68venable

Itd be really great to see someone like Dumoulin take it all the way. I dont particularly think it would happen but itd make for an awesome race it the last week.

79pmooney

They haven't hit the mountains yet. Some hills and two Cat 3s make it a hard stage for a classics type. This isn't where Froome & Quintana shine. Froome did pick up a few seconds yesterday over Quintana. I didn't see the finish but I bet Quintana was stuck to Froome's wheel. If so, Froome would be going into the red to gain zero over his rival. Sunday, they hit a Cat 2, 4 Cat 1s and a Beyond Category with no flat ground. It will be a completely new race and if the current leaders are no longer within 5 minutes of those two, it won't surprise me at all.

Ben

TCR Rider

I don't think Froome is bleeding seconds. He was about 41 seconds back and as of today I think he's about 35 seconds back. I would speculate that the real GC contenders wouldn't want the red jersey this early in the race. I think the real fireworks will begin after the first rest day.

Leinster

Tomorrow should be the end of the shadow boxing. 18km uphill is different to 3 or 4. Roche will be working for Froome, not Roche. Aru and Landa won't be hiding and Valverde won't be following wheels waiting for a sprint finish.

Dumoulin can be a gc rider eventually, but for now I think he looks a bit too full in the face to have the right kg side of the W/kg equation. I think if he's within reach come the TT all bets could be off with no more summit finishes after that.

Martin finished 7th last year, but didn't have a GT in his legs. He definitely took some days off in France this year, and Chaves took a holiday at the Giro, so those 2 might actually be this strong.

Leinster

Or Froome could end up working for Roche. Who's to say?

PepeM

Oh boy. I was hoping today's stage would bring some action and it sure did. Wasn't expecting to see Froome being dropped there. He is still only 30 seconds behind Valverde, so no need to panic, but unless he recovers quickly Roche might be a better option for Sky.

patrickgm60

Finally, a successful break. Great final kick by Lindeman.

Aru rode that last km like a man possessed!

TJ still leads for Team BMC, but the margin is narrowing.

Blue Belly

Great stage! Can't wait to see what happens on Stage 11. Froome bit the dust here. Wonder if he'll get stronger as the race drags on? Chavez didn't look bad. Good to see a young top 10 GC after a mountain top finish.

Blue Belly

Did they ever say If it was a team car or Moro bike that took down the europcar rider?

Rich Gibson 

I do dislike the number of commercials USN has, but they are doing a lion share of cycling racing lately. At the end of yesterday's Vuelts time slot they threw in a Women's UCI event. Plus they are showing all the World's track and field championships all day long. Well worth the cost.

Rich

gpsblake

Did the Vuelta finally figure out how to crack Froome with the very steep inclines near the end of a stage?? It's possible Froome might be playing the top domestique for Roche thus dropped back on purpose to focus strictly on that goal.

Good race today

Looking at the further stages, Stage 11 just looks nasty and comes off a rest day.

Leinster

I very much doubt that. More likely Roche has been maintaining his GC position because Sky know Froome might not be 100% after his Tour efforts. Even if Roche is their go-to guy, it doesn't make sense for Froome to voluntarily roll in 15 seconds behind Nieve.

I suspect Movistar and Astana are going to put the pressure on on Wednesday and see who cracks of the current top 4. Aru clearly has good legs, we'll see soon enough how much better he is/isn't than Chaves and Dumoulin.

Caretaker

Aru certainly rode himself into the favourite's slot today. Froome may just have been having a bad day and could improve in the days to come. Roche will do well to make top five and Dan Martin will be happy with a stage win and possibly top ten.

Ken Brown

I agree that the current top 4 will probably not be on the podium in Madrid. Therefore, the GC standings start with Valverde, Rodrigues 7 second behind, Quintana & Aru 8 seconds behind, etc. On the other hand, maybe Chaves is the real thing, the JJ Cobo of 2015.

(sorry,Cobo is a bad example. I don't expect Chaves, or anyone, to be as inconsistent as Cobo)

Leinster

Or Dumoulin could be the Melcior Mauri? (Probably not enough TT for him to pull it off...)

Leinster

Crash takes out Martin, Van Garderen, Bouhanni and Boeckemans. Then a Moto knocks Sagan down in the final kms as the sprint was building up.

Stage winner Jasper Stuyven was in the big crash of the day too.

PepeM

Hectic stage. Sagan was furious there.

Giacomo 1 

"Hectic" doesn't begin to explain that crazy stage!

How could two cat 3 mountains cause so much action and mayhem? It was tough to keep up with all the moves and which group was which.

Tough to see TJ go out, as I had high hopes for him to do well here. But I feel even worse for Dan Martin, who took chances, rode aggressively and turned himself inside out everyday and was third and looking good here.

How about Chavez? He was caught up in that big accident, yet re mounted, kept his cool and not only caught the peloton, but met every attack, and bridged gaps, even from Valverde, who was riding in his hometown. All credit to his team Orica for getting him back. I think this kid is looking pretty good right now, as none of the GC favorites seem to have any pop in their legs for this GT...

Leinster

Boeckmans is in an induced coma, apparently. Sounds serious.

Stuyven won won the sprint despite a broken scaphoid in his wrist.

And Sagan was fined 300 Swiss Francs for kicking out at the official vehicles after he got run over.

TCR Rider

I was really sorry to see Dan Martin withdraw. He was putting it all out there every day. Did they ever say what (who) caused the crash. What about Alex Howes? Lost track of him after he crashed on the descent. Seemed he was passed after leading the stage when he had to stop after he got up after the crash to put his chain back on. Too bad. Did he finish with the lead bunch?
Really wild day. It's beginning to look like Froome is not on very good form so far. Still a lot of time but I haven't seen any reason to think he'll be in the mix going forward.

Jakedatc

All of these moto and car crashes are becoming BS.... They need to have some rule that all cars and non camera motos drop to the back at like 10k to go or something. No reason for a neutral service moto to be anywhere near the group inside 10k

Giacomo 1 

Howes came in way back, over 15 minutes behind.

From Cycling News on the accident and Boekmans condition -

PepeM

That is seriously sad.

Marcus_Ti

Stuyven has abandoned

diphthong

holy cow! what a race of attrition! it's getting ridiculous.
what else could possibly go wrong? don't answer that.