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Big fall for my purist team incoming. 1st yesterday with a non Alla team. My thinking was that Yates wouldn’t beat him but he wouldn’t be far behind him on every stage…and the extra funds allowed a full squad…which Alla didn’t. That plan is now in tatters. It wasn’t a bad call actually this time when you looked at what the extra funds meant.
I have Alaphilippe in the purist but seriously considered going for 2 less expensive riders. I expected him to do better yesterday and I now think 2 cheaper riders will prove to be the better pick.
Yates now has the freedom to attack and get away on the last 3 stages.
Tomorrow is probably a day for the break, unless Alaphilippe wants another stage win. Although CCC, Caja Rural & Euskadi might help out with the chase.
Lots of the potential break riders lost lots of time today.
Damn…Put Bravo in, took Bravo out…in, out, in, out…shake it all about. Damn again.Although…I also had Amezqueta in at one point…no idea what he’s doing floating in between the peleton and lead group for no reason though…probably thinking “what the hell am I doing here”…
The course wasn’t as difficult as I expected, they had relayed all the concrete roads and made them wider. I had a look on Google World and they looked a lot narrower. The only person to miss out badly is Yates.
No changes to my team today. I’ll probably have transfers left over at the end of the race.
I was tempted to bring Madouas in but decided to stick with what I had.
Hopefully Bevin can do something tomorrow but I doubt it.
It wasn’t me who scored it, but I checked the Itzulia website and it has Martinez – Carthy – Izagirre. If that changes then we’ll update the scores. There’s always stuff like this at these sort of races so I’ll keep my eyes on it.The results are correct. I was wrong.
Martinez did win it.
I expected the first rider to pass the summit to win but it was the fastest up the hill that won. The race organizers were also confused and initially gave the KoM to Schachmann but later corrected it to Martinez.
Just checked out the rule
Just checked out the rule book and it was the fastest times up the hill that counted for KoM points. So the difference between INT1 & INT2 times n the ITT.
I was sure that Schachmann was presented with the KoM shirt too, there was a photo on twitter. Bora thought he had won too.
However in a later tweet it was announced Martinez had won it.
All 3 were on road bikes, so I though there might have been an odd rule discounting ITT bikes from KoM competition.
Stage 12 of the Vuelta ?Yep…that was it. Just checked the results and it was a reall man up of all sorts of riders. Do you think a similar.ar stage and result?
Different scenario. There were huge gaps in GC already in the Vuelta and the break was allowed a huge lead.
Tomorrow the break will not be allowed a big gap, unless it is only Padun and Wang.
Bora will want to keep the jersey and QS might want to set it up for Alaphilippe.
I think the narrow roads will cause the biggest problem, I’m sure there will be splits. If GC contenders are caught the other teams will probably drive it home.
Given the gap to the break shouldn’t be that great, they will probably get caught and we will see a reduced group uphill sprint.
Dan Martin will get caught out, Simon Clarke will be working to help Martinez limit losses.
We had a similar looking stage at some point last year…do you recall it?….maybe it was one at the Giro. If you can bring it to mind let me know so I can see how it planned out. It was just a very long ending on roads only about two widths wide and rolling all the way. That’s all I can remember.Stage 12 of the Vuelta ?
Tomorrow should be even more fun working out who to pick.The last 40km include 6 stretches of very narrow gravel roads, 4 stretches of even narrower footpath and 4 or 5 Basque ‘walls’ thrown in the mix.
Then a relatively simple sprint with the last 600m averaging 6%.
To make things even simpler for the riders it is forecast to be wet and windy tomorrow afternoon.
PS. Don’t forget the KoM points for the ITT. Schachmann 3+5, Martinez 2+4, Yates 1+3
Just looked at that stage for tomorrow….it has the potential to undo a lot of good that the GC boys did for themselves today. What’s your thinking?….breakaway with the GC boys staying close at hand would be my thoughts. A win for one of many of dozens of potential winners….Lutsenko, Sanchez, Ulissi etc…
Difficult to call.
I expect some GC teams to try and make it hard at the end as they could quite easily put UAE & EFE in difficulty and put their GC contenders out of contention.
Chances of crashes on the narrow roads are high, as are the chances of punctures. Riders risk getting dropped waiting for team cars.
The break could win it as a lot of teams don’t want rivals taking bonus seconds. Although I think Bora will want to keep the jersey so probably won’t allow a huge gap to develop.
Well got that wrong. Should have stuck with my gut feeling about Dennis….Thinking my purist team has beaten mys standard team by a distance.Dennis wasn’t far down at the top of the climb but lost a sackful on the descent.
What gearing were JumboVisma using ? Two of their riders fell off after coming to a standstill near the summit of the climb.
Tomorrow should be even more
Tomorrow should be even more fun working out who to pick.
The last 40km include 6 stretches of very narrow gravel roads, 4 stretches of even narrower footpath and 4 or 5 Basque ‘walls’ thrown in the mix.
Then a relatively simple sprint with the last 600m averaging 6%.
To make things even simpler for the riders it is forecast to be wet and windy tomorrow afternoon.
PS. Don’t forget the KoM points for the ITT. Schachmann 3+5, Martinez 2+4, Yates 1+3
My team for today –
My team for today –
ALAPHILIPPE
KWIATOWSKI
SCHACHMANN
FUGLSANG
BEVIN
MARTINEZ
MADRAZO
ITURRIAThe final 3 riders changed about 10 times in the 30 minutes before the start.
Castroviejo in, Castroveijo out, Craddock in, Craddock out, Clarke in, Clarke out, Cummings in, Cummings out, Konrad in, Konrad out, etc.
I’ll look in the morning. On a crappy old Ipad at the moment with an operating system from 1978 I think….hard work.Actually a lot of options in this race, we could easily call it right and get it wrong….so to speak.
What do you make of Pogacar and his TT abilities?….he did well last time…A one off?…He’s intriguing me again.
I suspect he has been working on his ITT over the winter. He has probably done wind tuneel testing too and so a big improvement isn’t a complete surprise.
Look at Bettiol in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Dan Martin could surprise tomorrow too, he has spent time in the wind tunnel this winter.
Do you have a decent link for a preview Minardi?….I’ve only really looked at cyclingstages so far…and that’s a bit thin…I was looking at the RoadBook from the race website
Just had a look at stage 2.
Just had a look at stage 2. It is completely crazy towards the end, lots of really narrow gravel roads with short steep climbs.
This stage could have a huge impact for some GC riders.
Having missed Sagan’s illness a couple of weeks ago I’ve ditched both of Naesen and Gilbert who’ve both reported sick this week….Gonna hurt me isn’t it?Leaving them in turned out OK for me, I would have gone with Stuyven (who was already in my team) and Trentin as replacements. So Naesen coming 7th is an OK result for me.
Otherwise disappointed that a team with 6 in the front group scored not so many points.
Incredible ride by Bettiol and a great race by the team, tactical perfection. Vanmarke up the road to help out in the final phase and Langeveld there to slow the chasers down.
It is likely to be wet early in the week too, which always seems to play a part in Itzulia. It could come down to taking risks on a wet descent in the ITT.Movistar are likely to be playing catch up after the ITT, which could make it interesting and Astana have a very strong team and are always likely to make things crazy. I’m really looking forard to this race.
That opening TT is a good one…hard to call…and made even harder that there are quite a few climbers with a decent TT in their lockers now. Maybe just have to let the game unfold rather than planning anything.
Looks a nicley balanced ITT – 6.3km flat, 2.3km steep hill, 3.1km fast technical descent
