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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@minion
You are harsh on Dirty Berty. He has done it the hard way. Imagine the relatively shitty drugs he was given in 2009 when he rode with COTHO. And he still pantsed the field.
Would be kind of amusing if Berty is actually now clean. He is probably lying in his hotel room - without a blood-filled IV in his arm for the first time in a GT (or maybe the 2010 Tour was his first time) thinking, "Fuck, I really didn't need that shit anyway!"
NB. I submit that COTHO should only apply to Lance - because his level of C is higher than the others - but I still loved his racing.
Madre! Froome, you weak thin pussy, you have ruined my VSP. I bet against Bertie and now I'm paying the price. I just didn't think he would have been so well "prepared".
And just like that my VSP is shot. First to third to one hundred and third. them's the breaks but man what an incredible race today. It was brutal watching Purito in those last few KM, just putting his head down and trying to limit his losses.
Gesink, get on that horse and muscle up back to 5. I know u can, dammit. Please?
@brett
Yeah whatever.
And you were whinging about Sky doping during the tour. IMO Contador's gonna get caught again somewhere, but that's neither here nor there. Sounds like you're of the opinion that you want exciting racing which means doping, which is OK - but it's not OK for Sky to dope because they're boring.
Lets be honest we all LOVE speculating about this stuff, it makes us feel as if we have some insight into the sport, and we are addicted to the sugar rush/doping crash of supporting riders who are cheats. It's partisan emotive fandom at it's worst, but it is what it is.
Strategically the stage sounds like masterful bit of racing, and I hope he is clean.
@minion
Can I go on record & say I can't stand it?
The more often any impressive ride is immediately questioned by the tin foil brigade online (thankfully not present all that much here), the more & more I find myself agreeing with Beaker & his expletive laden rant.
I burned half an hour reading through JV's attempts to explain their decision to have nothing to do with Jorg Jakshce on the CN forums where he was basically smashing his head against a brick wall of conspiracy theorists that couldn't care less what he said unless they could use words to prove that people are still completely jet fueled.
It's depressing to think that those people probably claim to be fans of cycling yet seem to be just as determined to discredit the few people within the peloton who seem to have an interest in cleaning things up as they are actually solving the problem.
@Mikael Liddy What the hell was JV thinking out active riders on his team?
@ramenvelo no idea, and he seems to realise he's made something of a mistake in doing so.
I think his biggest problem is in trying to do things openly & honestly he ends up causing more problems for himself & his team than good.
@ramenvelo
My bet is that the fellas he mentioned (Danielson and VDV) will be the ones who were forced to give evidence against Lance. If I was Danielson I would be just as upset at having been characterized as some sort of fucking pansy with performance anxiety.
@Mikael Liddy
I agree.