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Yet again, a grand tour creeps up on us with barely any notice, - been too busy concentrating on / getting over the olympics!
Who have you got your eye on? Josh Tarling is set to make his grand tour debut and with the opening stage a 12km time trial in Lisbon, Portugal, might he make it a debut to remember with a win?
Will Oier Lazkano be allowed off the leash? I hope so, I really rate him, but maybe he's not on peak form after the tour?
Will Mikel Landa finally deliver on his promise with a Grand Tour podium? He seems to be muchhappier at Soudal Quickstep
Cycling news have a couple of articles to read through:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/five-key-stages-of-the-2024-vuelta-a-espana/
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/vuelta-a-espana-2024-analysing-the-contenders/
Nothing from Inrng as yet, perhaps like me they'd forgotten about it
Official website:
Velogames is up and running:
Anyone who's previously entered a team into the STW Grand Tours League for either the Giro or the TDF will automatically join again if they enter a team - I can see there are 10 of us in there already
https://www.velogames.com/spain/2024/leaguescores.php?league=347313627
For anyone who's not done it before, you can spend 100 points on 9 riders in various categories, and the riders score points depending on how they do each day / overall. I've never quite figured it out but I pick riders who I want to do well and tend to finish mid table. Once you've entered your team, join league ID 347313627
I had September in my head...which it is.... but it starts in August:)
Must look at a team, NBT wants mid-table, I'll be happy above that....but no chance and B'hop will easily beat me too, but a nice fun comp' league 😉
Really want to visit one year, how hot will it be?
Enjoy
cvilla - I usually start at the top and gradually descend the hill towards the bottom of the league :0)
I'm in.
New Soudal Quickstep kit for the Vuelta. Love it!
The best Grand Tour of the season! Team Higgo entered as well. Adds an extra bit of spice to viewing each stage as you look out for riders in your team.
I quite like the Vuelta, it is the last-chance saloon of tours.
It is almost a shame that Roglic is going, i know he is not on top form, but it would be nice to have a grand tour without a "big 4" favourite there.
Like to see Kuss do well again to.
Is it available on free to view TV?
Is it available on free to view TV?
The highlights show is usually broadcast on Quest, freeview channel 12
During the olympics, Discovery+ were running an offer to new subscribers allowing them to sign up for £3.99 a month till the end of the year, which would give you full coverage for £3.99 if you signed up then cancelled and just got one month
Team TDDW are in. Let's hope there are a few more finishers than in the Tour (2!).
Could be anyone, random team selection done.
Christ, I know UAE sent an insanely string team to the tour but have you seen the team at the vuelta? It's not exactly a list of no-hopers
- João Almeida
- Adam Yates
- Isaac Del Toro
- Brandon McNulty
- Jay Vine
- Pavel Sivakov
- Marc Soler
- Filippo Baroncini
The last guy is the only one I haven't heard of, and they've all been riding pretty well this season
That last guy won the U23 worlds, I think
The absence of "good" riders makes it quite interesting. Yes I know they're all superb athletes but Roglic apart it is the 2nd string squads. You'd expect Roglic to win if he can stay rubber side down but history suggests he won't.
Don't forget Almeida# was "let off early" from the tour for good behaviour/training/covid. They're not messing around. Obviously going full on VLaB 2023 to win all three Grand Tours at a canter.
#One of my non-finishers in the Tour, so I've doubled down 🙂
Almeida and Del Toro in my fantasy team. Also taken a punt on TaoGH.
Thanks as always @nbt the mini league is looking quite healthily stocked now.
Roglic apart it is the 2nd string squads
I'm not sure Carlos Rodriguez is 'second string'. Slightly underwhelming at the Tour, but then he was 'feeling unwell' as part of a squad that lost Tom Pidcock to covid and had Geraint Thomas openly riding with it too, ditto Bernal. It's pretty obvious that he likely had it too given the communal living nature of grand tour racing.
Anyway, looks interesting. I'm hoping Richard Carapaz is on top form again. I never trust Mikel Landa to deliver, I've seen those sad, puppy dog eyes too often, I fear he's like Richie Porte and at his best when he's not expected to lead 🙁
I’m not sure Carlos Rodriguez is ‘second string’.
Only because the Ineos bow is bare at the moment, he might be the best they can put out but that feels like an inditement of them rather than a recommendation for him.
