Vuelta Stage 12: Almería - Alto de Velefique 179km Sept 11th

HuwB

Showdown time in the monster mountains.

Bartali

This is where Liquigas and Caisse go to war. We'll learn a lot tomorrow.

Enchantress

Adds: and any notion of Cuddles winning get put to rest.... Smile

HuwB

This is why I am liking this year's route.
I have a rule of thumb for MTFs in Grand Tours.
Climbs must be over 7% minimum average gradient.
Length isn't so important.
Always sorts the men out from the boys.
In the past, the Vuelta have been guilty of including too many +5% neverending grinds,
that favour the team train trial, a la Le Tour.

This stage starts with a near Spanish Alpe D'huez and ends with the same,
while throwing a Croix de Fer into the mid section.

Tomorrow has the hardest possible ascent of Sierra Nevada,
over the dredded Monachil and Pandera also ends with a major ramp.

Real climber's territory and no place for the faux furred goats.

Bartali

Recording the race at home so will try and stay away from this thread for the afternoon!

HuwB

I'm safe then, Bart? Wink

CURRENT SITUATION

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), David Garcia (Xacobeo), Alexander Vinokourov (Astana), Bingen Fernandez (Cofidis), Borut Bozic (Vacansoliel), Julien El Fares (Cofidis), Julian Sanchez (Contentpolis), Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank) and Arkaitz Duran (Fuji)

Peloton at 7:10

kathy

I am watching TDP online, here

http://www.rtve.es/deportes/ciclismo/directo/

But I doubt it works outside Spain.

cardinal guzman

maffy

it's on at the http://tourofmissouritracker.com too Wink

HuwB

Well done boys and girls! Smile

http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-la-vuelta-a-espana.html
Full screen here...Excellent pics
Well behind the clock, too, so we'll get a big helping.
Hopefully, we'll have this option throught the weekend.

HuwB

Ugh....Valverde's gone into "chicken shorts". Embarassed

Disco Tom still riding towards the front of the group, which says a lot.
Vino needs a 4 star top up...

Who's the Aussie commentator.....Nathan O'Neill? Confused

cardinal guzman

maffy

huw, it's matt keenan, i think. hope he's fully recovered from his accident.

HuwB

kathy

Just been winding up the guys on TDP chat with Slapshot's story about Contador going to Garmin. They don't like it Laughing

HuwB

Enchantress

Valverde sitting a bit back, wonder if this will be the day of his undoing...

Garcia might have a shot at the win up ahead.

Mrs John Murphy

Cunego goes

Enchantress

mosquera showing himself again

Mrs John Murphy

Where is Cuddles?

Enchantress

Cuddles, Birillo & Piti hanging together a bit behind

70kmph

he in the white jersey

Enchantress

peloton just cruising up.

70kmph

nice move by gesink

Enchantress

great win by hesjedal and the wheel sucking of garcia didn't get the victory.

HuwB

Pardon my French, but what a fucking waste of time.
Caisse are obviously USPSeed and the dickheads who are laughly described as contenders are happy to sing from Piti's hymn sheet.

They are duller than sheep.
If Mosquera, Cunego and, of course, Gesink hadn't stirred them from their collective comas, the rest would have happily conceeded 20 seconds to Valverde at the line.

Thank gawd for Hesjedal and Garcia.

A miserable waste of a great stage.

Mrs John Murphy

Huw - given the way Leaky have ridden the Giro, the TDF and now the Vuelta are you really that shocked?

Enchantress

Mrs John Murphy

Basso's shitty riding this year makes me think that maybe he is slightly cleaner than before.

Enchantress

More than likely, yes, he's on some b-grade stuff.

HuwB

The one ray of sunshine, for me, is Cunego.
He's got far more of his fair share of knockers, but, at least he's still in contension and attacking fluently.
I have never been partically fond of the Little Prince, since his antics with Simoni, but I reckon he has earned a break or two.

A pity about Piti's remarkable domestiques.

Basso is looking for turd, IMO, but Gesink is doing his best to light a fire under the defensive brigade.

Shit: At one point at the foot of the final climb, we had a bout of team "after you Claude" wheelsucking.
3 teams all waiting for the other to work.

SlowRower

Steady on, Huw. You'll be pining for the Tourmalet stage of this year's Tour if you're not careful.

One of the TV feeds actually got through to my PC at work so I was able to watch all the "drama". I was impressed by the quality of the road surface and the brightness of the white lines up the final climb. Didn't look very steep to me, but I suppose this depends on whether you're on a saddle or a nice padded office chair!

Fontfroide

It was a bit disappointing in the end. In fact, it was nearly boring. No race up a mountain is without a bit of suspense, but without Gesink and Cunego and the first Canadian, it must be said that I am not seeing the race I wanted. Maybe I should be patient.

Which makes me think that the riders make the race, not the route. So if the riders do not attack, the route is just wasted. The guys, like Gesink, who can't really time trial that well, are the ones who are likely to attack, assuming they have the legs. Evans can just sit in and wait for the TT. Basso looks so smooth I don't quite fully grasp why he does not try something. I guess he still might.

