Did everyone got tired of seeing a nearly naked Marcel Kittel on the massage table for the Tour’s VSP page? I know I didn’t. Young Kennaugh will be sporting his British road race jersey and his proper shoe/sock pairing in this Vuelta. Get used to it.
Ladies and gentleman we have a race. We have some Giro winners, we have some Tour de France winners and we have some Vuelta winners all lining up for the 2014 edition.
Quintana won the Giro but wants to prove he is the real deal. Is Malmerde working for him? Froome, he has been training in Sonoma, California. Talansky lives there, maybe they have both been training with egg timer. I think we can count out Horner to repeat or Bertie to do anything other than put some points in his jersey pocket. Carlos Alberto Betancur is here to lose some weight. David Millar is in to show he really deserved to ride the Tour de France. Boonen is here to train for the World Championships. Maybe everybody is here because their boss said get your skinny (or fat, in Betancur’s case) ass to Spain and ride the damn Vuelta.
No matter, the reason you, dear readers are here, is to show your total domination in the VSP. Stare at the start list until olive oil pops out of your tear ducts and stigmata appear on your palms. Redemption, points, the Worlds, spite or orders from the boss are all equally good reasons to get riders on the start list. How many people picked Chris Horner to win last year? Just a moment, I’ll query the VSP generator for archived results.
“Fuck off, I’m full”
The VSP generator is channeling Mr Creosote, that’s not a good sign. The point is, if there is one, this season’s VSP* is hanging in the balance on the Vuelta. Don’t consult the professional odds makers, that is like doping. Who is motivated? Who has a great team? Who does not make too many kit transgressions? Who looks fantastic on the bike? These are the questions.
Who has the answers?
*Prizes are as follows:
[vsp_results id=”30805″/]
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@Minnesota Expat speaking of the Canadian races, Gerro got to practice his best Phil Anderson impression overnight...
@Steampunk
And in the end Froome is second by 1:10, having lost 1:01 in TTs. Marginal gains, marginal losses.
@Rob
I have a theory here Rob... which is that in this modern age the rides seem less heroic, not quite so epic, because we see them all unfold minute-by-minute.
Had Merckx, Coppi et al been televised live for every moment of their races I suspect the weight of the mundane hours would make them seem less glorious.
We view them mainly through the prism of descriptions by writers and still images, both of which are invariably edited to present the most exciting imagery.
Film is no more than a few selected minutes, which was partly a physical limitation - a roll of newsfilm only lasted a couple of minutes, and it was bulky to carry around, expensive and had to be developed.
I think Contador rides like a champion in this age, as does Froome in his way, and Quintana. They attack, they don't give up, they fight but yes they do what they need to do to win.
With big money and sponsorship at stake, the likes of which nobody pre-Armstrong could even imagine, they have to consider the wider reality, and in some ways that also makes them champions because it is extra pressure and responsbility.
Those are the only three I would put in that bracket of the current riders.
@ChrisO
Well said.
@Steampunk
And it got worse on the Vuelta podium for Sky. Despite trying to do the right thing and give Froome a proper cycling cap to wear and not some friggin baseball cap, they ended up giving him something that looked like a Sky version of what Casey Jones would wear driving his train. Woeful effort.
Some advice for Sky - go on the interwebs (I'm sure you have access), type in Niki Terpstra, Paris Roubaix 2014, podium. That, Mr Brailsford, is how you do a cap and podium attire. Marginal effort require, maximum education.
Oh, and next time, try a black cap.
@Rob & @ChrisO:
That modern racing thing. Contador is adept at whittling the field of GC contenders down to one. He'd prefer to clinically break down a single rider"”reduce the risk. Most of his GT wins have involved eliminating contenders one at a time until he can go mano a mano. Maybe it lacks the heroism, but it's no less tactical and requires precision. As for his domination of a race: Giro 2011? Nobody else was ever going to be close. To the point he was gifting stage wins so as not to leave with an embarrassment of riches...
@Mikael Liddy
Nice day, a little chilly, but good venue. Orica had it dialed in, Friday and Sunday! I think they're leadout was in place and in front at least 1000m (?) from the finish. We were at the 100m on the finish straight just as Gerran's last lead out pulled away. I was going to take pictures, but wanted to enjoy the finish!
The boys on climbing Mount Royal!
@Minnesota Expat yeah it was interesting in that they were two very different wins. As you said, Sunday was a lead out by the numbers where no other team could even keep up, but Friday's was pretty interesting in that he basically had to jump on his own to chase down Dumoulin in the last 500m.