August 28, Stage 9: Villacastín - Sierra de Bejar. La Covatilla 179.5km

ednwireland

Villacastín - Sierra de Bejar. La Covatilla

Breakaway day?

After the previous day’s brutally steep conclusion, today’s leg brings a more traditional summit finish on the Covatilla climb. The stage mainly stays in the shadow of the Sierra de Ávila, although there are enough lumps to encourage breakaways. They will be hoping they achieve enough of a buffer on the bunch to hold out to the top of the Covatilla, which rises for 10km at an average of 7.4 per cent. It’s been five years since the race last climbed to this resort, perhaps because of its association with local hero Roberto Heras, who was stripped of a fourth Vuelta win in 2005 for EPO use.





better do this now lap the lough tomorrow

Bukman13

4 riders in the breakaway today.

216 Ligthart (NED, VCD) +53:55
129 S. Lang (GER, OLO) +54:22
29 Toribio (ESP, ACG) +1:21:21
214 Keizer (NED, VCD) +1:43:24

9mins and 30seconds clear, with 65km left.

Difficult to see any of the GC riders chasing that group down, the last few days have been tough and with the time trial tomorrow I expect many of them to be looking towards that.

petethedrummer

Jesus, this ITV4 coverage is paaaaaaainful. Now I know what everyone was complaining about during the Tour.

dastardly00

Katusha are really putting the hammer down on the climb!

el tel

In many ways I'm glad of Itv4, as soon as i get tired of listening to Carlton Kirbys nonsense wittering I can flick over for a while. Yer man on Itv does sound very scripted though. Is just a pity sky dont give eurosport in the other languages, would rather have German or French than Kirby.

petethedrummer

Its not so much the race commentator, he's just a bit dull. But the main presenter and Matt Rendell are unlistenable and the amount of time they get is ridiculous.

mahoo

roche and martin attacking together! great to see

dastardly00

C'mon the Irish!

John.Icy

Dan drops Nico no suprise....great stuff by Dan...dont think Roche should have bothered, he could blow up big time.

el tel

Dan Martin getting lots of air time!

Yes, rendall should stick to writing.

petethedrummer

Great stuff from Wiggins too.

John.Icy

wow this is crazy, purito is blown!

el tel

Savage stage, some speed at the front. Can Dan take it??o

JacksonHeightsOwn

John.Icy wrote: »

wow this is crazy, purito is blown!

Wiggins is absolutely drilling them here

Crazy riding

Yay, an Irish grand tour stage winner

Get the **** in!!!!!!!!!!

el tel

Yesssss!

Pherekydes

Well done, Dan!

CheGuedara

Nicely done!

dastardly00

DAN THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mahoo

wohoooo! good man dan!.... savage ride by wigo. i see why they were talking him up for the tour now. ... thats 6 stage wins in a row for my fantasy team

sportfanatic

Well done Dan, great effort...any sign of Nico?

petethedrummer

Nice one Martin.

Animal stuff by Wiggins.

John.Icy

Great dig by Martin at the end! Brilliant win.

Roche made the mistake of using energy to follow Dan...it all came back in the end but he was spent after his little venture. Maybe 45 seconds down.

Pherekydes

Roche was 19th @ 47 secs.

goldencleric

Dan learned to sprint on the drops

Gwan the Irish!

petethedrummer

And now for all the complaints of this result not getting enough coverage in the Irish media.

ROK ON

A grueling 5 hour ride with lots of hills.
Home and the house is empty.
Gorgeous ham sandwich and can of coke.
Say final 25mins of today's stage.
The Dan just does it.

If Carlsberg did cycling Sunday's . . .

Great win - was worried for a while there. I love Martin. He is never afraid to give it a real good go. The step up I've been hoping for. Hopefully he kicks on from here now.
Great day great result.
Jaysus that Wiggins lad pulled it all out today. Great ride.

manafana

id said this before race i think dan is much better gc rider than roche, and hes got team behind him now like he didnt before.

bit disapointed backed dan 2.8 win stage when away with nibali he hit 10-20 when wiggans caught them. serious ride by wiggans showed he can really pace his climbs and his tour hopes might not be so crazy if he can ride good tempo.

Pherekydes

Martin takes over the Polka dots!

ROK ON

If it wasn't for the time penalty he would be 5th on GC.
Currently 11th, Wiggo 12th, Nico 19th.

SAINTRON

Excellent, the breakthrough has been made.....Well done Daniel...:D

John.Icy

manafana wrote: »

id said this before race i think dan is much better gc rider than roche, and hes got team behind him now like he didnt before.

You cant be sure yet, on merit Roche is better(results in GT's), but if Dan can keep performing so well over the whole GT, he has a great chance at a very good GC placing...we'll see in Madrid

On the team behind him point, he has had next to zero help in the hilly stuff really, hopefully he can continue not needing it

Wiggins could take the leadership tomorrow, if not very close to it...Dan and Nico need to limit the time they lose...less than 3 minutes behind the winner tomorrow is needed.

NickDrake

Any mention of it on the news yet I wonder? I doubt they will even mention it on the six one news.

Bet the bogball will get a mention though

Stokolan

Nice result. It would have been nice if Roche could have stayed with him to the end.

Hail 2 Da Thief

Awesome ride by Dan! Cool seeing him & Nico both attacking together.
Shame about that 40 sec time penalty the other day.

