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Anyone watching today?
Bit of a quiet one yesterday till the last 20k or so. Two men up the road on a fairly tight leash for most of the day...
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While the peloton plodded on in the rain...
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Bit of action on the narrow twisty roads coming into the beautiful walled town of Lugo with Gilbert and Clarke going off the front. Big crash when Kruijswijk rode into this bit of street furniture. Broken collarbone and out of the race.
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Lot of apologies from the Vuelta organisers but really it shouldn't have happened.
Meersman bagged another win with great support from Stybar while most of the peloton was stuck behind crashes. 3k rule applied so no changes to the GC.
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On to today. Bit of a lumpy one.
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From [url= http://inrng.com/2016/08/vuelta-stage-6-preview-luintra/ ]inrng[/url]:
The Finish: a wide descent from Pombar down to Luintra with one tricky bend and then a sharp left-hander at the 1km to go point, a couple of hundred metres downhill and then finally the road rises gently up the the line.The Contenders: a breakaway or a sprint? Probably a breakaway although the irony is that for all the lack of sprint trains the route suits the few sprinters who started this race with Gianni Meersman, NiccolĆ² Bonifazio able to cope with the climbs. The likes of Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) and Giovanni Battaglin (Lotto-Jumbo) fare well on this kind of terrain too as they have a fast finish.
Philippe Gilbert is looking strong and the sharp 2km climb with 4km to go climb is perfect for him but heās been showing a lot of himself and thereās likely to be a queue on his wheel; all the more reason for him to boost his odds by going in the breakaway while Micha? Kwiatkowski, Dries Devenyns and Moreno Moser can all win on a course like this but the latter two have just settled new contracts for next year so will they be in the mix? Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) is also a contender, heās had a tendency to waste energy in the final phase of a race but his win in the Vuelta a Burgos was reassuring both for strategy and form. For fun, two random picks: Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha) and Quentin Jauregui (Ag2r La Mondiale), both are strong, versatile and promising riders.
Be good to see Gilbert on the move again. Always seems to bag a stage or two in the Vuelta. Meersman the obvious pick though. Best of the "sprinters", has the form and decent support and the hills won't bother him too much.
So what come first, the intermediate sprint or the second category climb?? šÆ
Vuelta route organisers definitely have a sense of humour! Sprint is 2k before the 2nd cat summit.
Was it Gilbert who said in an interview yesterday that the finish in the road book looked pretty good for him but he'd have to wait and see as it usually bares little resemblence to what the finish is actually like. I suspect they do it to favour local riders who have the knowledge š
Tough day out there. 33C. 40k in and despite a fair few attempts at a break it's all together.
Miguel Angel Lopez abandons for Astana, suffering after breaking teeth in his stage 3 crash.
Thanks to those posting, I am one of those who is a bit TdF orientated. Watched some highlights yesterday, bit strange to see all the rain in Spain whilst sweltering in 35 degrees.
Froome and Quintana seem to be running ok. Are they favourites for the win ?
Vuelta has more of a local feel to it imo, for good or bad it's like some of the local u23 or Junior stage races. That bollard thing has happened recently in the vuelta hasn't it? Or was it the pais vasco?
It's on my stamping ground next Friday so I'll be tumbling down the strava boards...
bob - Vuelta al PaĆs Vasco. Peter Stetina and Sergio Pardilla had almost career ending crashes there last year due to a set of bollards with cones on top. Half a dozen other riders "lucky" to be only quite hurt rather than seriously hurt.
Jambalaya, have a read of this...
http://inrng.com/2016/08/who-will-win-the-vuelta/
Though Angel Lopez and Kruijswijk both out already. It's not clear yet who's leading at Movistar between Quintana and Valverde either.
After Quintana's Tour I'd imagine Valverde told the team that they should both be allowed to race until it became clear who is strongest.
Good work starting the threads.
Shame itv4 dont have any live coverage, though probably good for my productivity. Highlights on record to watch after training.
After Quintana's Tour I'd imagine Valverde told the team that they should both be allowed to race until it became clear who is strongest.
Well I thought part of the deal for support at the Tour was that Quintana would work for Valverde at the Vuelta. Though it did look like Valverde held back a bit and waited for Quintana on a couple of the tougher finishes so who knows.
Good work starting the threads.
I do wonder whether anyone is watching sometimes!
Shame itv4 dont have any live coverage, though probably good for my productivity. Highlights on record to watch after training.
Eurosport on the web š
Ooh looking very good for Yates š
Edit... Ho Ho!!! š
Was wondering what OBE had planned as they'd been doing a lot of work at the front today.
š
Just watched the highlights, brilliant race today. Yates looked awesome, the way he just breezed up to the men in front then away to take the win. Excellent
Just saw highlights, that was a good race, great timing from Simon Yates, love the bridge-pause-bridge-pause-annihilate at the end.
Grrr, velogames still not update scores for today