Vuelta a España 2012

[Neil Young]

Save it for the Armstrong thread. Assuming you actually have anything to contribute, which seems doubtful.

[Neil Young]

Drugged up sport and all that

Save it for the Armstrong thread. Assuming you actually have anything to contribute, which seems doubtful.

And since you're unconvinced about the moon landings, your opinions on other things can probably be discounted too.

[destinydude]

Save it for the Armstrong thread. Assuming you actually have anything to contribute, which seems doubtful.

And since you're unconvinced about the moon landings, your opinions on other things can probably be discounted too.

If it were that easy in 1969 financially and technologically, why has no country attempted it again?

Why hasn't the US of A take the discoveries etc. further?

As for cycling, well we all know what sort of a sport it is

[Fredo]

If it were that easy in 1969 financially and technologically, why has no country attempted it again?

Why hasn't the US of A take the discoveries etc. further?

As for cycling, well we all know what sort of a sport it is

Oh ffs.

[Neil Young]

Daniele Bennati (Radioshack) takes today's stage in a bunch sprint photo finish from Ben Swift (Sky).

No significant changes to the overall.


GC

[nineteen]

Who apart from neil remembers the milk race?

Ahhhh, Memories! Not sure if it was '83 or '84 ... the likes of Sean Yates, Malcolm Elliott and Paul Kimmage were all competing. I was only a young lad at the time but it got me into cycling. I got a racer that Christmas - an old Reynolds 531 frame that my Dad got from a mate and had the bloke at the local bike shop stick some decent equipment on it. That bike was brilliant. I think the frame lasted my about 10 years, although I started changing all the parts a couple of years after I got it and as I started getting more serious about racing.

[nineteen]

Partly no-one won all three is because the Vuelta used to be held earlier in the year - it may have even clashed with Giro. So riders like Merckx never got the chance.

It only changed from April to late summer in 1995.

Is that true - I wasn't aware that the Vuelta and Giro overlapped? I always thought the reason that nobody ever won all three, besides being incredibly difficult, was that riders would choose one or the other as a warm up for the TDF. It always seemed like most riders chose the Giro, but then you had someone like Sean Kelly who always rode the Vuelta and won the green jersey 4 times and the GC once in the late '80s.

[Neil Young]

Like I said, I don't know if they clashed, I was just surmising they may have done.

I've just had a quick look at three years at random - Kelly's Vuelta winning year (1988), Merckx's last Giro win (1974) and the first-ever Vuelta (1935). None of them overlapped so maybe that was always true.

1988
Vuelta: 25 April - 15 May
Giro: 23 May - 12 June

1974
Vuelta: 23 April - 12 May
Giro: 16 May - 9 June

1935
Vuelta: 29 April - 15 May
Giro: 18 May - 9 June

But then something caught my eye:

1973
Vuelta: 26 April - 13 May
Giro: 18 May - 9 June

Guess who won both. Merckx - who else? So it was possible. Still, Ocaña won the Tour that year - Merckx didn't ride it.

Battaglin (1981) was the only other rider to do it before the Vuelta scheduling was changed.

Of course it's only comparatively recently it's been all that quick and easy to get from Spain to Italy anyway.

On top of that, neither race was all that international in character until the last few decades, perhaps partly because of travel issues, but mainly because exposure has mushroomed since around the same time. And of course the Vuelta was held back by Spain's isolation under Franco that only started to change significantly in the mid-Seventies, although the regime also used the race to promote its own interests at times too.

David Harmon regularly bangs on about a book called 'Viva La Vuelta' which gives a very rounded view of how it fits into Spanish politics and life. He's right too, it's a great book, so much better than most sports books. Have your read it? If not, I totally recommend it.

[RichC]

wow, the dates there for the Giro and the Vuelta are so close that it must be nigh on impossible to go from one to the other and win both whilst also realistically being able to wn TDF.

I will say though that some things in sport are just on that cusp of being impossible and it's nice to see that in a way; you want to see sports stars strive to do something extraordinary.

