@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Stage 4 safely negotiated, with the major news being that Kruiswijk has withdrawn due to a knee injury suffered in the TTT crash.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.
Found out that the ITV app is working back here (on VPN). Has the daily highlights package at 6am NZ time. Can put it on while getting ready for work.
@DrivingMaul said in Vuelta a Espana:
You can get daily highlights on GCN channel on YouTube
As a quick (under 10 minutes) package that GCN one is good..
The ITV one is an hour long and usually shows the last 5 km or so in full.
Big thing that happened last night was a crash that took out (permanently) Uran, Roche and de la Parte - all guys ahead of George in the GC.
However, that's pretty shit in terms of the overall race.
The racing is way more unpredictable than the TdF - in part, I think, because none of the teams is overly confident they've got the best guy. Certainly, no-one is making a concerted effort yet to control things.
As a result, Dylan Teuns grabbed the GC lead from a breakaway last night, while several others temporarily vaulted themselves into the top 10 - de la Cruz and Gesink.
In terms of "genuine contenders", George is probably up to about 10th.
First "Mountain"stage tonight - and look at the profile of that final climb!
A little section at 25%, a lot at 13%+ and finishing at 17%.
Anyone else listening to the Cycling Podcast?
They are doing daily shows including 2 riders who are giving their view of what it was like in the bunch rather than the story of the day
The big question, given the interest shown even on this board is why we aren’t getting any of this (or other tour) coverage in NZ.
Eurosport in Europe shows just about everything going both live and with highlights packages. Eurosport in NZ is piss poor. I would buy a streaming subscription from them if the content was available and it looks like others would be interested as well
@Bovidae Yep - they're also playing replays of the final two hours many days, although the timing jumps all over the place (sometimes at quite reasonable hours). E.g. Tonight it's at 11pm, but Sunday it is 2.15pm.
I've got no idea why, when they've got at least 10 sports channels they can't do it at the same time every night.
Didn't realize that George was part of that big crash. Doesn't sound like he's completely unscathed, which doesn't bode that well for tonight.
"It was real nasty. I don't feel too good after it, but I feel a lot better than the guys in hospital. That's part of racing – crashing. It was all going all right with [Primoz] Roglic's results, but we keep hitting the deck, and that's not good."
"What can you do?" he asked reporters. "If you crash, you can't really sulk in a [WorldTour] race. You just got to get on with it, because no one gives a s... if you crash. You've got to keep going," he said.
"It's unfortunate that Tony, Neilson and I all went down, and I'll maybe talk to the doctor. I know the other two are all good. We'll have a look and hopefully in a few days' time we can forget about today."
Watched that last climb - pretty sure I would have been off and pushing my bike very early on! 
Valverde wins, from Roglic, Lopez and Quintana and those four are grouped at the front of the field. Commentators saying the eventual winner will come from those four and it's hard to disagree. On the other hand, one or more of them is bound to crack badly before the end.
Much better climb by George today - he crosses the line ninth. Behind a few guys that he usually looks a bit better than, but still a good effort - especially after yesterday's crash. Moves up to eighth in the GC - but, now 3 min 34 sec behind Lopez. Also has Majka, Pogacar and Esteban Chavez ahead of him - and Aru and Kelderman just 2 seconds behind.
Hilly stage tomorrow - not too awful, followed by the second mountain stage and then a rest day.
