One of the loveliest things about the Grand Tours is that you get a feel, by the nature of the route, of the country’s landscape and physical qualities. Italy is littered with mountains and coasts, France is bordered by mountains with large swaths of open landscape throughout, and Spain is like Tatooine; mostly desert with some rocky outcroppings. I might be oversimplifying here, but it seems like every edition of the Vuelta features a week or two of riders cutting through open desert on a freeway and then finishing it off with some climbs that require a buzz-saw gear to get up. Of the three Tours, this one is my least favorite, but it’s a bike race and I loves me a bike race.
The Vuelta also stands apart as being the event which generally decides the Velominati Super Prestige GC and the personalized Shop Apron that goes with it; in past editions, we’ve even had newcomers to the event debut at the Vuelta and win the overall, as was the case last year with @Nate’s performance. Unless I have that wrong, in which case I don’t really care. The important point here is that even though there is less interest in this event than others, it matters quite a bit to the year-long VSP, so you better be paying attention, corporal.
No fancy prizes on offer as we did at the Tour, but we do have our customary Symbol Pack up for grabs, in addition to second and third places winning a pair of Handlebar Cufflinks each when they come available in a few weeks. So, check the race details, get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero (5am Pacific time on Saturday), and buckle in for the ride. Regular GT VSP rules apply. Good luck.
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Well holy Merckx! Sounds like this race was turned on its head! My VSP is back in buisness!!!
Unbelievable - I thought J-Rod had it in the bag. Contador is just a terrier.
I was stuck at work listening to the radio but to be honest I hadn't made much effort to get home and watch this stage - I figured it was all over.
Then the news headline said Contador had won the stage and I thought he must have taken a consolation stage win. I nearly drove off the road when the full report said he had the leader's jersey and had attacked with 60km to go.
Is J-Rod turning out to be the Poulidor of this generation.
While respective of his talent, I have not been an overall fan of Contador historically. Got to give it up to El Pequeño Toro as he has attacked at every opportunity and then some. Honestly, he deserved the win today and congrats to him on the GC as well. Very exciting Grand Tour.
@Dr C
Damn, a lot of you have sparked my desire to tune in to this. Been busy with work lately, a bit tired out at this point of the race calendar, and not even finding enough time to ride my own bikes. BUT, sounds like a great race.
As for the above - WOW! That's wild from Ten Dam. The first time in his life he's been brought to his knees, a PRO reduced to the realm of the compact. That's crazy & scary.
@RedRanger @ChrisO Wow, this Vuelta has been such an exciting race so far (and it's not over yet). I actually missed most of the stage today as I wanted to get a ride in before having to head in to the office for a couple of meetings. I got home just in time to watch Contador ride the last 3kms.
I agree with Chris. I thought Rodriguez had this one more or less wrapped up. And I certainly wasn't expecting to miss such an exciting stage when I left for my ride this morning. Watching Rodriguez ride that last 5kms or so, my heart really went out to him. After all that he did to parry each of Contador's attacks over the past week or so, it must have been just gutting to ride that last portion of the race today alone and in full knowledge of the fact that he had just lost a whole whack of time to the guy (and to Valverde for that matter). The battles in the mountains between Rodriguez and Contador were so exciting to watch. And Rodriguez really did put in some special rides. I feel for the guy.
Finger Blaster dug deep today, not a big fan but he sure makes this race exciting!
Definitely one of the best stages I have seen recently.Good old style racing stage for sure.Shame there were no early recorded images of all attacks.All other tv stations got pictures from RTVE ES and it's from 30km.
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/vuelta-ciclista-a-espana/vuelta-ciclista-esp-20120905-1610-169/1521322/
Oh yeah click View Full Version while opening for the link to work.
@TommyTubolare
You are a god-like figure. I thought I'd missed out entirely. Thanks for the link.
Ha.Hell no.But anyway enjoy the race.Cheers.