Velominati Super Prestige: Vuelta a España 2012
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.
@Marko
I think I understand what he means””not being granted an inch this year””but he’s been pretty absent in general, conspicuous in his lack of showing (or even threatening). I agree with your assessment of the comments, though: sounds like he and buddy Hushovd have spent too much time sharing PR methods (lots of complaining about what others are up to).
At the same time, I wonder if last year didn’t constitute something of a changing of the guards. Gilbert totally dominated against a bunch of riders we’ve seen for a number of years, most of whom””with the benefit of seeing them again this year””might be past their best. And without the strong, youthful challenge that has come up this season. If 2011 was the year of Gilbert, 2012 might rightly be the year that youth is served. The young Sky Colombians, Sagan, Pinot, Van Garderen, etc. Something of a sea-change in the ranks of the pro peloton underway?
Wireless issues and my mobile would not let me kn…Degado’ed
Yep. Delgado’d.
lavuelta.com: a good site to follow standings
VSP Update-
There is little point in putting five Movistar riders in the top five places and generating provisional VSP points for everyone. I would still do it but there is a ghost in the machine. I can’t find Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas in the pro riders data base that the VSP uses. Stand by as we consult via smoke signals with the dutch monkey, who is high in the Cascades, chasing sasquatch in nothing more than a loin cloth and terry cloth headband..
@Gianni I’m pretty sure he’s actually in the Olympics but either way he’s ‘Squatchin’ in a loin cloth and terry headband in the cold and wet. BTW, when are we getting those V-terry headbands and Castelli loin cloths on the Gear page?
@Gianni
well I hope you found him as I picked him for fifth in the VSP
In an effort to “Look Pro” I’ve tailored these past two seasons to mimic pro riders. Last year I was Gilbert – everything was Top 5 with a state championship thrown in there. This year I was Andy Schleck – everything was DNF or off the back. Next season I’m shooting for Pee Wee Herman.
@Gianni
@marko
Guess that explains why he didn’t return my texts yesterday. Damn him. I had important beer and programming related questions. I demand better!
well, the Espana is pretty much as we all thought…Froome vs Cont-adore
@cyclops: Go Landis on them blame the beer. Truthfully tho, my experience is the intensity in cat. 4 is stratospheric in comparison to cat5, and seemingly narrower jumps up from there, just longer times in the saddle on crits and harder pulls, much harder pulls and sways in momentum. But what do i know, i am tit sucking most the time too….and in denial??
@Cyclops
Go For the Gold !
@Steampunk
Hmm, very interesting to think about. Never considered it like that.
On another note, a pal just alerted me that he noticed via some social media site that my high school GF is naming her nearly-born child Thor. Ouch. A cool name for a PRO cyclist, but I see a whole lot of name-related stress coming that dude’s way in elementary school.
Wow, just caught the last 3 km of the 3rd stage. Animated to say the least. Nice.
Back from the dead, assholes!
Is there a race going on? Always great to see a provisional result showing the who’s who of riders returning from doping bans.
[vsp_results id=”20426″]
[/vsp_results]
Great to see such attacking riding by Contador – that’s why I watch bike racing.
Valverde’s another former Spanish doper coming back, but he’s been back for a little longer, so he kind of flew under the radar with Contador grabbnig the headlines. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s in the kind of form to be a GC contender for the duration of the race. The experiment with Valverde riding for Cobo seems to have lasted a whole 2 stages.
@xyxax
Contador definitely launched a lot of attacks in those last 3km, wow! He made it look as though he was just playing with the others. It will be interesting to see whether Froome has any more jump in his legs than he showed today.
Well, i think we can end it now, 3-tied for first is very comfortable. Contador would eventually have placed himself at the top, but you all knew that… Although it will be interesting to see all the suffering- just not on cable tv! There is some domestic tour going on now, but the only match for vuelta on comcast was some soap opera (not the bike race version…).
If the next 3 weeks are like that stage we are in for a treat. Welcome back Bertie.
fuck it. We had a clean tour that was slated as boring (by others, not by me). Now that cheating W*****r C**t is back and everyone is wetting themselves because he attacks.
