Vuelta
 

Ok guys anybody saw today's stage??? and still more climbing stages to come...

Wonderful stage 14 today. The top four are slugging it out, day after day, like prizefighters. Brave but foolish attack from an obviously exhausted Froome at the start of the final kilometre, and yet another masterful exhibition from Purito to eviscerate Contador on the race to the line.

Froome is toast, I think, and Contador can't quite live with Rodriguez. And by the way, this race looks pretty clean to me, everyone is absolutely at their limits. The Devil himself wouldn't have overhauled the Contador of two or three years ago.

Uh...could it also be that Contador hasn't been able to race in over a year? He's not just going to come back from that much time off and start dominating unless...

I'll bet by the time next year's TdF comes around, Alberto will be back on top form. If you think about it, a very rusty Alberto is only 22s behind Purito, who is having a career year. That is pretty amazing. The whole peloton better watch out next year! You'll see the devil trying to catch him next season...

Contador hasn't been injured. He's been unable to race, not unable to train. And my guess is that he has prepared very intensively for this, he'll want to make a statement.

If you want my brutal opinion, it is that an undoped Contador is merely very good instead of imperious. And that goes for a number of others. They're looking reassuringly human.

Saxo IMO screwed up, the team is not strong at all and they burned it today. Valverde did what he had to do just wait and stood up by himself. Contador only wants to freaking win and had not been able to hehe... darn rodriguez is racing very very strong, no panic and attacking just when needed.

To me rodriguez deserves to win the race he has been defending awesomely good. I bet for the bola del mundo he will consolidate the win even deeper.


As for tomorrow and monday who knows what it will happen, saxo is tired, valverde has no team but sure he will try something, rodriguez probably will win again and using the same strategy... wait and stab them in the heart in the last 500 meters.

Come on, there's a big difference between racing and training. And a bit of clen did not make Berti the best stage racer in the world.

A bit of clen? Believe what you want, of course... .

There is indeed a difference between racing and training. But as Wiggins has demonstrated this year, the notion that one has to race frequently to be race-fit is probably outmoded.

What an outstanding stage. The role of teams and domestiques is much less prominent than in the TdF. The leaders are doing their own racing and they are attacking and winning/losing as they suffer on truly punishing uphill finishes. It's inspiring to watch.

I agree, and it is very exciting. Froome is suffering because he has been racing too much but Contador is now in race shape and isn't quite as good as Rodriguez.

JMHO this is shaping up to be one of the best bike races I've seen in a loooong time. Anyone who hasn't been watching should tune in and check it out.

Hey, that's what he got popped for. Anything else is just speculation, and applies to all of his competitors as much as it does him.

Contador and Froome looked that way, but Rodriquez not so much. Just saying.

So will we see Rodriguez moving to a marquee team and competing for the GC in the TdF next year? I guess his time trialing isn't that great and, as we've seen, that can be critical in the TdF.

yea....but this was a good stage for him. We'll see how he looks come Tuesday.

Katusha's not a marquee team? They're 4th in the UCI team rankings, and their budget is as high as any team in the pro peloton. If next year's TdF course is as tailor-made for him as this year's Vuelta, I would fully expect to see him compete and do quite well.

Besides, he's signed through the end of 2013.

http://www.katushateam.com/2012/04/j...ons-for-liege/

Well, then he'll be riding for Katusha. It's not like Menchov did much for them this year. Maybe they were focusing on the Giro and Vuelta, but they were weak on the Tour this year - lousy GC placing and no stage wins. But Rodriguez won't do well in the TdF unless they emphasize uphill finishes and downplay time trials, so it depends on the course.

In my opinion, all of those things, plus time bonuses are necessary for Purito to win a grand tour.

Rodriguez is doing better and better in the ITT... next year he could do something in the TdF. They figured it out how to crack sky in the olympics, so i really doubt they will be able to do the something again or at least not that much. Dont see wiggo again in the podium, specially if contador and rodriguez arrive to the tour like 95% to pick in the middle of the tour. He doesnt have a chance and now valverde can be added to the list.

I was thinking a couple of days who won the TdF and I couldnt remember, really... suddenly his name popped up. Between the Giro, the Vuelta and the Pro race classic thing in colorado they made my year.

Best Grand Tour in a very, very long time. :thumb:

I'm a Purito fan, but...

While he has improved in the TTs, it's still a big weakness for him. He's lucky that the Vuelta only had one ITT and that it had that climb in the middle. While I do expect a more climber-friendly route in the TDF next year, I would still expect one flattish ITT of at least 30km where Purito would lose a lot of time. Just imagine if the Vuelta had one of those in the final week. We'd still be expecting Contador to win.

Not that it matters, really. He seems to like the Ardennes classics and it makes sense to ride those, the Giro, the Vuelta, Lombardia and the Worlds. He has a much better chance of success with that schedule.

Another great finish on stage 16. Wow - those steep uphill finishes are just unbelievable. I don't know how these guys can climb like that day after day. OK, maybe they are not doping. Then their legs are made of different materials from mine.

As we have seen with Froome and others, it is difficult to do back to back grand tours. Fernandez will want to defend his Vuelta win (if he wins) and go one step higher in the Giro, so I see him competing in the Giro and Vuelta again.

OH yeah, Unbelievable.
I was watching it on Eurosport today, David Harmon comment when Froome was about 50 meters from the finish... "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... look at the pain...."

Climbing Cuito Negro:

"Rabobank climbers Robert Gesink and Laurens Ten Dam were horrified at their experience. "I have never seen anything as hard than the Cuitu Negru," Gesink said. "This last climb is hell, for a fact. The last three kilometres were horrible. I almost fell off the back of my bike."
Ten Dam echoed his sentiments. "It was perhaps a great show for the spectators, but not for the riders. When I came down again, I saw other riders still going up, and it was just unbelievable to watch, terribly steep. I rode with a compact cassette for the very first time in my life. And in the end, I needed it! It was no fun, I was in a cave of pain. Horrible."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ride...to-cuitu-negru