La Vuelta Ciclista a Espana 2024

Podium?

  • Eddie Dunbar (IRE/JAY)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • David Gaudu (FRA/GFC)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mikel Landa (ESP/SOQ)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Guillaume Martin (FRA/COF)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lenny Martinez (FRA/GFC)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Enric Mas (ESP/MOV)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mattias Skejlmose (DEN/LTK)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cian Uijtdebroeks (BEL/TVL)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Adam Yates (GBR/UAD)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Aleksander Vlasov (RUS/RBH)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ben O'Connor (AUS/DAT)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Felix Gall (AUT/DAT)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Antonio Tiberi (ITA/BVT)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Egan Bernal (COL/IGD)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Max Poole (GBR/DFP)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Fillipo Zana (ITA/JAY)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Michael Woods (CAN/IPT)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2
  • Poll closed .

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Roglic took back 56 seconds on O'Connor last night, on a Cat 3 climb to the finish (46 seconds on the road, plus a 10 second time bonus for winning the stage). Mas took back 52 seconds.

With plenty of climbing still to come, there's no reason why Roglic should be the least bit concerned about O'Connor.

The big question is how many other riders catch O'Connor in the GC race, before they reach Madrid?

Last night was a bad one for Almeida, who finished 4:53 behind Roglic - so I guess that's one rider who won't be finishing ahead of O'Connor in the long term.

The question is how many other riders the second best Australian climber in the race can hold off, given the time he gained on his big day out?
 
This is basically perfect for Bora. They're the best placed team behind O'Connor with the added benefit of the fact that Rogla has the best resume of the rest of the riders. And they don't have to defend red until the second week at a minimum.
 
This race always throws up a curve ball. It's the nature of it, the weather, the total elevation, the gradients, make it very hard to control. There will be more breaks get big time, just a question of who is willing to get in the right move.

Ben would have been carrying a lot more fatigue than the guys that sat in the bunch on his breakaway stage. If he gets through today without damage and after the rest day he is still well placed.
 
Well that was an interesting stage. Roglic looked poor, Mas looked good and it ended up being a great day for O’Connor.

With no team able to control the race and it being so tight on GC behind O’Connor I expect more GC riders will try and get in the breaks. Could be another big surprise and unexpected name pop up yet.
 
Eh. Carapaz is the big GC winner of that stage. Roglic is still the big favourite, looked like he barely broke a sweat. O'Connor and Carapaz the podium finishers for me
 
My money is still on Roglic & Mas for the 1-2. Yates has played himself back into the top-10, and would now be a fighting chance of taking 3rd spot on the podium, though he hasn't really shown the climbing legs on the first few mountain top finishes.

That 3rd step on the podium is really wide open - could be Landa, Carapaz or Yates.

I'm still not convinced that O'Connor will make the podium, or even be the best AG2R rider, by the time the race arrives in Madrid.
 
Long way to go for him yet but AG2R seem to be closing ranks around BOC better than they ever have. Probably because he's out the door in a few months.
 

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Long way to go for him yet but AG2R seem to be closing ranks around BOC better than they ever have. Probably because he's out the door in a few months.
Friday will be his big test. Tonight is another opportunist stage for guys like WVA, De Marchi, De Gendt etc and tomorrow only has one climb at the end despite being a MTF
 
Friday will be his big test. Tonight is another opportunist stage for guys like WVA, De Marchi, De Gendt etc and tomorrow only has one climb at the end despite being a MTF
Friday and Sunday. Both finish on massive & steep climbs.

Friday's stage finishes on the Puerto de Ancares, which is 7.5 km at an average of 9.3%, with multiple points at 15%.

Sunday's stage is even nastier, finishing on the Cuitu Negru - 18.9 km at an average of 7.4%, with a steepest section at 24%. It's not quite as vicious as the Angliru, but it's probably the second toughest climb in Spain (and significantly nastier than any climbs tackled in the Tour).
 
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Yep BOC getting blasted out the back on the short steep climbs. He ain't winning it
I still think he's favourite for second. Only lost 30-odd seconds last night (though I will admit I caught some z's once the break was established because I was already half asleep) and Mas isn't so good that the remaining 3 and a half minutes will be easy to close.

Rogla probably wins by a couple of minutes though.
 
Mas has pulled back just as much time as Roglic so far.

I'm still tipping BOC to miss the top 5, and to finish behind Gall as the best placed AG2R rider.

On SM-A5360 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Yeah we get it. You don't rate him.
 
His issues seem to start at around 8%. Getting dropped by the chase group let alone Roglic and Mas is pretty bad on a climb this short. The 2 Red Bull guys in Vlasov and Martinez were really good today, they had done bugger all up until this. The yellow card thing was a bit ridiculous. Peak Sky/Ineos used to do it at every race, Jumbo have done it, they were never penalised.
 
His issues seem to start at around 8%. Getting dropped by the chase group let alone Roglic and Mas is pretty bad on a climb this short. The 2 Red Bull guys in Vlasov and Martinez were really good today, they had done bugger all up until this. The yellow card thing was a bit ridiculous. Peak Sky/Ineos used to do it at every race, Jumbo have done it, they were never penalised.
What happened?
 
What happened?
I haven't watched the highlights yet, so the following is taken from reading Velo News.

It appears AG2R put a block across the road, to prevent any further riders from jumping across to join the breakaway. Carapaz tried moving up the outside, and got punted off the road by Victor Lafay. Lafay has been pinged heavily, with 3 other AG2R riders also copping yellow cards.

From my reading (and having not seen the footage yet), I can understand them hammering Lafay. However, there are many, many precedents for teams putting up a barrage across the front of the peloton, so I have no idea why the other AG2R riders were also penalised.

https://velo.outsideonline.com/road...-after-crashing-carapaz-at-vuelta/?scope=anon
 
I haven't watched the highlights yet, so the following is taken from reading Velo News.

It appears AG2R put a block across the road, to prevent any further riders from jumping across to join the breakaway. Carapaz tried moving up the outside, and got punted off the road by Victor Lafay. Lafay has been pinged heavily, with 3 other AG2R riders also copping yellow cards.

From my reading (and having not seen the footage yet), I can understand them hammering Lafay. However, there are many, many precedents for teams putting up a barrage across the front of the peloton, so I have no idea why the other AG2R riders were also penalised.

https://velo.outsideonline.com/road...-after-crashing-carapaz-at-vuelta/?scope=anon
Yeah I saw the incident. The blockade had nothing to do with it. Bizarre decision.

Lafay lucky it's only a yellow
 
Nice win for the Pro Conti team over the oil/chemical money teams but is there more tactically clueless rider in the peloton than Marc Soler?
 
Yeah I saw the incident. The blockade had nothing to do with it. Bizarre decision.

Lafay lucky it's only a yellow
I'm still none the wiser as to why the other AG2R riders received yellow cards.

SBS mentioned that Carapaz had crashed in their highlights package, but didn't show the incident. Nothing in the Velo article explains why any rider, other than Lafay, should have been penalised.

On SM-X205 using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

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La Vuelta Ciclista a Espana 2024

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