Is it just me..

roadhouse said:

or is there nothing spectacular happening in the Vuelta? Cav getting beat by any and all sprinters, that might count for something..

Sastre again saying he's feeling better but nothing happening although Cervelo Test was pulling hard for a bit today at the front with him right there.

Liquigas seems dominant.

Eh.

I'm not too surprised to see Sastre over 2 minutes down on the leader, this being his 3rd GT of the season. He rode pretty well on today's stage though and overall I think Cervello has looked pretty strong as well as Liquigas. The big surprise is the lack of Saxo. Where are the Schlecks? They [Saxo Bank] brought some heavy hitters and I was expecting to see them have a bit of success at this point in the race.

The Dish not being able to match Hutarovich, Farrar and Petacchi on any one of the three stages he had a chance for victory is a bit surprising, but not dissapointing.

I was wondering the same, where are the Shclecks? Andy is the only one of the two that could use the excuse that he might be over ridden but even then rumor had it that even though he was at the Vuelta riding for Frank, he might be up to something for himself but so far neither of them has done anything.

How far down are they? I'm only catching bits and pieces of the Vuelta with stage three (lotto rider won and a good win too!) and today's stage with the five man breakaway being watched in (almost) full.

roadhouse said:

I was wondering the same, where are the Shclecks? Andy is the only one of the two that could use the excuse that he might be over ridden but even then rumor had it that even though he was at the Vuelta riding for Frank, he might be up to something for himself but so far neither of them has done anything.

How far down are they? I'm only catching bits and pieces of the Vuelta with stage three (lotto rider won and a good win too!) and today's stage with the five man breakaway being watched in (almost) full.

F Schleck - 1:47
A Schleck - 36:33

pennstater said:

F Schleck - 1:47
A Schle3ck - 36:33

Jeebus. :eek:

roadhouse said:

Jeebus. :eek:

Yeah, I'm pretty surprised about the Schlecks' performances, especially when they came out saying they had overall ambitions for the Vuelta. However, Menchov is the biggest dissapointment so far. He lost big time on Saturday's stage. Does anyone know if he had a mechanical issue or if he just couldn't handle the pitch of the last climb?

Rodriguez and Igor Anton have been pretty impressive, but I'm a little suspect of their time trialing skills. Nibali finished a pretty respectible 2 minutes down to Contador in the 2009 TDF time trial so I'm assuming by past performances Nibali has an advantage over the two spaniards who occupy 1st and 2nd, but there are still 2 weeks of racing left.

roadhouse said:

or is there nothing spectacular happening in the Vuelta? Cav getting beat by any and all sprinters, that might count for something..

Sastre again saying he's feeling better but nothing happening although Cervelo Test was pulling hard for a bit today at the front with him right there.

Liquigas seems dominant.

Eh.

Recently, this race seems to have lost it's luster. No one seems to be interested anymore. The Giro gets a lot of attention because it's the first Grand Tour, even though it doesn't have the hype that the TDF does. Fans seem to get their fill in July, and then a lot of them don't give a [censored] about the Vuelta. I love this race, but I wish it wasn't a TDF afterthought. Would there be any point in moving it to another spot on the calendar? Seems unlikely.

pennstater said:

Rodriguez and Igor Anton have been pretty impressive, but I'm a little suspect of their time trialing skills.

With only 55km of TT'ing for the whole race, this Vuelta favors the climbers more than ever.

roadhouse said:

..

Sastre again saying he's feeling better but nothing happening although Cervelo Test was pulling hard for a bit today at the front with him right there.

Liquigas seems dominant.

Eh.

The Giro... you watched/read about it earlier in the year, right? If so, none of this would be a surprise...

I see the failboat landed today and you received a large shipment of fail.

Chapeau! said:

With only 55km of TT'ing for the whole race, this Vuelta favors the climbers more than ever.

There's only a couple of really hard mountain stages but plenty of hard road stages with a few 2nd and 1st cat mountains in them that favour a really good all rounder.

