Road Cycling

The Vuelta starts tonight.

I was a bit concerned when I saw that Roglic and Kruiswijk were both also riding that George had been permanently relegated to a super-domestique role, but although he's only the third rider in the team, he's been given "protection" status and is being allowed to ride for the GC and/or Stage wins.

He makes the good point that TJV don't have a sprinter in the race, so the whole team is working for a GC win, and there's lots of riders to play a support role.

Sepp Kuss and Robert Gesink can both climb as, I think can Hofstede. Tony Martin can be a powerhouse on the front - and hopefully help them win Stage 1 - a Team Time Trial! Powless is also a time trial specialist and with Kruiswijk and Roglic they should have plenty of firepower.

Get into it George!

...and TJV crash in the TTT and lose 40 seconds on Astana.

A pipe burst in someone's garden - or some-such. Suzy wandering around with a hacksaw?

I couldn't find any coverage last night. Support was showing a minor tour. SBS had nothing

Wait, maybe it just started later, because apparently it's on both those channels

@mariner4life Yeah - it didn't start until about 5am in NZ. I wasn't watching!

Looking at those photos and that this seems to have happened in the four minutes between the preceding team and TJV, you'd wonder whether this might be sabotage by a gambling syndicate.

Seems pretty coincidental that it happens at exactly the right time to take out the likely favourites!

Sounds like it was an exciting day of racing, of which I've only seen the final 3 km.

Reasonable day for George, who finished in the second group - 37 seconds behind the winner (Quintana). It sounds like it might have been Roglic who initiated the attack that took away five other riders, so perhaps not a surprise that George didn't make the split.

Anyway, net result is that he's in 17th place overall and 73 seconds down on the leader (Roche), but with seven mountain stages to come, he's got plenty of time to make that up. Only a handful of riders ahead of him that will be difficult to get past once they start climbing - Quintana, Roglic, Lopez, Valverde, Aru - maybe Uran and Formolo.

Kruiswijk finished further back - he's a minute behind George - maybe affected by his crash, but perhaps promising for who has to sacrifice themselves first if push comes to shove in the mountains.

However, a long way to go...

There's lots of the biggest guns not riding this race.The Ineos leaders are Poels and Geoghegan Hart - and both are already 10 minutes behind the leader.

I see Saturday's carnage is being blamed on a leaky paddling pool.

@mariner4life said in Vuelta a Espana:

I see Saturday's carnage is being blamed on a leaky paddling pool.

Don Corleone's paddling pool?

@Chris-B said in Vuelta a Espana:

@mariner4life said in Vuelta a Espana:

I see Saturday's carnage is being blamed on a leaky paddling pool.

Don Corleone's paddling pool?

the Giro was months ago

@mariner4life I know, but I don't know the names of any Spanish gangsters!

@mariner4life On second thoughts - maybe it's Gal Dove's swimming pool!

@Chris-B I'd put Uran before Aru, I've been watching the CNC highlights on YouTube and will listen to the Cycling Podcast daily episodes to keep up on the action

@DrivingMaul Yeah - certainly on TdF form. Though, will be interesting to see how riding the Tour affects a lot of these guys.

People like Quintana, Uran and Valverde (and Kruiswijk) rode really hard-out Tours. George had a couple of quiet days.

Most advantage to Roglic and Lopez who didn't ride it.

Just watched the last hour or so and George was excellent.

Involved in animating the final climb, covered a few breaks, and then Roglic the beneficiary in getting in the break that worked, while George sat back and let him pick up time on Lopez et al.

Stage 4 safely negotiated, with the major news being that Kruiswijk has withdrawn due to a knee injury suffered in the TTT crash. So George becomes 2ic for TJV.

The peleton split in wind with about 12kms to go, but none of the major contenders got caught out - george remains in 17th overall (though the guy in 18th, Jesus Herrada, got caught out and dropped to 55th).

Five NZers in this race - hopefully someone gets a shot at an individual stage win somewhere.

@Chris-B Sounds like Uran kept getting caught on the wrong side of splits but made it back. Will see how much that takes out of the team later in the race

@DrivingMaul Should be an exciting stage tonight that starts to sort out the GC. It's classified only as "hilly", but finishes with an 11 km climb - second half of which averages about 10 degrees.

@Chris-B said in Vuelta a Espana:

@DrivingMaul Should be an exciting stage tonight that starts to sort out the GC. It's classified only as "hilly", but finishes with an 11 km climb - second half of which averages about 10 degrees.

That last half looks brutal

@SynicBast Yeah - and it's just "Hilly"!

Seven mountain stages to come!

I really hope George is due some luck - he could do pretty well in this if things roll his way.

Gah - looks like he hasn't brought his TdF legs.

Moves up to 15th, but loses nearly two minutes on the real GC contenders - Lopez, Roglic, Valverde - Quintana, Uran and Chaves still in touch, but on today's form those first three look strongest.