Love the “Ta-Da!” finish.
Not a good day for Roglic. I guess the misery was too much for him.
Only caught the last 12km or so, because I was watching the Giro TT. Foolish, in retrospect, as there was never going to be any drama there, vs the Vuelta going up Formigal. Last time the Vuelta went up Formigal was possibly my favourite grand tour stage ever, when Contador and Quintana ambushed Sky and left Froome for dead.
By comparison this was just chaotic action on the last climb, which was fun but actually really hard to follow what was going on because riders were so scattered we had no time splits for most of the time after Carapaz et al jumped off the front. I doubt it would be wise to read too much into today’s stage in terms of who is on best form, though.
The tag team match by the Izagirre boys made the last 12km. The lead group even looked reluctant to catch G. because they knew I. would attack. Finally they wereall, ‘Fine, get on with it.’
What was the matter for chaos at today’s stage of the Vuelta? Was it the weather? I have missed it watching the Giro.
Yeah. It was raining and very cold. Just a miserable day.
Well, that could be expected for racing at the end of October in the mountains…
I don’t like those races in bad and cold weather. I’m always concerned about the riders’ safety and health, and it’s hard and painful to watch.
For sure. The suffering was palpable.
I should really go back and watch a bit more of it, but it was partly the weather, partly the break strung all over the road ahead of the group of GC favourites when the attacks started launching, so while watching you never knew who you were looking at (and of course rain jackets over the numbers didn’t help there) or where they were relative to anyone else.
“Oh look, here’s a shot of Esteban Chavez riding by himself. We saw him attack a few minutes ago, but then a bunch of other stuff happened, so now, is he ahead of or behind Roglic? Is he gaining or losing time? If he’s ahead of Roglic, where the heck are Carapaz and Hugh Carthy who attacked at a similar time? Now the camera cuts to Izaguirre for a bit. He’s still in the lead. Cool. Now a shot of Roglic passing some guys. Stragglers from the break? Probably. Wait is that Dan Martin? Can’t tell, and the announcers aren’t helping much.”
Not that I’m complaining, it was certainly entertaining.
I think the video feeds kept freezing because of cloud cover and so the cameras kept switching to some other part of the race. As you say, it was very disorienting.
Speaking of rain jackets, the majority of them were black. Sure they all had their team insignia on them but it wasn’t very easy to tell them apart from wider shots. I wonder why the rain jackets can’t be made in team jersey colors. Is there a good reason?
Tomorrow is a day of rest, isn’t it? At least the riders can relax a bit from the hard stage of today.
Yeah, rest day Monday, back into the mountains for a couple of easyish-by-Vuelta-standards mountain stages Tues and Wed, flat stages Thus and Fri, and a pair of monster mountain stage next weekend. Mountaintop finish on the Angliru for Sunday.
Then hoping for better weather next weekend.
Beautifully timed late attack by Michael Woods today for that exceedingly rare Canadian grand tour stage win! Woohoo!
Tough day in the mountains today and with a tie for first place, I’m sure the fireworks won’t come until the final climb.
15K to go and the break is still 3 minutes away. Will they stay away?
Froome is off the back.
No fireworks at all. I’m sure they’re all scared of the Angliru tomorrow. I’m kind of disappointed that with a profile like that the stage delivered almost no racing at all.
Movistar is off to snap legs.
Damn. The descent had me holding my breath.
Good day for Chris Froome. Not off the back yet.