would take his turns when he's riding at the head of the race with the likes of Contador and Bardet.

Did we watch the same race?

He was clearly stronger than his break companions but I did'nt see him taking the longer and harders pulls. It's a weird tactic to maximise the gap to the bunch when you are riding shallow slopes with a head wind, but it makes sense if you want the stage win. Or maybe he's not smart enough to see the difference.

EDIT:
You may read it in Contador's own words:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-i-cant-conform-with-just-going-in-the-peloton/
Maybe it was just team orders, but that'd be just a transfer of responsibility within the team.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

He (Lopez) was clearly stronger than his break companions but I did'nt see him taking the longer and harders pulls. It's a weird tactic to maximise the gap to the bunch when you are riding shallow slopes with a head wind, but it makes sense if you want the stage win. Or maybe he's not smart enough to see the difference.

EDIT:
You may read it in Contador's own words:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-i-cant-conform-with-just-going-in-the-peloton/
Maybe it was just team orders, but that'd be just a transfer of responsibility within the team.

As Contador said, Lopez pulled less at the beginning of the attack. I only saw the last 9km and over a period of 4-5km Lopez simply rode the other three (Crushtheweak, Bertie and Bardet) off his wheel. I never saw anyone but Lopez at the front of the group. I guess at some point there was a change in tactics in the Astana team, since it became clear that Wallace (Aru) did not have the legs to do anything.

I can only assume that Superman has (rightly) won the leadership of Astana.

 

[telencefalus]

TOMORROW it will be the moment of truth i just want to know which will be th eav speed of the tt in the tt of 2013 froome av 54 km h ET will be here again ?

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Froome is just
Lopez only wants stage wins and will go backwards in the ITT.

How do you know what he wants? Did he tell you?

For all I know, if he only wanted stage wins, he would only attack in the final 1 or 2 kms, so to keep himself rested.

If he wanted to win GC he would take his turns when he's riding at the head of the race with the likes of Contador and Bardet.

Did we watch the same race?

He was clearly stronger than his break companions but I did'nt see him taking the longer and harders pulls. It's a weird tactic to maximise the gap to the bunch when you are riding shallow slopes with a head wind, but it makes sense if you want the stage win. Or maybe he's not smart enough to see the difference.

EDIT:
You may read it in Contador's own words:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-i-cant-conform-with-just-going-in-the-peloton/
Maybe it was just team orders, but that'd be just a transfer of responsibility within the team.

Well whatever he did gained him more time on the GC and a stage win. He could have paced with AC earlier, but that wouldn't have changed much. He still would have kicked even harder later and dropped everyone else. He played his cards well for more than just a stage win.

 

[sir fly]

The time trial should extend Froome's lead, but the final week isn't just about Tuesday and Saturday.
Tall order for Froome's opponents, but it's his sixth GT week this summer.

 

[zlev11]

Froome blows up on the Angliru and Zakarin/Lopez/Nibali fight for the overall win

 

[Ataraxus]

One thing is (almost) sure at this phase. Astana will win the team classification.

 

[The Hegelian]

I think there is a good chance that Froome weakens significantly in the third week.

Look at the other tdf riders - they're mainly cooked. Nibali has to be a big threat, especially if pulls off a decent tt. I could see Chavez coming good in the last week, and Zakarin looks like he's waxing into top form.

 

[42x16ss]

Heart says Chaves, but head says Froome followed by Nibali. They're too level headed and experienced to slip up bar a major collapse. Lopez to continue his run of form and move into third.

Contador to go down fighting every step of the way, I expect him to try something awesome, similar to his ambush to Fuente De at least once.

 

[Pennino]

Contador to help Superman into the red jersey? That's the only possibility I see with Trek and Astana pushing flat out. But also in that scenario Conta won't win on Angliru and will have to dig deep to sacrifice himself completely. That would be a little bit clownesque.

 

[telencefalus]

Contador to attack in the stage of Gijón Nibali follows and gain 90 seconds , the day after Froome crack completley on angliru losing 4 minutes

 

[telencefalus]

in reality Froome lose 40 seconds on angliru only and gain time in Tomorrow stage and the following murito stage , Froome wins by 2,5 minutes