Although I enjoy La Vuelta I always think it's sad because it's the last road race of the season worth watching. (I always seem to miss Lombardy!). Nice to see that this year is the standard mix of 'last-chance for a win' riders, returning injuries and riders you've barely heard of. I'll be hoping that Cian Pullyerpantsdown does well, keeping my eyes open for Jefferson Alexander Cepeda simply because of that fantastic name, and will wait with bated breath for any rider from Equipo Kern Pharma to do something, anything! Although, with that team name, it may just mean Get Your Drugs Here and they'll be firmly wedged in the middle of the peloton every day, doling out enhanced jelly babies. 😀
VC Siete Chi 555 entered
An all Spanish/Spanish speaking team for the Last Gasp GC Tour of the Year
Nice to see that this year is the standard mix of ‘last-chance for a win’ riders, returning injuries and riders you’ve barely heard of.
Except, as @nbt points out, UAE.
Thanks NBT. First go at this.
Have probably jinked the riders I have selected.
Didn't enter the Tour one as I have never bothered to read how the points are accumulated and have hence never done very well, but I did miss checking how badly I was doing so have chucked in a team to come last again!!
Knowing how the scoring works isn't needed AA, I won the dolphiny one without any clue.
Knowing how the scoring works isn’t needed AA, I won the dolphiny one without any clue.
Well I have had no clue for years and never won ?
Last call, not sure what time the deadline is. Reminder, the first and last stages are ITTs, stage 5 is the only out and out sprint stage, the rest are either hilly or mountainous
Well I have had no clue for years and never won ?
You've got this. This is your time to shine.
I think Josh Tarling starts 18:32 local time today, so 17:32 UK time? WvA last person just after 6.
Good opportunity for Tarling. I'm going to call out Adam Yates for the GC although I'm not sure the TTs might scupper him. There's a ridiculous amount of climbing overall.
Local time is UK time, it's Portugal
And off…
Looks choppy out there. I'd pay good money to watch Wout run the double disc today.
pistonbrokeFree Member
Local time is UK time, it’s Portugal
Ah, that's confusing.
Tarling is off. Windy!
That was a bit of a surprise. Short TT for Tarling to be fair but I bet he's gutted.
Mr TW, aka Ben and Team Bob. Is feeling confident.
Overall Race Score: 868
Overall Rank: 11 of 15886
Bah!
Hedged on Victor today, but still a healthy points haul. All to play for in team TDDW. Think where you can lose 0.28 of a second!
Tour de France Femmes....wow, what an unbelievably great final stage!!
And once again Quest **** it up and we get some crappy programme about antiques instead of the highlights. They must run that channel on an absolute shoestring.
Tried to watch the highlights yesterday on discovery and all I got was the end of lombardia and Chinese granfondo. I get the impression discovery spent all their money buying the rights and presenters and have no production budget left
McNulty should get a special jersey to recognise the dodgiest moustache in the peloton. Doesn't he have any friends to tell him how it looks?
Tried to watch the highlights yesterday on discovery and all I got was the end of lombardia
Yeah same here, although I think it might have been because I was trying to watch them before they were broadcast on Disco+, the schedule had TDFF on 21.00-22.00, then half an hour of TDFF breakaway, then the vuelta highlights weren't on until 22.30.
I remembered that the stage was a likely sprint so just fast-forwarded the live broadcast to 10km to go.
Tried to watch the highlights yesterday on discovery....
Early on Sunday I noticed that the live broadcast on Eurosport wasn't set to record, so checked why. According to the schedule, they were showing a review of speedboat racing from 9.30am until 9.30pm, with nothing else to be broadcast. The other Eurosport channel was showing a normal mix, so I recorded 12 hours of speedboat racing and got it right - the Vuelta was there. Eurosport have always been crap for schedule changes, and missing out crucial parts of the race, but recently they seem particularly flaky.
Loved seeing him win today but hate that bloody celebration, someone needs to tell him how stupid it looks 😀
The GC boys will get to play today, we're into Spain proper with a stage featuring a Cat 2 climb, a Cat 1, a Cat 3 with bonus secondsm and a Cat 1 finish. Quilte looking forward to it, shame I'm in a bloody meeting all day
that bloody celebration
Yeah, he needs to sell it on to Pog or somebody like that; it doesn't really suit a bunch sprint, even just on safety grounds
that bloody celebration
Just worked it out , ever the corporate whore, "Red Bull gives you wings." ?
Just worked it out , ever the corporate whore, “Red Bull gives you wings.” ?
Aaah - makes sense 🙂
Still - that's my hero you're talking about, so button it, right?
Looking forward to the mountains now. It's assumed that Sepp Kuss will take the lead, but I'm not so sure ...
