Procycling thread

[honestly united]

I was going to ask about that, has anyone looked into when all these athletes are diagnosed with asthma. Is it when they are kids like everyone else or when they start to get to a high level of competition?

[Daydream]

Yates is quoted as calling his inhaler a "puffer thing". I'm gonna guess and say he's recently been diagnosed

[kiddy]

Today's trek to the finish.

[peasy23]

Quintana moves into the red jersey, Valverde in 2nd 19 seconds behind and Froome 3rd at 27 seconds.

[kiddy]

Quintana looks to be closer to top form than Froome. The latter feeling good enough to attack Bertie, then realising the legs didn't really have it to respond to Quintana's counter.

Contador eventually recovering enough to peg back & pass the Tour winner.

Marginal gain head required, by Froomey, methinks.

Edited August 28, 2016 by kiddy

[Salvo Montalbano]

Not sure if that was to do with condition, a tactical error or what. Strange to see Froome attack quite early without having the Sky train blow apart Movistar first as Quintana still looked pretty fresh. I know there's a time trial later which should suit Froome but he'll need to make sure he gets a wee bit closer before he can think about winning in Madrid.

[kiddy]

Etixx David De La Cruz takes todays stage, from a break, & finds himself in rojo.

Pretty much an even finish from the GC contenders, but it's up to Covadonga tomorrow. Where the race kicks off for real.

Edited August 28, 2016 by kiddy

[Salvo Montalbano]

Was another good race yesterday. Not sure about the new Sky tactic of sending Kennaught up the road (is this to force Movistar to up the pace?) but with the second and third riders in GC it's up to Movistar to dictate the race now. How much do you think Froome could make up on Quintana and Valverde in the time trial? 

[TheGreenMonster]

Quintana wins the stage and takes the race lead, Froome finishes third 25 seconds behind which didn't look likely after he was dropped from the peleton with about 10km to go and ended up a minute back from the other favourites, but he never panicked and paced himself through the field as the race split up.

[peasy23]

Thought Froome looked completely done so fair play to him for fighting back, and also dropping Contador and Rodriguez on his way through the field.

[kiddy]

That it was a 12km climb, with 2 weeks to go, it was only sensible to pace it right, not go into the red & limit your loses.

Without doubt a great win for Quintana, but it was surely tempered with such little gain for so much effort.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Another great stage - maybe the TdF organisers need to look at doing something to encourage teams to animate the race a bit more. Quintana looks like he's in great nick and Froome has it all to do even with a good chance to make up time in the individual TT later. Sky still looked decent though with Konig and Kennaught doing big turns to help Froome out and will need to do the same in the second week you'd think. Think this will go all the way.

[kiddy]

The ITT is the second from last stage, with a MT finish the following day, before Madrid.

Of which, the latter is only 1 of 5 MT finishes still to go.

[paisleysaints]

Already more exciting than the TDF. Are some riders prioritising this over the tour now.

[kiddy]

Food for thought. Covadonga ascent times, though the inclusion of Bertie today seems strange..

Edited August 29, 2016 by kiddy

[Salvo Montalbano]

Always hard to judge just on ascent of the climb given that in different years there will be different approaches, different weather, different tactics, riders working together or not etc. Even today, Quintana and Contador were attacking each other and accelerating and recovering while Froome went at a fairly steady pace albeit with two domestiques for company on the lower slopes.

[lionel hutz]

1 hour ago, paisleysaints said:

Already more exciting than the TDF. Are some riders prioritising this over the tour now.

Chaves did. Kruiswijk did.

A lot of riders prefer Giro-Vuelta rather than the Tour-Vuelta. More recovery time between GT's. Very Few riders, ride Giro-Tour.

Adam Hansen has done all three, for six years, consecutively.

[Thomohawk]

15 hours ago, paisleysaints said:

Already more exciting than the TDF. Are some riders prioritising this over the tour now.

I think it's more exciting because we've got a few people like Quintana in top form versus a tired Froome. If all of the riders were in the same condition then I can't see anyone beating Froome, regardless of the parcours and, arguably, team size. We only need look at the TdF where there was one of the strongest line-ups in recent years and Froome walked it (literally on Ventoux). 

 

I've heard from a number of commentators that the Vuelta is often used as a training exercise for the end of season world championships which is a shame given that it is a grand tour in its own right. Some have suggested that they should mix the terrain up so as to give a wider group of riders a chance of winning. For example, Peter Sagan is the best all-round bike rider in the world at the moment but has no chance of winning any of the grand tours. It could be interesting to see the Vuelta organisers go with a few flat stages, a few rollers, a couple of TTs and a few mountain stages. That could open up the possibility of Sagan versus Froome, with the former losing time in the high mountains but gaining time in the rollers. 

[paisleysaints]

It's one of those things Sky will always have the strongest team with them at the TDF.  Vuelta they wont send the strongest team of riders too.  It's pity no other team can give the support to Quintana and other GC riders but suppose money talks.

[peasy23]

Brilliant last couple of kms on the final climb, Froome takes the stage win with Quintana a close second.