La Vuelta Stage 17: Castellón - Llucena / Camins del Penyagolosa

Daroxtar

Stage 17:Castellón - Llucena / Camins del Penyagolosa 177.5km



Well what can La Vuelta throw at us next? I know, a final climb of 4km@13% and ramps hitting 22%.




Quintana maintains his lead of 3;37 over Froome, 3;57 over Chaves and 4;02 on Bertie with Simon Yates back on 5;07 making up the top 5.

pelevin

Whereas till now largely Froome could be defensive to Quintana's need for aggression cos of the looming tt, roles have reversed now somewhat. After his fantastic life-affirming performance on Sunday, I'd love to see Contador at least get a podium but I'd say he's still not at his best after his crash so we'll see. Orica's two cards to play might see them getting a little out of the box though I'd expect a full-on Sky controlling performance after their humbling on Sunday. Anyway it'll all be very tense at least.

godtabh

Froome will have to go for it and hope to catch a break similar to the other day. Doubt it will happen.

MPFGLB

Froome and SKY to go all out to try and win the stage
whatever happens it will be a dog fight I think...if Froome has any fight he has to try and win and by some margin


BtW I just like to point out I am leading the Boardsie fantasy leagure at the Vuelta AND at ToB...just wanted to point out how great I am ...so I'll be off now

Brian?

Sky will put a man up the road, drill the bottom half of the climb and launch Froome. Froome will explode and Quintana will take another minute.

pelevin

Contador will attack from the gun with two teammates and Valverde, and will gain 23 minutes on everyone.

retalivity

Had a look at the climb on google maps...stretview doesnt go up it, but the start is narrow as hell and in the middle of nowhere. Apparently the first 2km is tar while the last 2 km is concrete

Daroxtar

"Hormigon"
Looks like an evil road

neris

Daroxtar wrote: »

"Hormigon"
Looks like an evil road

looks like deadly tv viewing :D

neris

21% on the last climb,, at what percentage does a bike just stop and keel over?

terrydel

Shock horror, Tejay Van Garderen abandons.
Must be the biggest mental weakling in cycling.

DominoDub

Just watched a RECON of the finish climb just now on Eurosport :eek:

22% !!!!!!

robyntmorton

Eurosport just showed Juan Antonio going up there. Jeez, my legs are gone on the couch just looking at it!

neris

Flechas recon on Eurosport looked mad, the road on the last climb looks like a service road for a forest, ****ty surface, narrow, exposed and twisty

neris

cannondale missed the breakaway............................................................... again

fishfoodie

neris wrote: »

21% on the last climb,, at what percentage does a bike just stop and keel over?

I think it'd look something like this ...

Decuc500

terrydel wrote: »

Shock horror, Tejay Van Garderen abandons.
Must be the biggest mental weakling in cycling.

He went into the race with the purpose of helping Sanchez and trying for stage wins. It didn't work out. His form obviously isn't there. So now he's a 'mental weakling'?

I'd rather believe in and support a rider like Van Garderen than some of the former dopers/miracle workers sprinting up these climbs and getting all the plaudits for it.

terrydel

Decuc500 wrote: »

He went into the race with the purpose of helping Sanchez and trying for stage wins. It didn't work out. His form obviously isn't there. So now he's a 'mental weakling'?

I'd rather believe in and support a rider like Van Garderen than some of the former dopers/miracle workers sprinting up these climbs and getting all the plaudits for it.

Has nothing to do with doping/not doping.
Plenty of riders keep going when out of form or with injuries, its part of the sport.
That's my opinion of him, he literally or metaphorically quits under pressure.

Daroxtar

28 man break away 5;48 up the road with 42 km to go


Imanol Erviti and José Herrada (Movistar), Michael Gogl (Tinkoff), Michal Golas and Leopold König (Sky), Silvan Dillier and Danilo Wyss (BMC), Robert Gesink and Bram Tankink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Simon Gerrans and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-BikeExchange), Dario Cataldo (Astana), Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Haimar Zubeldia (Trek-Segafredo), Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Soudal), Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data), Mathias Frank and Clement Chevrier (IAM Cycling), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Christoph Pfingsten and Scott Thwaites (Bora-Argon 18), Pello Bilbao and Jaime Roson (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie)

Gallant_JJ

Cataldo and Frank (Astana and IAM) gone of the front of the break, 30 sec with 18km to go

retalivity

Gesink set the new strava kom yday for the final climb...available still @2/1 for the stage!

neris

oh..ree..ca bike exchange

neris

retalivity wrote: »

Gesink set the new strava kom yday for the final climb...available still @2/1 for the stage!

he was carltons favourite earlier so probably been jinxed unless carltons rethought his favourite and his new bet is simon clarke :rolleyes:

neris

that looks nasty

mossym

so if movistar boss the climb here with a bunch of riders on the front will they get the same level of hatred and suspicion as sky when they do it?

neris

doesnt look like there,ll be much happening with the GC. contador, chaves, froomr and quintana all together

godtabh

Froome gone

neris

froome dropped and frank takes the stage,,,,just

terrydel

Contador attacking?

