karaddin Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Oh yes, Quintana will be very good too. I must confess I don't really know much about the Vuelta, Le Tour is pretty much the only race I properly follow, maybe a couple of the Classics if they're on at convenient times. Is the Vuelta roughly equivalent to the Tour? More mountains, or more flats? No idea here, this is my second tour :p Giro this year was my first and not even glimpsed a Vuelta! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 No idea here, this is my second tour :P Giro this year was my first and not even glimpsed a Vuelta! I've never watched the Giro or Vuelta...although I've watched the Tour for probably half a dozen years now. I'm just a casual fan who gets excited for three weeks in the year. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 Normally the vuelta and the giro are more mountainous than the tour. The vuelta has lots of short, steep uphill finishes, not many huge mountains this year though. Go on steephill and compare the profiles between the 3 grand tours for an idea. The giro this year was ridiculous for big, difficult mountains. The only way anyone beats nibbali is if they all gang up on him and isolate him without his team. If someone was allowed to go and everyone just sat in nibalis wheel he would get burned out chasing and everyone else could ride away from him when he is shattered. This nearly happened to froome last year bit only Quintana tried to drop him and he was able to withstand the attacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Love to see Roche do this,naturally.But it ain't gonna happen I reckon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I've watched the Tour on and off since the days of Big Mig, but never watched any other cycle race until last year's Tour of Britain (mainly because I've never had Eurosport). I understand ITV now has highlights of the Vuelta, so I will be watching that this year. On the subject of the Vuelta, Contador has confirmed he will not be recovered in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Well, that's Porte's chance of winning this whole thing gone. Nibali looked very comfortable. Afraid the rest of this Tour is now a walkover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 Well, that's Porte's chance of winning this whole thing gone. Nibali looked very comfortable. Afraid the rest of this Tour is now a walkover. yep, i'm already more interested in next year, nibali, froome, contador and quintana, not a lot to split them with nibali in this sort of form. that's 3 tours in a row now with almost no competition for the winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Yes it's a formality now but you have to hand it to the guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Nibali is head and shoulders above the rest of the pack in this one, it's a shame Froome and Contador were out of contention so early - it would have been good to see the battles in the mountains. There are some other good riders in here but I think the best ones are too young. There are some good French ones we saw yesterday (Bardet and Pinot) and I think guys like Van Garderen will be contenders in the future, but it'll take another year or two before they would be considered legitimate challengers. As it is, your second placed guy is the 34 year-old veteran Valverde, and he's more than three and a half minutes behind. Valverde is too old to really have any chance at this. As BFC says the only real chance is if everyone starts ganging up on Nibali, but even if they were to coordinate that I don't think the other teams are strong enough to do it and Nibali is likely to withstand any attacks. We saw yesterday in the leading peloton that each team only really had one or two riders at most that could stay there for the majority of the stage and Nibali had no trouble chasing down attacks by himself. This next stage is apparently the toughest mountain stage so it would be the time to do it. Basically you'd have to have every one of the main contenders taking turns to attack Nibali, with the rest of the peloton hanging back and forcing Nibali to lead the chase to bring back the attack each time. And then hope that after doing this a few times, one of the contenders manages to get away from him for good. But if Nibali has an Astana teammate with him (eg Fuglsang) who can lead the chases then even that plan wouldn't work, plus the fact that in this form Nibali is probably strong enough to take down multiple attacks himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wolf Smith Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I'm a bit of a noob to this game.Do any of you have any thoughts on what strategies or tactics Porte and Team Sky could use or is Nibali and his team just too strong?Try and stay in some sort of touch and conserve energy for the time trial?Take a risk and try and get involved in an early breakaway? A bit late since Richie crapped out today but.... The only way Nibali gets in trouble at this point, is if someone (Valverde or Bardet might be the only ones left) does to him what he did today. Wait for that moment, while everybody is tired, hurting, and spread out, then attach all the way thru the stage. He and his team have looked the strongest out there, but his #2 had a bad crash today. He has got have spent a lot today, so if there is a opening, it will be tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wolf Smith Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Did I hear right? Wiggins resigned w/ Sky? WTF? What is he thinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 Did I hear right? Wiggins resigned w/ Sky? WTF? What is he thinking? legacy? he is going to concentrate on paris roubaix and go for the world hour record next year, then rio for more gold the year after. no other team could afford to pay him so much if he wasn't going for stage races. also i think they know they lost a lot of support in the uk with the tour selection fiasco and if he left now (especially to go to an aussie team, OGE was the rumour) it would have been extremely bad PR. i would have liked him to leave, and then the tour route to be anounced with another cobbles stage, only 3 mountain top finishes with long regular gradients, and 120km of time trialing, oh to be in the team sky bus when they discovered that! today's stage should give a proper shakeup to the minor placings, i hope pinot attacks the shit out of valverde, the wheelsucking cheat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 jesus this tour is dull, nibs is king of the pack of cards, everyone else is a 7 at best. tejay with his superior time trialing skills looks good for a podium if he doesn't lose too much time in the pyrenees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Yeah, it's a bit of a shame. No competition for yellow or green. I guess there's Majka vs Rodriguez vs Nibali for the polka dot jersey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andriy Czarchenko Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 It´s sad that Majka is probably the 2nd best rider left and he´s almost 2h behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Yeah, it's a bit of a shame. No competition for yellow or green. I guess there's Majka vs Rodriguez vs Nibali for the polka dot jersey? Pinot v Bardet for the white jersey looks like it'll be a good battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 Pinot v Bardet for the white jersey looks like it'll be a good battle. pretty much all i'm interested in. good for France as well, a long time since they had anything to shout about. as long as Valverde ends up off the podium i'm happy either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 pretty much all i'm interested in. good for France as well, a long time since they had anything to shout about. as long as Valverde ends up off the podium i'm happy either way. Valverde's been doing pretty well but I reckon at 34 he might run out of gas on the second set of mountains at the end of the race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 23, 2014 Author Share Posted July 23, 2014 nibali is so far ahead of the rest it is ridiculous. battle for the podium is a poor substitute for the battle for the top i was hoping for. valverde hanging in the bastard, needs to be gotten at big time tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Yeah, the French need to gain time on him. Van Garderen is too far away right now to be a threat in the TT for Peraud, Pinot and Bardet, but all of those guys usually aren't as good as Valverde in the TT. Nibali would have had great competition this year from Froome or Contador. Or Uran and Quintana for that matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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