Leinster

I hate when people declare a race over with 10 stages to go. Aru has a 27 second lead over Rodriguez and 30 over Dumoulin. There's plenty of scope for him to have bad days (like Froome did today), and he'll definitely lose time to both on the TT. Chaves and Valverde's chances are less, but I'd say even they and Majka could still finish ahead of any of the current top 3. Aru is probably the favourite now, (especially as he seems to have the strongest team supporting him) but now they have to go to the front and defend a jersey over some tough stages. There's a long way to go.

gpsblake

Very competitive for the overall in this years Vuelta in my opinion. Odds makers love Aru at this point at 5/11

Viking55803

I am a bit surprised that Froome carried today and also how Quintana suffered. Also Ian Boswell - where the heck did he come from?

bikepro

I couldn't agree more! Now this:

Paulinho out of Vuelta after another moto incident - VeloNews.com

The driver should be handed a huge fine and banned from any cycling event. The rider should then be able to sue the driver as well. Enough is enough! Riding these events is dangerous enough, but it is part of racing. Being run down by careless media drivers is not.

DLBroox

Why did Froome crash? I haven't seen any video.

cthenn

Man I want to slap that Gulpgulpski guy through my TV. He would NOT shut up about Landa not waiting for Aru. Dude, he won the freaking stage, you aren't going to tell the guy who is leading the race to just stop and wait for your teammate. Guy goes apesh*t when Froomedonkey does his hilarious full alien mode, but cannot hide his butthurt when a non-Anglo wins the stage by not "waiting for his teammate". This is the same moron who openly questioned Quintana a few years ago during the Tour of the Basque country, flat out calling him a suspected doper. I think this guy has a problem with non-anglo riders showing their strength. Terrible.

Oh, and Aru has the race lead, Landa won the stage, and Aru said after the stage they had planned on taking the stage with Landa. So Gulpgulpski, you have no clue.

cthenn

Because his bike handling skills are on par with a 5 Year old girl just learning to ride on training wheels.

Caretaker

The road narrowed and he was pushed into a barrier, nothing wrong with his bike handling skills which he proved in the TdF recovering from a similar situation early in the race.

Anyway he continued on in the stage after sustaining a broken bone in his foot but has now not surprisingly pulled out.

Froome out of the Vuelta a Espana after checks reveal a fracture in his foot | Cyclingnews.com

I've high regard for him for taking on the Vuelta after his win in the Tour and I'm sorry to see him forced out.

The bike handling skills of the motorcycle riders are what should be really called into question.

Leinster

This.

Marcus_Ti

He claims he was pushed...more likely the fact that Froome isn't looking away from his stem 95% of the time and wasn't looking where he was going played into it greatly.

Ken Brown

Yes, I agree. He should watch where he is going! I admire him for finishing the stage, though.

Ken Brown

What happened to Roche? It seemed to be a big mistake that he dropped back to help Froome while he was 4th in the GC. Then Froome was left with just Thomas and I assumed that Roche and the others had gone ahead to try to salvage his GC position. Surprised to discover after the stage was over that Roche did not go ahead but fell back, finishing well behind the injured Froome. Did he just run out of gas/petrol?

Leinster

Nieve stayed up front the whole stage, so I doubt Roche was ever asked/instructed to fall back. Sounds like his injuries from his crashes on the 2 previous stages caught up with him. You'd still expect him to be able to keep up with Froome with a broken foot, though. I thought I saw a Sky rider wearing 8 in the front group not long after Froome was initially dropped, but in hindsight it must have been Nieve's no3.

Sky will obviously want to do the best for Nieve for the rest of the race, but I wonder will the likes of Roche, Thomas and Boswell now be given the freedom to go stage hunting over the next 10 days?


Good win for vPoppel today. Giant and Degenkolb again not getting it done in the sprints. Is it because they're holding a couple of guys in reserve to work for Dumoulin?


Oh, and heard on today's commentary that Moto riders have been instructed to give racers a 15m buffer. Good.

Marcus_Ti

They weren't instructed, as far as we know...that was Kelly and Kirby agreeing on an ideal safety bubble.

Leinster

Fair enough, I wasn't 100% listening to them, and I did wonder why I saw nothing about it on any other cycling sites.

Marcus_Ti

They seem to think that all they camera motos need are zoom lenses, and they can get the same pictures 15m away....which isn't exactly true. Good lenses are made of glass, especially the HD telescopic lenses for cameras...and they weigh a ton. I work in live productions and when crews come through to film the band they never trust anyone but themselves to schlep the 30lb+ zoom lens telescopes they need for 20m worth of zoom to get close face shots of the band from 30+m.

TCR Rider

Superb riding by Boswell. He's been having a good year in fact I felt Sky should have included him on their TdF squad.

gpsblake

Great stage today (12), suspense right down to the last couple of meters if the breakaway would hold or not. Danny Van Poppel takes the win with his first grand tour stage win.

Froome is yet another example of why professional cyclist are some of the toughest SOB's on the planet, broken foot, still finishes the stage yesterday.

Blue Belly

Stage 16 should be fun. That's where it "could" be decided. I agree the top 3 are close enough for anything to happen right now. Aru will need more time

Ken Brown

They talked about it being increased to 10 metres on Universal Sports, so it must have come from somewhere. Five or ten metres makes sense front and back but no roads are wide enough to leave that much room while passing. I envy you for getting Kirby and Kelly.

dcsix

Has anyone heard a suggestion to put some kind of noisemaker/alert on the moto's? It could work like a deer whistler, maybe just a distinct, not too annoying sound on all moto's (and cars?) moving in the peloton so a rider has a better heads up as to what's coming from behind or alongside. I realize there's a whole lot of noise going on already, but something's got to be done. In listening to UCI's Brian Cookson on Universal last night, he must've said three or four times how the riders need to be careful too!? Excuse me?

busygizmo

So we are clear, I wasn't declaring the race over. Was merely pointing out that for a lot of the GC contenders the day was as decisive as the organizers hoped and the GC battle has been whittled down to probably no more than 6 if Valverde can fully recover from his crash. What was disappointing to me was that Quintana and Froome didn't make that group and also the two riders that can animate a race when they aren't at 100% (Contador and Nibali) aren't left in the race or didn't start.

I still think a lot of interesting things can happen and will root for Rodriguez to finally break through and win a grand tour, Can Dumoulin limit losses over the weekend? Is Aru the strongest? He faded a little in the Giro towards the end.

Hopefully the results don't keep teams from sending their best riders at the Tour back to the Vuelta next year.

Leinster

It'll much more likely be the TV motos that do that.

busygizmo

Bad year for accidents in Spanish races. Stetina supposedly was walking with a cane still at Colorado.

Giacomo 1 

I know a lot of guys are enjoying this race, but I enjoy the Tour a lot more.

So many of the riders are simply burnt out by the time this GT comes around, and anyone that has ridden the Tour is fried for this race leaving it open for pretty much anyone to win. The top guys in this race are often riders that couldn't make the top 20 at the Tour, yet here, they are winners or on the podium. Does anyone believe that Dumoulin could have ridden like this in the Tour? Even the sprints are boring, as the best guys don't come here or they just leave early. Some guys might like the unpredictability that all of this brings to the race, but I'd rather see the top guys on top of their form rather than guys coming in fried, tired and just going through the motions.

This might be a Grand Tour to far...just saying...