Gallant_JJ

Froome back. Top 4 in GC all together in last k

neris

froome looks to be struggling

Gallant_JJ

And all finished together. Froome like a yoyo, ballsy though

Gallant_JJ

And all finished together. Froome like a yoyo, ballsy though

terrydel

Gallant_JJ wrote: »

Froome back. Top 4 in GC all together in last k

What kinda time will froome get on the tt I wonder?

neris

that was a weird finish

neris

Over all

Inquitus

terrydel wrote: »

What kinda time will froome get on the tt I wonder?

General consensus is with both on top form he is good for 2 mins or more, but 3.5 mins is a bit too much.

MPFGLB

The phrase 'Froome is dropped' is so lame...He is never dropped
Better if comms said 'Wait Froome is about to spin up the washing machine' more correct and apt

pelevin

Great effort by Frank on another brutal murderous climb.
Never call Froome gone till it's over is certainly true. We've seen that kind of stuff from him before on more than one occasion.
I presume Contador is expected to comfortably overhaul Chaves in the tt?

WerethoBike

Great read news;
For those working daytime, that do not have leisure time to view live coverage today

The Replay if Stage 17 on Eurosport is in at 23:00 tonight
(The US Tennis biz this taking a lot of Eurosport tinetable!?
More Vuelta I thinks!)

It would have been if benefit to record the live coverage cof stage 17
C"east LA vie, velo & Vuelta

irishrover99

Just watching a recording of the stage today and love for the vuelta grows every year. I love how they are beach side and within 15 minutes there on a 22% climb without all the gob****es that the tdf attracts.

I also love how one Spanish copper with a batton keeps a whole group of fans in check by just puffing his chest out at them. No messing about with them

ILIKEFOOD

off topic Q r

am i just imaging that Eurosport 1, and Eurosport 1 HD were both on UPC and I had both and now all I have is Eurosport 1 HD and 2 HD and all I get is Tennis!?

Did Eurosport 1 regular disappear with the change to Virgin?

irishrover99

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

off topic Q r

am i just imaging that Eurosport 1, and Eurosport 1 HD were both on UPC and I had both and now all I have is Eurosport 1 HD and 2 HD and all I get is Tennis!?

Did Eurosport 1 regular disappear with the change to Virgin?

They are the same channel. Just hd and regular definition. Both had the same programs on them

pelevin

irishrover99 wrote: »

Just watching a recording of the stage today and love for the vuelta grows every year. I love how they are beach side and within 15 minutes there on a 22% climb without all the gob****es that the tdf attracts.

I also love how one Spanish copper with a batton keeps a whole group of fans in check by just puffing his chest out at them. No messing about with them

Yeah the crowd behaviour & control have been superb. A real absence of spectators trying to be the stars of the show.

neris

pelevin wrote: »

Yeah the crowd behaviour & control have been superb. A real absence of spectators trying to be the stars of the show.

The police arent taking any **** and a few of them of them havent been afraid at forcefully pushing fans back

pelevin

neris wrote: »

The police arent taking any **** and a few of them of them havent been afraid at forcefully pushing fans back

Yeah, they're not shy about their job but they don't look like they're over the top either, looking to be aggressive, which would spoil things in a different way.

robyntmorton

pelevin wrote: »

Yeah, they're not shy about their job but they don't look like they're over the top either, looking to be aggressive, which would spoil things in a different way.

I think they are able to do that because the locals know that they will not take any sh!t from them, so they are able to control it without doing much more than looking at the crowd.

Brian?

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

off topic Q r

am i just imaging that Eurosport 1, and Eurosport 1 HD were both on UPC and I had both and now all I have is Eurosport 1 HD and 2 HD and all I get is Tennis!?

Did Eurosport 1 regular disappear with the change to Virgin?

I sat down at 11 last night to watch the highlights. They were showing men's doubles on Eurosport 2, but the guide said the Vuelta was on. Disaster.

neris

Brian? wrote: »

I sat down at 11 last night to watch the highlights. They were showing men's doubles on Eurosport 2, but the guide said the Vuelta was on. Disaster.

the eurosport schedule is like irish train time tables

Lusk_Doyle

Brian? wrote: »

I sat down at 11 last night to watch the highlights. They were showing men's doubles on Eurosport 2, but the guide said the Vuelta was on. Disaster.

I watched until the end of the tennis and then set the recorder to start amd end later to account for the delay. I then watched an episode of Narcos and went to bed. Came home from work today and after the kids went to bed went to watch the last 10k of the race only to discover that it wasn't there. Just watched it in Russian on Youtube!

Lusk_Doyle

terrydel wrote: »

Shock horror, Tejay Van Garderen abandons.
Must be the biggest mental weakling in cycling.

That's a bit harsh on the lad. He is obviously trying his hardest but just can't go the distance on GTs at that level. Maybe his management need to cop on and take him away from GTs and put him in eight day races instead where his physical capabilities won't be as strained. I don't think that mental strength is an issue here versus physical factors.