Well, you get the racing you deserve, I suppose.
@Daccordi Rider
Yeah that last 5k’s was brilliant, it seemed like he wanted to make sure Froome was out of it from the first week. Love a GT that has a finish like that 3 days. in.
@minion
Hey mate, you’re from hobbit land – I’d have thought you’d be enjoying “The Return of the King”
@Duende
Funny how 2 people watching the same climb can have 2 completely different interpretations! I saw C make 3 orf 4 spirited attacks, and I saw Froome look up, and without bothering to leap out of the saddle close the gap in moments. So my interpretation was that Froome realised the C attack wasn’t fast enough to be decisive so simply reeled him in with a minimum of effort. And then nip into third for good measure
So my view of those last 3km was basically Froome saying to C “you’re going to have to work a lot harder than that, my son, if you want to lose me”.
But I could be wrong……..
David
@Duende
Based on yesterday’s stage alone, methinks Contador would have systematically busted Sky over the course of the Tour.
@David
Fair point””Froome was there at the end. It looked, though, like Contador almost just wanted to see what would happen when he attacked””only one of those seemed especially deliberate. And I also think that three weeks of elastic band could be a bit more than Froome can handle. Softening him up a little, maybe?
Watching Eurosport coverage and they seem to think Froome is unable to keep up. Yet, he’s still there. I think it is just style. You don’t have Contador’s kick? Who does? But he keeps catching him. We’ll see.
Interesting to ponder the tactics, particularly in light of Contador’s nipping ahead to claim a 2 second bonus in an intermediate sprint the day before. Time wasn’t the issue, as he lost it the next day letting Froome finish in front of him. I also doubt that his attacks were an effort to open a gap that would stick this early in the show. Perhaps he is just showing that the skytrain-type tactic (impressive in its own way and equally legit) won’t be in play here. Or even more likely, after saying that he would need a week of racing just to get his rhythm back, he was just doing that, racing for “practice.”
Not a fingerbang fanboy, btw. Just nattering (for practice).
Also not from a fanboy, but really, eurosports comments seem way off base (I saw it on itv4 and I guess different commentators, unless these budget stations share!) as there is no way Froome looked like he was struggling at any point.
I won’t argue with those that say C was having a play, testIng himself and others. After all, this was the first proper climb and yes it’s likely they were just looking at each other.
To those more experienced than me in following these tours – do riders develop a sense of when a breakaway is for real, or whether it’s just a little nibble?
And we can discount post race comments by riders – they are hardly likely to tell the world ie their rivals what they were really thinking on the climb!
David
Inasmuch as it seems to me a VSP is won or lost on how well you pick 3rd, 4th, and 5th… I need to stop picking Gadret.
@David You may be right. I guess that time will tell. However, I am more inclined to agree with @Steampunk. I thought that one of the more telling moments in that last climb came about 3kms from the end when Contador responded to a little dig by Igor Anton (I believe). Contador was sitting in fourth at that point and he simply flew past the three riders ahead of him to take the lead. Rodriguez and Valverde were able to go with him. But Froome seemed unable to respond (and he did seem to me to be trying to do so at that point). Froome settled back into the saddle and only caught the three leaders when Contador again slowed the pace. As I said, we’ll see what happens. But thus far, my hopes for a very exciting next few weeks have certainly been raised.
@Erik
Yeah – I made that mistake on the Giro – he admitted on the first day that he was recovering from the plague or somesuch
@David I think their point of view when saying Froome was struggling was more to do with the comparison between the way they saw him climbing in the tour compared to here. At the tour he seemed to be the one who was able to get out of the saddle & really kick, whereas his efforts on Monday were more Wiggins-esque in staying seated & tempo-ing his way back.
There was a telling quote from Mick Rogers after the tour where he said they’d be on the front & someone would take off but they wouldn’t bother chasing cos they were already sitting at 450w & there was no way the attacker would be able to sustain their pace. It could well be a case of the Sky DS keeping in Froome’s ear with pieces of info like that.
@the Engine
See. Plague?! He couldn’t say something sooner? I need to find a new dark horse. We’ll see if Monfort can pull it together, but he sits only a few seconds ahead of Gadret on the GC. Bugger.