Pherekydes

NickDrake wrote: »

Bet the bogball will get a mention though

Do you mean one of our national sports? Well fancy that.

NickDrake

Pherekydes wrote: »

Do you mean one of our national sports? Well fancy that.

Who was interested apart from the Dubs and the Donegal massive.

Well done Dan. A fantastic achievement in an international competition

Beached

That was a great win by Dan Martin, I didnt think he would have a burst like that coming into the last 300m.
The eurosport commentry was very hard to take though, ud think wiggans had won the stage the way they were going on!!!

They just mentioned the cycling on Radio Kerry a few min ago,
funny enough, the mentioned the Dublin Donegal match also

Pherekydes

NickDrake wrote: »

Who was interested apart from the Dubs and the Donegal massive.

Well done Dan. A fantastic achievement in an international competition

I'm sure Gaelic football fans watch the All-Ireland semi-final, regardless of their county affiliation, just like cycling fans watch cycling.

donfers

2 questions to the more learned cycling folks here

1) what's dan amrtin's timetrailing pedigree like?

excellent, good, average, poor or terrible

2) any news on his appeal for the 40 second penalty? if he ends up losing the tour by say 35 seconds wll he be the first person to lose a major tour because of a time penalty - if so that's a disgrace because the inconsistency in terms of applying time penalties for those lads who ride behind cars is shocking, if a spaniard wins the race by 35 from dan it'll look like he was cheated out of it

NickDrake

Pherekydes wrote: »

I'm sure Gaelic football fans watch the All-Ireland semi-final, regardless of their county affiliation, just like cycling fans watch cycling.

I'd say most people turned off the game as it was meant to be absolute total rubbish

Colmo52

Great win today by Dan. Well deserved.

cyclopath2001

NickDrake wrote: »

Any mention of it on the news yet I wonder? I doubt they will even mention it on the six one news.

Breaking news on the Irish Independent: Mollema Edges ahead

What an utterly pathetic, useless newspaper, an utter disgrace.

Well done Dan!

RTE got it right with 'Gutsy Vuelta stage win by Martin' Clearly, the lights are still on at Montrose.

themandan6611

Pherekydes wrote: »

Martin takes over the Polka dots!

backed him at 22/1

John.Icy

Roche must be relieved, didn't lose a second on GC, still 2:05 down.

Chips Lovell

Just got to watch it there. Delighted for Martin. That was some great riding to first attack, then start trading pulls with Nibali and than hang on to a rampaging Wiggins and still have the legs to take the sprint. After his performances in the likes of the Tour of Poland it's great to see him take the next step up. His win really showcased what he's all about, a great climber with a strong finishing kick.

Ride of the day though for me was Wiggins. When you'd expect him to be limiting his losses and looking at tomorrow's TT, he bossed that stage and put the climbers like Rodriguez, Scarponi, Moreno and Van Den Broeck to the sword. He was awesome.

John.Icy wrote: »

Roche made the mistake of using energy to follow Dan...it all came back in the end but he was spent after his little venture. Maybe 45 seconds down.

John.Icy wrote: »

Roche must be relieved, didn't lose a second on GC, still 2:05 down.

I wouldn't fault Roche. He didn't blow up and stayed with the chasers a lot longer than othes. He finished ahead of Rodriguez and Scarponi. No shame in that. Looks like he's finally riding himself into a bit of form after a nightmare year.

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Breaking news on the Irish Independent: Mollema Edges ahead

What an utterly pathetic, useless newspaper, an utter disgrace.

Eh, that's a PA report.

manafana

John.Icy wrote: »

You cant be sure yet, on merit Roche is better(results in GT's), but if Dan can keep performing so well over the whole GT, he has a great chance at a very good GC placing...we'll see in Madrid

On the team behind him point, he has had next to zero help in the hilly stuff really, hopefully he can continue not needing it

Wiggins could take the leadership tomorrow, if not very close to it...Dan and Nico need to limit the time they lose...less than 3 minutes behind the winner tomorrow is needed.

theirs more to cycling than GTs and thats what im going on dan nearly won poland again this year, he hasnt done the tour like roche yet but talent wise hes better ride much more able in one week races and better tt racer.
Well they wherent on climb with him but their supporting him and hes not got a boss ahead him.

corny

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

I wouldn't fault Roche. He didn't blow up and stayed with the chasers a lot longer than othes. He finished ahead of Rodriguez and Scarponi. No shame in that. Looks like he's finally riding himself into a bit of form after a nightmare year.

Roche knocked it off on the steeper section i thought but from Twitter "Somehow when it gets flater i have issues folowing!".

Great ride by Martin and Wiggins. Not normally big on the Wiggo worship on Eurosport but he deserved every bit of it today. Himself and Froome rode a number of 'climbers' straight off the wheel. Think he'll win overall as defending in the mountains is right up his street. Dan has a good TT and he can get top 5, maybe a podium.

GetWithIt

PP's 7/2 for Wiggins to Podium and 13/8 to beat Menchov are looking pretty good right now.

sxt

Last few minutes of stage. in spanish? ola?. Allez Nico et Dano !


Lol, at 2:34
epiC at 7:03

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkrf66_la-vuelta-2011-stage-9-villacastin-sierra-de-bejar-la-covatilla-183km-7_sport

ednwireland

great pic