La Vuelta a Espana 22/8 - 13/9 2015 (here be spoilers)

[rich p]

IIRC, there's a UCI plan to change the Giro and Vuelta to 2 week races. My memory may be playing tricks and ASO may have other opinions.

 

[Crackle]

If you recall Froome nearly got knocked sideways in the Tour, on one of the cobbled stages. he should really be paying more attention as a GT contender with a whole team built around him.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

IIRC, there's a UCI plan to change the Giro and Vuelta to 2 week races. My memory may be playing tricks and ASO may have other opinions.

It was talked about but I'm not sure it wasn't anything more than idle media speculation.

 

[uncle_adolph]

Froome out

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fro...a-after-checks-reveal-a-fracture-in-his-foot/

Makes Mr Tinkoff's tweets about Froome from yesterday seem rather unfortunate.....

 

[Mattonsea]

120 motorbikes and 90 cars are on the course during the race yesterday, seems like a limit needs to be set.

 

[Slaav]

Makes Mr Tinkoff's tweets about Froome from yesterday seem rather unfortunate.....

What was Tinkoff saying - in summary? Cant log into Twitter from this machine in the office!
Thanks in advance

 

[John the Monkey]

Neigh, they're nose bags.

Yup. They often have problems with people nicking the tastier bits of food, so they secure them with fet-locks. After all, security is the mane concern, and it be-hoofs all responsible horse owners to do so.

 

[uncle_adolph]

What was Tinkoff saying - in summary? Cant log into Twitter from this machine in the office!
Thanks in advance

Basically along the lines that Froome rode like a girl.....not a "politically correct" comment! And caused a bit of anger....

There was another one, I was on Twitter on my mobile as I was watching the stage live, which basically said that Sky treat him like he should be wearing nappies. I note he must have deleted that one as it's not on his timeline now.

 

[JMAG]

Well the girl in nappies did a heck of a job finishing 32nd on one of the toughest stages with injuries so severe that he can't walk without crutches.

 

[JMAG]

Contrast to Nibali who would be complaining like crazy, blaming Peter Sagan (not even on the stage, nevermind nearby) and then getting a lift from a TV helicopter to make some time back.

 

[JBGooner]

I hope he had won the combativity prize yesterday - broken bone in his foot and all.

He's out now. Shame, I could see him actually winning this.

 

[smutchin]

May be you were watching something else.....

Or maybe I wasn't letting my prejudgment of Team Evil cloud my view of the racing? I've just googled for some numbers to see if they bear any relation to what I think I saw...

According to the internet armchair experts, Aru's estimated average power on the final climb was 5.7w/kg. Impressive but not superhuman.

Average speed for the stage winner was 30.2km/h, which is sloooooow for a GT stage, even one as tough as yesterday.

A couple of riders did stand out as looking a bit fishy to me yesterday. One was LL Sanchez, who seemed to do some very long stints on the front, as well as regularly dropping back to the team car to fetch water bottles. But then he ended up 12 minutes down (even behind Froome) which makes his performance look a bit more realistic. He's still a nobber though.

The other was Valverde, who is going remarkably well considering his season started in January and includes some big spring Classics wins. But then at the tender age of 35, he's just coming into his prime in Vuelta terms. And we all know he's a dirty cheating nobber anyway.

 

[uncle_adolph]

I hope he had won the combativity prize yesterday - broken bone in his foot and all.

He's out now. Shame, I could see him actually winning this.

I thought he would have won it too.

He had the one poorish day, from which he recovered, and I thought yesterday with the long grind of several climbs suited him down to the ground. He certainly seemed to be in better shape going into the stage than the likes of Quintana, Valverde and Purito.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I hope he had won the combativity prize yesterday - broken bone in his foot and all.

He's out now.

Did he consider carrying on one legged on a recumbent like Steve Abraham? Quitter

 

[mjr]

Did he consider carrying on one legged on a recumbent like Steve Abraham? Quitter

He probably would consider it, but UCI ban laid-back trikes, don't they?

So is Froome riding 135km on what we now know was a broken foot madder than Contador's riding a few km on a broken leg last summer?