I'm not sure if we have a cyclist at the moment that is capable of all 3 (Neil will certainly know better than me on that front though)

[Neil Young]

Regulation day. Long breakaway never threatened to stay away for the win. A few time bonuses snaffled up at the second intermediate sprint. A group away on the final climb - an uphill sprint but nothing to compare with many other stages.

No significant changes on GC. Valverde's a little closer to Contador and, more important probably, a little further away from Rodriguez.


Stage


GC

[Neil Young]

wow, the dates there for the Giro and the Vuelta are so close that it must be nigh on impossible to go from one to the other and win both whilst also realistically being able to wn TDF.

I will say though that some things in sport are just on that cusp of being impossible and it's nice to see that in a way; you want to see sports stars strive to do something extraordinary.

I'm not sure if we have a cyclist at the moment that is capable of all 3 (Neil will certainly know better than me on that front though)

You're right, sometimes what seemed impossible is achieved. And then it becomes, if not the norm, then normalised, attainable.

But I can't see this happening for the foreseeable future, even though the three Grand Tours are more evenly spaced out than they were before the 90s.

Contador is, as things stand, clearly the best Grand Tour rider around at the moment. He tried to win the Giro last year and ended up fifth in the Tour. It was a tough Giro last year but even so, there's no way you can win the Giro and the Tour and have anything left for the Vuelta.

One thing that's changed is that riders prepare more for one race. Armstrong was the master for that (although we now know why) but it's more and more the case. Ride the Giro and you're vulnerable in the Tour to any rider whose training and racing schedule is focused on only Le Grand Boucle. Similarly, ride that and you're vulnerable on the Vuelta. Look at Froome for instance.

[RichC]

You're right, sometimes what seemed impossible is achieved. And then it becomes, if not the norm, then normalised, attainable.

But I can't see this happening for the foreseeable future, even though the three Grand Tours are more evenly spaced out than they were before the 90s.

Contador is, as things stand, clearly the best Grand Tour rider around at the moment. He tried to win the Giro last year and ended up fifth in the Tour. It was a tough Giro last year but even so, there's no way you can win the Giro and the Tour and have anything left for the Vuelta.

One thing that's changed is that riders prepare more for one race. Armstrong was the master for that (although we now know why) but it's more and more the case. Ride the Giro and you're vulnerable in the Tour to any rider whose training and racing schedule is focused on only Le Grand Boucle. Similarly, ride that and you're vulnerable on the Vuelta. Look at Froome for instance.

although it's the same in tennis and golf as well, winning all the majors in the same year is possible but not something anyone has done for umpteen years.

Thought you'd say Contador although I will say that it would be nice to have one special rider not tainted with either allegations or actual bans for drug abuse though.

It must be the toughest sport to actually do the "slam" in a year though

[Neil Young]

I think it's impossible.

[Neil Young]

Another crazy final climb. The 10+km of steepish tarmac is bad enough. But the final 3km of vertiginous concrete - 12%, 15%, 18%, 23%...

Rodriguez attacked and gained time on Valverde who gained on Contador. But the only change in the top ten is that Ten Dam and Talansky swap places.

Froome punctured with 1.5km to go. No team cars in the final 3km so rather than looking for neutral service he rode to the finish on a front flat.

Tomorrow will be a procession, except for the mad dash of a final sprint. I suppose it's possible Valverde will try to take some points at the intermediates to nick the green off Rodriguez but it's unlikely, even if a breakaway doesn't hoover up all the points available before the peloton reaches it.


GC

[Neil Young]

So that's that. Contador wins, assuming nothing emerges, Valverde nicks the Points jersey at the very last moment and, thanks to Clarke, Greenedge get the KoM (which is good) and also last place (which is very poor but on balance they come out ahead).

A very exciting race, although the course too much favoured the climbers to my purist/dull taste.

Just the Tour of Britain and the world championships to go before I'm reduced to watching Sky+ed stages of this year's Tour to keep me going over the long months of the close season.