I'd love to see Thomas De Gendt have one more breakaway before La Vuelta ends. Victor is a cheeky monkey, adorable.
Would not rule Kuss out but that is a pretty big assumption given the likes of Roglic and Almeida have 30s on him
I reckon Wva could hang on in red if he is allowed to
I think UAE are going to hammer everyone but its going to be the usual case of the main contenders and a sprint for the line
Cracking ride by Rogla - powered up that brutal climb and his usual sprint. Van Eetvelt (sp?) will be feeling the burn for a long time!
That looked almost as hard as today's 5 minute climb into Lyme Park.
Also a cracking ride by Mikel Landa.
Lennert Van Eetvelt did a Lindsay Jacobellis style celebration (celebrating too early), school boy error. Great rider though.
Rolling start, flat finish - guaranteed sprint day. Wout has one win and has given up the red, but still wears the green - with only a narrow lead over Kaden Groves. SPRINT FINISH. I'm in the office so I think tonight will be a night to use the "timeline markers" on Discovery+ to skip to attacks / crashes / the last 20km
Eetvelt should have gone wider on the final bend. And not celebrated. The Roglic-Almeida-Landa triumvirate should start to bring in the points now. I had no expectations for Kuss, and Yates will be the super domestique again. Rolling rest day in the heat today, I think.
Riccitello looked good, I should have picked him
Rui Costa out after a slow speed crash into Owain Doull, who lost his grip on a small innocuous road bump. Almost 40C today. Top 50 places unchanged 😀
Tomorrow starts at the local Carrefour in Jerez. Somewhere I've been a few times as Son2 spent two years training in Jerez, then it's lumpy and a final climb to the finish... Breakaway day for Victor! (maybe) https://www.lavuelta.es/en/stage-6
Breakaway day for Victor! (maybe)
It would be nice to see Victor and Thomas out there together. But how would they decide who wins?
Nobody expected that
Some red faces on Bora and other “favourite “ teams !!
Roglic at 4:51, Almeida at 4:59. That's a serious gap!!
Hadn’t really been paying attention to the vuelta while I’ve been recovering emotionally from the TdFF. Popped it on for a casual look today, and as people on the internet might say I am now fully LOCKED IN.
I for one am absolutely gobsmacked they let Ben that far up the road. Normally at the end of a big effort like that you see fatigue towards the end, certainly on an uphill finish, but he just kept pulling out further. A great effort.
A proper mistake given the nature of his win in the 2021 TdF
That's going to make an interesting race even more interesting
LOVING IT! What a great day, suddenly it's made this race so much more interesting
I've been finding it hard to get into the Vuelta this year, and the first day I don't watch it, this happens!
It certainly changes the dynamics a bit.
It's been a long time since I've seen such a big gap. Apparently Adam Yates had a crash and came in a good few minutes after the main peloton. Very exciting race.
As was mentioned by the commentators, Matt White from Jayco ALULa must be rubbing his hands with glee signing Ben O'Connor.
A proper mistake given the nature of his win in the 2021 TdF
Not mention his results this year.
1st Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia
2nd UAE Tour with a win on Jebel Jais
5th Tirreno Adriatico
2nd Tour of the Alps
4th Giro d'Italia
One of the issue with watching via "timeline marker" catchup on Discovery+ is that while you do see important action that gets covered and the live coverage from 20km to go (or whereever you skip to) you don't know about other things that happen but only get mentioened in passing. I've learned today that Rigoberto Uran crashed on Stage 6 yesterday and had to withdraw, meaning this was his final race
https://www.cyclingstage.com/vuelta-2024/vuelta-2024-withdrawals/
Little Kenny Elissonde also withdrew in the stage, no idea why as yet. I did see both DvB and Rui Costa's crashes
Today is a rolling stage with a pokey little Cat 2 towards the back end.
the only KOM climb of the day goes by the name of Alto del 14%, which refers to the steepest ramp of the climb. The average gradient of the 8.4 kilometres long drag sits at 5.3%. A rolling section leads to the downhill before the last 12 kilometres are entirely flat.
https://www.cyclingstage.com/vuelta-2024-route/stage-7-spain-2024/
Looks like any sprinter who can climb will be in with a shout, so WvA has to be favourite surely?
https://www.cyclingstage.com/vuelta-2024-favourites/stage-7-contenders-spain-2024/
Wout - what a rider and what a gentleman!!
Wout – what a rider and what a gentleman!!
Pure class
Jumbo are such a close knit team.
Jumbo are such a close knit team.
Well compared to last year when they had 2 of their riders attacking their own red jersey they could only of got better ?