Soldato
Good to see Stannard win a stage, it seems like he’s been off form for ages so was good to see him go full gas and tear off from the front and hold off Politt
Pro Cycling Discussion 2018
- Thread starter Roady
- Start date
The finish up covadonga wasn't as explosive as I thought it would be! Main men just marking each other. Quintana does not look strong at all! Lopez based on his races this year will be going well next week.
Time trial tomorrow has quite a bit of significance considering none of the top 5 are renowned for it. Be interesting to see the gaps after.
Time trial tomorrow has quite a bit of significance considering none of the top 5 are renowned for it. Be interesting to see the gaps after.
Yates losing the plot at those 2 Movistar muppets was more than justified. I absolute despise the way Quintana races.
Stannard in the break for what, 170KM's on Saturday? Ridiculous ride. One of the toughest guys on a bike in recent years. The more grim it looks, the more the thrives!
Stannard in the break for what, 170KM's on Saturday? Ridiculous ride. One of the toughest guys on a bike in recent years. The more grim it looks, the more the thrives!
Soldato
I agree, all he want to do is sit on someones wheel, no attacks or anything. He used to be able attack strongly and leave everyone on the climbs but I think hes been off form for a while now and lost confidence. Trying to get Valverde to pull for him when Valverde is higher up on GC is ridiculous.
I get no one wants to drag the main group up the climb but at least Pinot, Yates and Lopez gives it a good go.
If he doesn’t have the legs yet why would he attack. Better to follow and wait for another day, but I will admit that’s all Nairo seems to have done the past two years....
I’d expect Valverde to go equal with Yates in the TT and Nairo to drop a little. Yates won’t want to go super deep and risk blowing again.
Then Movistar need to go nuts as a team in the last week as the Orica team is so so. Haig and A Yates for support not looked so good up to now.
I’d expect Valverde to go equal with Yates in the TT and Nairo to drop a little. Yates won’t want to go super deep and risk blowing again.
Then Movistar need to go nuts as a team in the last week as the Orica team is so so. Haig and A Yates for support not looked so good up to now.
Soldato
Because Lopez is attacking his position in GC? It was quite obvious Quintana didn't have the legs as you say because he dropped time on the GC group all be it a few seconds.
Yes but Lopez is also attacking Yates who is the leader so no reason for Nairo to close it down. He’s won the Vuelta already.
Play poker face when you feel bad, bully other people into doing as much work as you can while you do as little as possible.
Quintana doesn’t want to go deep to close a gap down that someone else will close for him if he mucks about, when Mas or Yates will counter straight over the top immediately after he’s shut it down and gap him.
Rest day now so anyone’s guess for the TT.....!
If I had to guess at the GC TT order... maybe 90 seconds between the fastest/slowest guys so they will all be very close after the TT.
Kruiseship,
Valverde
Pinot
Quintana/Yates
Mas
Uran
Superman
In most similar situations you would be right but Yates had attacked a few times prior and Valverde had already been dropped off and came back to the group twice by this point.... So when it came down to 2x Movistar riders and the race leader and neither of said Movistar riders were willing to chase a direct threat to their own positions it made no sense.... Yates explained in interview also that he asked Quintana to work earlier in the stage and he refused so when Lopez went and both Movistar riders sat and let it go then I totally understand why he was less than impressed and lost his rag. Quintana has no respect for his own team mate (who is higher in the bloody GC at this point) nor the race leader. He is a slimey character and even as fans he offers us nadda! (Can you tell I don't like him?)
Rohan Dennis for the TT today but it will be tight with Campenaerts and Kwiat depending on how bad his crash was the other day/recovery from that.
GC contention wise a good chance for Kruijswijk and Kelderman to make some time and I hope they both do!
I reckon Valverde will place highest of current main contenders but make bare minimum time on Yates who will ride well. Quintana will lose more time to 1st/2nd on GC today. I would absolutely love to see Quintana fall out of contention and replaced by Kruijswijk as he has looked very good and committed himself.
Soldato
In most similar situations you would be right but Yates had attacked a few times prior and Valverde had already been dropped off and came back to the group twice by this point.... So when it came down to 2x Movistar riders and the race leader and neither of said Movistar riders were willing to chase a direct threat to their own positions it made no sense.... Yates explained in interview also that he asked Quintana to work earlier in the stage and he refused so when Lopez went and both Movistar riders sat and let it go then I totally understand why he was less than impressed and lost his rag. Quintana has no respect for his own team mate (who is higher in the bloody GC at this point) nor the race leader. He is a slimey character and even as fans he offers us nadda! (Can you tell I don't like him?)
I'd say Quintana is smart and knows what he's doing. He knows that Yates is nervous in the red jersey and is using his experience to his advantage. Getting him angry will mean he's more likely to make bad decisions. Yates got annoyed for being asked to work...but he still went and did all the work, didn't he?!
If it was Froome in that situation in place of Yates, I think he would have sat up and forced Quintana to chase.
He doesn't look nervous to me at all. Looks super confident and certainly looks to have 10x more legs than Quintana does!
Soldato
He's certainly stronger than Quintana but I dont think he's riding confidently. He chased Lopez himself when Quintana asked him to. Any other experienced GC rider would have held their nerve and made Quintana (and/or Valverde) do the chasing.
Soldato
I think Yates is fine, he's learnt from the Giro not to do too much and blow up so is riding more conservatively. I dont buy the Quintana is smart thing, Movistar has time and again shown how poor they are tactically across many races despite having one of the strongest teams
That tt was good. I said about a year ago after last year's tour its unlikely quintana will ever win a gc again and his lack of tt capability and so so form seems to be holding it true. You can really see movistar don't seem to pay much attention to it as you see so many sky, bmc, giant and quickstep riders up there usually because they've all had a bit of work to improve their positions to maximise performance but others like movistar, Bahrain etc just haven't spent the time and it's really killing them in the big races.
Soldato
Quintana - He's like a cycling version of Mr Bean.
I'm surprised the guy can be bold enough to get out of bed.
I'm surprised the guy can be bold enough to get out of bed.
I'm still trying to catch up! Only watched up to Stage 14 and stage 2 of ToB. Just no time to watch more than an hour and a bit each night with the little one ill (night time & early wake ups so I need more sleep) 
Kruiseship (love it!) has been riding fantastically. Imagine if all the TLJ mountain lot where riding on form together - him, Roglic, Bennett, Gesink & (dare I say it) Sepp Kuss (he's been a bit of a revelation this Vuelta, hope he does well).
Totally agree, I was nashing my teeth at his gormless face when Lopez went as he looked directly at Valverde first, then Yates. When Valverde chased earlier on and he had a gap I just wanted him to continue (while flicking the V's at Quintana) like the real hardman he is riding off into the sunset.
Edited for you.
Feel the same as you about him, lots of promise 3-4 years ago but has amounted to nothing (his GT wins come when all main contenders got injured/pulled out/didn't race) so Movi should've replaced him with a better GC rider/leader. Every other Colombian rider races much classier - Lopez, Sanchez, Chavez and all the Sky lot. I always consider he came into cycling quite late so he'll make little 'progress' as a rider due to his age - brutal but as he's not got a GT win yet, he's unlikely to.He is a slimey character and even as fans he offers us nadda! (Can you tell I don't like him?)
<snip>
I would absolutely love to see Quintana fall out of contention and replaced by Kruijswijk as he has looked very good and committed himself.
Kruiseship (love it!) has been riding fantastically. Imagine if all the TLJ mountain lot where riding on form together - him, Roglic, Bennett, Gesink & (dare I say it) Sepp Kuss (he's been a bit of a revelation this Vuelta, hope he does well).
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