tour of basque - spoilers

[Flying_Monkey]

That was somehow one of the dumbest and the best mountain stages I've seen... some suicidal attacks, an unexpected winner and a great result for Simon Yates. Quintana in real trouble on the steep slopes too - never thought I'd see that. Most enjoyable all round.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

The overall is still up for grabs. Judging on past performances, Kwiatkowski, Izaguirre, Quintana and van Garderen will do better on a mountain TT; Rodriguez and Yates slightly less well. Henao could go either way. But Yates is improving as a rider all the time, so his past mountain TT performances are likely to be no guide, whereas Rodriguez is at the other end of his career.

 

[Apollonius]

Seems to be a crazy race with nothing but steep climbs to sort people out. Got to be impressed with Henao. He was supposed to be supporting Nieve, as far as I know. He seems to have more in the tank than Quintana at present. I believe he is coming back from a car "collision" too.

 

[raindog]

unusual profile for a TT - should be interesting - could this favour Yates?

 

[raindog]

At the intermediate time check Simon Yates was virtual leader of the race, but dropped off the pace after that. Still, 5th overall just behind Quintana is bloody good, and he takes the best young rider of the race prize home with him.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Rodriguez pulled out all the stops on that one. Otherwise, it went pretty much as I predicted earlier. Good to see Henao back, and a great result for Simon Yates, even if he couldn't quite hold onto that podium place.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Otherwise, it went pretty much as I predicted earlier.

If you are not on the pro prediction thread then it does not count as a "prediction", just "musings"...