The time gains in the time trial will be larger than the couple of significant mountain stages. Riders dont have the balls to attack like 10 years ago...

swampy1970 said:

The time gains in the time trial will be larger than the couple of significant mountain stages. Riders dont have the balls to attack like 10 years ago...

We saw what damage a climb like Xorrent del Cati did yesterday to the likes of Gilbert, Shleck etc. Can these times be made up from a TT throughout the course of the race.

I'm not sure.

Chapeau! said:

With only 55km of TT'ing for the whole race, this Vuelta favors the climbers more than ever.

This really is [censored] isn't it. As much as I hate watching TT's, 55km should only make up at least 1 of 2 time trials + a prologue. Whats next? timing the final 200m of 2 random stages.

steve said:

This really is [censored] isn't it. As much as I hate watching TT's, 55km should only make up at least 1 of 2 time trials + a prologue. Whats next? timing the final 200m of 2 random stages.

I think it revolves around the fact that the Spanish just want to see one of there riders win the race knowing they have some top climbers suited to the temperatures.

swampy1970 said:

The Giro... you watched/read about it earlier in the year, right? If so, none of this would be a surprise...

I see the failboat landed today and you received a large shipment of fail.

oh yes, I watched the Giro and was glued to the telly for all of it. That probably is my problem then , isn't it?

Chapeau! said:

I think it revolves around the fact that the Spanish just want to see one of there riders win the race knowing they have some top climbers suited to the temperatures.

There is a trend of diminishing time trial kms in all the GT races over the past 5+ years (guestimate). Pretty disapointing.

Chapeau! said:

With only 55km of TT'ing for the whole race, this Vuelta favors the climbers more than ever.

Agreed, but my point was that Nibali is the better all around rider and if they can't drop him in the mountains they probably don't have the TT chops to beat him.

pennstater said:

There is a trend of diminishing time trial kms in all the GT races over the past 5+ years (guestimate). Pretty disapointing.

And I'm in know way a fan of team trials neither, which creates slipstreams.

Chapeau! said:

We saw what damage a climb like Xorrent del Cati did yesterday to the likes of Gilbert, Shleck etc. Can these times be made up from a TT throughout the course of the race.

I'm not sure.

Given that the guys that finished in the top 4 probably won't figure in the Top 5 at the end of the race then yeah...

Nibali only took a minute out of Shrek Sr and that's fair game over 30+ miles in a TT. I'm not exactly sure that Nibali will go the distance and finish on the podium in two weeks but he's got a better shot than the guy that won that stage.

Chapeau! said:

And I'm in know way a fan of team trials neither, which creates slipstreams.

I have to agree with you that TT's may not be the most exciting stages to watch, but I would rather have 2 long time trials (preferably individual TT's both over 40 kms) in a grand tour, and a 7-12 km prologue or maybe throw a short team time trial or mountain time trial in there. 55 km of time trialing is way too little in my opinion. And lets face it; most flat stages are pretty drudging. I would certainly prefer to ax a flat stage and substitute any type of time trial in its place.

Also, I think that organisers could make time trials more appealing to viewers by minimizing the intervals of time between riders leaving the start house (no more two minute intervals between riders). It would shorten the stage in terms of time and would increase the chances of riders being caught by the rivals who start after them, which I find one of the more enjoyable aspects of time trials.

pennstater said:

Also, I think that organisers could make time trials more appealing to viewers by minimizing the intervals of time between riders leaving the start house (no more two minute intervals between riders). It would shorten the stage in terms of time and would increase the chances of riders being caught by the rivals who start after them, which I find one of the more enjoyable aspects of time trials.

I think if they lowered the start intervals to 1 min for lower classification riders and to 2 min for top classification riders that be a better system (at least for fans). It also might cause some riders to dig a bit more than they otherwise might have. I could be dismembering, but I think that the start intervals are 2 min and 3 min, depending where you are on general classification.