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

[deptfordmarmoset]

What's happening with Cancellara, not expecting to be back up to doing anything in the vuelta?

Commentator I heard said he wasn't back to form after the vertebrae break at the TdF

 

[RussellZero]

Commentator I heard said he wasn't back to form after the vertebrae break at the TdF

Ah, thanks, thought hed be a bit more competitive was all

 

[rich p]

Could he be doing what Porte did in the Tour de France. Take it easy but then be there to help when it matters?

Possibly so. Saving his energy for the bigger mtns but he did talk himself down prior to the race.

 

[SWSteve]

Irishman looks a bit pale shocker

He lives on the Med (surely, they all live on the med) and rides his bike around in the sun for a living, how is he so pale? Even a heavy sun block wouldn't help him maintain that lovely pale blue complexion

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

He lives on the Med (surely, they all live on the med) and rides his bike around in the sun for a living, how is he so pale? Even a heavy sun block wouldn't help him maintain that lovely pale blue complexion

I saw the interview and he looked more gaunt than pale. So I paid attention when he appeared in a post race interview on ITV4. I can report that he looked quite red on my TV!

 

[mjr]

Team official statement. Says Aru caught in the crash too. http://astanaproteam.kz/en/page/new...torre-caminito-del-rey-159km/?date=2015-08-23

 

[Crackle]

It's all set up for the Landaborg.

 

[Nomadski]

Team official statement. Says Aru caught in the crash too. http://astanaproteam.kz/en/page/new...torre-caminito-del-rey-159km/?date=2015-08-23

"For this illegal assistance, race jury officials took the unusual and severe step to expel Nibali and Sheffer from the Vuelta a España and to remove the team's second vehicle from competition for two days -

Astana Pro Team is sorry for the error, and apologizes to the peloton and race organizers for the harm these televised images caused to professional cycling"

Unusual....severe....it was the televised images that we are apologising for......not the action...

Shameless Astana.

 

[HF2300]

A few surprises there. Quintana trying and largely failing to get away. Dumoulin following Chaves in, on a hard, sharp climb.
Dan Martin doing his usual, too late attack to come in 4th.

Dumoulin a surprise, but (from the coverage I saw) it was difficult to know how hard Quintana was trying. Was he really trying to get away, or was it just testers, or positioning himself up the road for Valverde?

Particularly dull by Nibali and the team car / DS, but I can't help thinking the rest of the group seemed to back off suddenly just to exaggerate the gap...

 

[sleaver]

How did Aru get back to the main group or was he not delayed as much as Nibali?

I think Eurosport showed a clip of Aru with ripped shorts so I'm guessing he came off as well.

 

[roadrash]

aru was probably hiding in the boot of the team car

 

[oldroadman]

If the commenters on here had bothered to check the UCI site, the rule is clear. Hold on to a car and gain any kind of advantage, out you go. As does the driver or manager in charge of the car, and in a two team car race, one of the cars is off as well for at least a day or two. Other interesting punishments include relegation to last car in the convoy for at least a day, and for severe infractions, the whole race, or even off the race altogether. I've seen it happen before. As for the 200 Swiss fine, that's the limit of fines before they can be appealed. Teams will take chances, there was no commissaire with the group, lucky the helicopter was there to see what happened. I met Mr Valcic (President of the jury of commissaires at the Vuelta a few years back, really pleasant and very fair person. Correct decision, you get punished if you take chances and get caught, and I believe Mr valcic is from Croatia, nest door to Italy, so he'll know a thing or two about Italian riders and Italian team managers!

 

[oldroadman]

And it raining AGAIN...likely won't get out until later, when it's supposed to stop. Where is the hot August the forecasters were going on about in July?

 

[mjr]

Particularly dull by Nibali and the team car / DS, but I can't help thinking the rest of the group seemed to back off suddenly just to exaggerate the gap...

I've just watched the video. Maybe they did (wouldn't you, if you're not a GC rider and no longer have one on the front to slipstream?), but WTH was the driver thinking putting the foot down that much???

I've seen a couple of reports that Aru was down but not about how he got back. Nibali was delayed by a dodgy bike swap (they almost dropped the bike as he tried to mount it) and I suspect Astana's car was pretty far back in the convoy behind the peloton after finishing 13th in the TTT (a hidden risk of taking it easy?), but I think even that was less than 2 minutes delay, so if Aru could continue on his same bike or a teammate's, he probably got back easier. Actually, if Aru took a teammate's bike, could that explain how Nibali seemed to have one teammate join him fairly quickly and - if he felt he should have had that bike instead of Aru - why he had quite such a tantrum after the crash?

 

[Origamist]

Karma for sprinting away when Froome dropped his chain, @Marmion

Yes, Karma indeed. It was only a few weeks ago that Nibali was recalling how Froome took a help from a team car in 2010 in order to justify his behaviour when Froome dropped his chain. Poetic justice, but a shame for the Vuelta. At least I didn't have any money on Nibali.