What do you all think of the move Sky put on when Valverde went down? Even if they were spontaneously making the run up, and then Valverde drops, should they have let up?
I was surprised to see them stick him like that, but I came out respecting Valverde more for diggin it and not losing a ton of time, and now he will be pissed, and its just stage 5 today with lots of road ahead
@Erik
There are many reasons why he’s called Judas.
I guess that a proper dark horse is someone not chosen by anyone else – hence you scoop the pool if he does well and you look like an expert and everyone forgets if he finishes nowhere
@Souleur
Yeah it’s a real piti nobody showed him any respect.
Putting aside him being a lying, unrepentant cheat though…
By that logic anybody would have to wait for the leader when they had a bad day. A crash happens more often when you are badly positioned, and unless Chris Froome stuck a mini-pump in his spokes then a crash is just tough luck. That’s racing. A crash is not the same as a mechanical.
CN reported that a Spanish newspaper had asked 8 Spanish ex-pros what they thought, and 7 of them said Sky were in the right. That’s pretty telling. Either his fellow Spanish riders also think he’s toxic, or he was wrong, probably both.
Armchair Valverde crash comments: from what I’ve read the echelon was formed before he crashed. Game on.
My three “dark horses” are already so far behind they need telescopes to see the leaders – shows what I know.
@Erik
This IMHO. Sky tactic was to accelerate in the crosswind, don’t know why Valverde blaming Sky for crash, TV footage not conclusive. As to whether they should of waited, not sure. Sky saying they didn’t realise GC leader was down.
My two cents on Valverde. A wee touch of sour grapes I think. Sure, I agree that there are, and needs to be, unwritten rules of etiquette in racing. See the tacks incident in this year’s Tour. However, as it turns out, the echelon was already formed when AV crashed. Tough titty. He has a bad reputation for not riding near the front. For how to do it, look at Wiggo in the Tour – almost never out of the top 10-15 riders.
This rises another point, is the Patron of the peloton supposed to go around the bunch asking if everyone is feeling ok and ready to race? Anyone feel like they’re having un jour sans? Oh, a couple of riders are feeling a bit queasy? Ok everyone, let’s take it easy today, rider X isn’t feeling well/fallen off/punctured/mechanical/struggling on a climb. Get grip. This is a hard sport. Within limits, it’s mano-a-mano, shit happens, ride hard, don’t whine.
I suppose Movistar should have been doing what sky was doing since They were in red
@meursault
I have no problem with the tactic, whether they attacked him on a crash or just attacked, BUT Sky saying they didn’t know the GC leader was down is total BS.
@Souleur Here’s famous cycling author and reporter William Fotheringham’s point of view, which is also mine: to me it all comes back to whether the race is “on”. if it’s on, it’s fair game. if it’s not on + crash occurs, attacking is bad ethics…
Unexpected finish to the stage today. The dig that Uran put in at the front for Froome on the last climb was something else! Still, it was interesting to see Contador get dropped when Froome and Rodriguez took off for the finish. To me, it looked as though he didn’t even try to go with them. Despite the pace set by the Sky train, somehow I still find it doubtful that Contador didn’t have the legs to go with the front two had he really wanted to.
@Duende
Who really knows what any one rider is feeling anyways? Contador rode away from Froome earlier, now Froome returned the favor. It is a long race, and as I see it COTHO might not have enough racing this season to be ready, while conversely Froome might have too much racing in his legs. But really, who knows.
Looking over my picks, is it too early to vote Cobo for evanescent riders of the 10s?
@DerHoggz I think the lack of racing you’re talking about could mean Bertie is a little more succeptible to having a day or two off during the three weeks just because his legs aren’t used to race pace
@Mikael Liddy
Yes, that is what I meant, why did I write COTHO?
How about Jens soloing for 150km for a win with every “bonification” along the way in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
@DerHoggz
It was great but because the Americans haven’t worked out how to transmit live pictures of a bike race we saw very little of it. I mean if they can transmit movies from Mars they can do it from Colorado too – can’t they.