Vuelta; Stage 15 (Sep 2): La Robla - Lagos de Covadonga;*contains unmasked spoilers*

dastardly00

Stage 15 (Sep 2): La Robla - Lagos de Covadonga
Distance: 186.7km
Highest point: 1,380m
Category: High mountains

"It may not be as tough as the Angliru or several of the other epic ascents that the Vuelta organisers have located recently but Lagos de Covadonga is arguably the race’s classic climb. Appearing for the 18th time on the route, it has regularly provided the launchpad for a move towards overall victory. The parcours gets severe 50km from the finish, where the riders start up the short cat 1 Puerto del Fito. Covadonga starts off gently but ramps up viciously just before the 10km banner. The 6km up to the infamous La Huesera – "the boneyard" – are brutal. The whole race could very well be won or lost here."

Stage profile:


Lagos de Covadonga:


Live coverage on Eurosport2 from 2pm.
Highlights on Eurosport2 at 7.45pm, and on ITV4 at 7pm.
Stage betting: Contador 6/4; Rodriguez 15/8; Valverde 8/1.

FrankGrimes

Am I remembering things wrong or in July did a subscription to Eurosport Player give you access to all channels, including the one showing the cycling live? When I login now, I just get two channels - British Eurosport 1 & 2 and neither are showing La Vuelta live today. Given it's the only reason I pay for the subscription, it's a bummer, anyone have a similar problem or know if I've subscribed to the wrong channels?

Rovi

'Technical' issue with the live feed from the home broadcaster, so Eurosport have gone to something else for a while.
They're hoping to be back with live stuff at 3.

Rovi

...and we're back live!

Darkglasses

Squeee! My fantasy team has broken the top ten. Keep it up, Backseatsmen!

dastardly00

The peloton have started the final climb. Saxo Bank are obliterating the main bunch.

retalivity

interesting stuff from saxo bank...

retalivity

froome knacked....and off they go!

ednwireland

retalivity wrote: »

froome knacked....and off they go!

certainly looks that way

retalivity

contador must hate the sight of rodriguez by now...

retalivity

Roche was dropped on that last climb, came in ~1 min down on froome, den tam, etc...

ednwireland

yep bad day for roche

dastardly00

I think Nocentini finished ahesd of Nico?

ednwireland

nice hat :eek:

retalivity

i think roche is down to 8th, still ahead of ten dam,.

vuelta site not updated with him yet.

TheBlaaMan

retalivity wrote: »

i think roche is down to 8th, still ahead of ten dam,.

vuelta site not updated with him yet.

Roche drops to 9th, Ten Dam and Talansky leap-frogging him....


EDIT: actually not shown in top10 at all..... Anton and Marczynski also over him..... ?? can that be right?

16:58:43 BST
GC:

1 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 58:17:21
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:22
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:41
4 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:02:16
5 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team 0:04:51
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:05:42
7 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin - Sharp 0:06:48
8 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:07:17
9 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:07:39
10 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team 0:09:01

retalivity

it was because he wasnt in yet. updated properly now

funnights74

This is Rodriguez's to lose, contador can't drop him at all, as soon as valverde saw that froome was hanging on at the back of the peleton off he went, not the froome of the tdf for sure.

MPFG

He is 9th ...4 seconds behind Ten Dam and 33 secs behind Telansky and a few secnds in front of Anton

Needs to pull in out of the ba tomorrow to move up again

Everyone has a bad day .....maybe he can come back on tomorrow stage

retalivity

i know its a horrible day again tomorrow, but I would love to see roche jump off the front of the peloton/leaders group tomorrow. I dot think the top 3 would be concerned with him...and i would love to see him attack to try and put time into talansky, den tam, etc.
unfortunately, i dont think hes that type of rider...will sit mwith everyone else until hes droppped again

MPFG

I agree I would also like to see Nico go for it ..but he is not built like the climbers
I expect he will go for it towards the end of the week where there are still mountians but not as high ...a stage with an uphill finish

Stage 21 looks good for this and maybe he will then go for the win

But all is not lost yet on GC .... he can mae it back and as said everyone has a bad day

Brian?

funnights74 wrote: »

This is Rodriguez's to lose, contador can't drop him at all, as soon as valverde saw that froome was hanging on at the back of the peleton off he went, not the froome of the tdf for sure.

I am very surprised at how well Rodriguez has hung onto Contador the last 2 stages. He let's Contador explode and then works his way back on quite handily. Great riding from Rodriguez, I was expecting to see Bertie keep going yesterday. Still think Contador can do it tomorrow, but then maybe I'm still expecting the Contador of 07-10 and he just can't do it anymore.

corny

I actually think Rodriguez could have put time into Contador today. Maybe if there was a flat stage or a rest day tomorrow he'd have tried to attack himself. Seems bomb proof at the minute but anything can happen and the one good thing about Contador is that he won't stop looking for weakness.

The TDF is catching up with Froome and Roche.

Sarz91

I fully expected Contador to just stop pedaling and throw the bike at Rodriguez. He's in the form of his life. Every grand tour he's been in he's either blown or underachieved. I'd like him to take it. I just hope it's all on the level.

dastardly00

Tweet from Nico (@nicholasroche) a few hours ago.

Not a good day.

ednwireland

corny wrote: »

The TDF is catching up with Froome and Roche.

more like team sky have come up against decent opposition, weakest TDF field in years

ROK ON

@Ed true to a point but this is an inferior Sky team to the TDF team.

It's Saxo and Katusha controlling the pace for much of the racing not Sky.
It would probably be more even if Froome was fresh and had the likes of Rogers etc at his disposal