La Vuelta a España 2014

All of ^ this.

It's not really Quintana's terrain.

Punchy little rise up to the finish today. I'd say Sagan or Gilbert but neither looks particularly in form. Matthews looks like the default pick after those two at the moment.

Crash for Froome and off the back of the bunch. Not the best bike handler is he?

Am I being thick in expecting Eurosport (2) to be screening this?

'Kin rowing twats.

it usually starts at 3pm I think.

I wonder what Valvie said to Quintana which made him shake his head.

"Can you hang on?"
"Do you mind if I have a go for the stage?"

Interesting if he is riding support for Quintana.

Hesjedal goes down and the camera bike runs over his wheel. De Marchi solo now.

Crash in the sprint for fifth place. Like a 4th Cat race.

Nice to see De Marchi take it - he's been feisty all year.

Also enjoyed Calamity Froome continuing his good form this season.

Nice to see Gary mention this as well. To be fair to Froome he sprant right at the line didn't he. Put 2 secs into his rivals. When he wins by 2 seconds now they'll feel stoopid.

Bouhanni happy with the sprint this time, commissaires less so.

Bouhanni would have been the first to throw his toys out of the pram if that happened to him.

Should be a great stage today. Getting all my jobs/training done early so I can watch it uninterrupted.

And yet look at the prick veer over to stop Matthews yesterday. Boohoohani can do one.

Winner winning #meta

was quite exciting for about 5 minutes there.

Contador looking much meaner than Fwoomey. Quintana comparatively sluggish.

anyway. I'm sure Lampre will have nothing to worry about re: bio passport irregularities.

Sky's train looked very impotent today. Didn't string it out in the slightest when they hit the front.

To give Froome the benefit of the doubt, he might be waiting for the TT. But rest day tomorrow so why not go for it? He looks well off the pace and backed by a reasonably weak team.

Purito seems to fancy it.

It's sort of picking up a bit isn't it?

Quintana is chillaxing on Purrito's wheel like the evils genius (and thoroughly nice guy) that he is. He's in red.

I kept giggling watching Froome watch his stem – waiting for him to faint.

I like Kennaugh's Champ' kit/bike. The nicest a Dogma has ever looked!

Sky's train looked very impotent today. Didn't string it out in the slightest when they hit the front.

Did we watch the same race?

Big group left at the end. They struggled to cut Anacona's lead.

Not the fearsome prospect it once was. That's all.

For some reason I was getting the Aussie eurosport commentary, the guy kept mixing up Chris Horner and Chris Froome. Was funny for the implications.

I reckon Nairo's a bit knackered-must be a long season to keep yourself at that level, if it had been the Giro he'd have monstered that climb like when he took 5'30" out of Uran.

Sky train does look weaker than normal but that's all relative-calling back Cataldo from the break was a funny one-maybe Froome's suffering from his Goatseing injuries or just a bit under the weather... Kennaugh took a huge pull but couldn't do any damage on Anacona's lead so it's either collective fatigue or Winner pulling a blinder on the day.

Given its his first ever pro victory and he's with Lampre I'm quite sceptical but hey ho, maybe he did take advantage of the weather and shit and just put 3'30" into the best riders in the world.

TT will be a reveal too-Quintana's going to lose red, Froome should smash it if he doesn't fall off or inhale his nose turbine thingy.

@Chadders81 I imagine the plan was to keep the pace up and early attacks hard.

The Quintana group put 23s into Froome, but that was late. It was Froome who couldn't get it up.

#armchair

Nobody from the GC teams gives a fuck about Anacona's lead.

Anacona doesn't – he coasted over the line.

It was a fairly short, punchy climb, not Froome's forte alough he's been looking bullish in his riding so I was surprised he couldn't react to Contador's attack. Though the team rode well and it's nice to the see the British Champ's jersey being so prominent

And I'd also say Froome is very bad in cold and wet conditions like today

I like that Dan Martin put in an attack and stirred things up.