As a parenthesis, I am pissed off that my sprinters on the Fantasy teams are dropping like flies, both on the real team and the experimental one. I thought that this Worlds was more for climbers than sprinters, or at least power guys than sprinters. Its like they don't have much respect for the Vuelta. I guess the Tour is the only race people don't drop out of to prepare for another race.

Enchantress

Heh, yes, isn't Cunego doing a reasonable impersonation of a GC contender so far? Well, at least until the TT Smile

Today was definitely a parade lap up the mountain, for everyone but Mosquera & Gesink. At least those 2 lads understand that their only chance to win is by attacking in the mountains. Whereas Basso is doing his best Cuddles impersonation so far, by clinging to wheels and not much else.

Wonder if Cuddles-Basso-Valverde must have had an almost tacit understanding that they would neutralize today's stage. At one point I think Don Alejandro was sitting in about 8 bikes back, which would have been a perfect time for Cuddles or Basso to attack, but nothing came of it.

Hopefully a race of some sort will break out on tomorrow's MTF.

HuwB

I wouldn't bank on it. That would require someone to blow it apart on the Monachil, as the SN climb will suit the train. Anyone that fearless?
Folks are awaiting the Pandera and Sanchez is waiting for next weekend.
Reason for today's non-event? A headwind, apparently.

GC
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 51:12:38
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto 0:00:07
3 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:00:18
4 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Slipstream 0:00:51
5 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas 0:00:53
6 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:03
7 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-NGC 0:02:13
8 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:02:14
9 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Astana 0:03:53
10 Joaquím Rodríguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:04:01
11 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Lampre-NGC 0:04:10
12 Juan José Cobo (Spa) Fuji-Servetto 0:04:28
13 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:04:57
14 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Astana 0:05:12
15 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil 0:06:39

Can anyone spot who's missing?
Yes, the Slovenian phantom had a bad one, today. A rare event.

Mrs John Murphy

Going back to the parcours/riders debate. Even if you have good parcours, if the riders are a bunch of ball-less wheel sucking pussies then you are going to get stages like this.

Basso has been a complete waste of time since coming back. He should have stayed retired.

Enchantress

Birillio appears to have morphed into a strange cross between Cuddles& LL. Er, but without the TT ability and propensity to headbutt or accost the media Smile

Great course out there certainly but sadly, no boldness as of yet in the GC men save for Gesink & Mosquera.

This is where the rather aggressive, if oftentimes unconventional tactics, of the likes of Vino made a race much more exciting.

I'm hoping with the Alto de Monachil and just a mere 1/2 km of recovery before the Sierra Nevada, that tomorrow doesn't become another glorified rest day. If the little prince made an appearance in this race then certainly the GC men have no excuse!

70kmph

Last KM

Link

Bartali

Dull stage!!!

Think some are being hard on Basso (spoken like a true fan boy). Its not like he's spent the whole year since his come back following wheels is it - and some solid results too!

3º in Japan Cup, Utsunumiya (JPN)
5º in General Classification Tour de San Luis (ARG)
5º in General Classification Tirreno - Adriatico (ITA)
1º in General Classification Giro del Trentino (ITA)
5º in General Classification Giro d'Italia (ITA)

Today he was clearly shadowing Vaverde. Gesink and TD are not considered true threats - maybe a mistake - neither has shown they have what it takes in a 3 wk GT. Lets see what happens ... but today was containment and not good viewing but he is probably waiting for Valverde to get tired ... which he will.

Oh ... and I think you'll find his next ITT is up there unless it rains! 8th in prologue was very respectable.

mayofan

Mrs John Murphy

So fucking what? If he's clean then it goes to show just what a joke the years before 2006 were. He's as much of joke as all the other junkies who try to comeback.

Well done on spotting the mistake about retirement - you win the award for pointless anal retentiveness.

Bartali

.... only difference is that he is clearly competitive in both 1 wk and 3 wk races which is more than can be said for most of the others eg Landis, Hamilton etc

Mrs John Murphy

MS

How in the world is Basso more of a "true threat" than Gesink?

We must be watching different races.

Me, a fan?

Happy to see Hesjedal pull it off at the end. Cunego and Danielson have captivated my interest/curiousity/cynicism. Will there be a mountain stage where the scenery is pleasant on the eyes?

Bartali

MS - simply because Gesink has relatively little three week pedigree and has hitherto made serious tactical mistakes in i week races. On the plus side he is still young.

Fontfroide

Just checked Gesink before I posted, and he lost only a minute in the first ITT on the real guys. I thought he could not do TT very well. In addition there seems no real reason to suspect Evans will gain time on Sanchez or Danielson, for example. So I talked twaddle. They ALL have a reason to attack, the ones that don't can go die in spectator hell, as far as I am concerned. Reading recently about Hinault has got to me, I say attack, attack. I guess I still hope they are going to do some racing.

cardinal guzman

The 'top' riders are clearly trying to reinforce the view that the Vuelta is boring.

Flying in the face of pubic opinion (sic), I've always liked the Vualta because it's been the one major where, just sometimes, a mountain stage is ridden like a classic with all the contenders going at as hard as possible until only the fittest are left standing.

It looks like those days are gone. If they keep these performances up, they'll kill this race completely. A three-week tour of Britain looms.....

MS

Bartali

You're on MS!

mayofan

Bartali