La Vuelta a España 2014

Aru / Contador / Rodriquez / Froome

^ there seems to be nothing between these guys in the hills. Perhaps this will get good.

That was exciting. Thought it was going to be another Vuelta climb where it would be too steep for anyone to do much but two fantastic, separate, battles going on.
Allez Froome!

He could have laughed it off pretty easily, but I'd be annoyed if even the commentators were giving it the time of day. "Make your own decision", says Mr Kirby, professional shit stirrer.

yup - warms the cockles

loved hesjedal struggling up the steepness, just churning away, but keeping the gap constant, even over the super steep bits, and then reeling in Zaugg. Got to be heart breaking to put in that much effort and then to have it snatched away right at the death. But I like Hesjedal, his shades and the fact that he's always in the break, always, fighting to get something out of the grand tours for Garmin, even as his chances to win the whole thing slips away...
good stage today..

Darn missed it today. Any highlights anywhere?

ITV4 at 7 o'clock

YouTube has last 5km in HD

Applying 500w for 30 seconds on the 5% slope vs 19%. Not all watts are equal.

Just caught up on the highlights; Cracking race that!

Lumping on CHAVEZ for the stage win tomorrow

fucking awesome racing. next two days could be epic

where's the fucking vuelta linkeeeessssss???

steephill ones are duffed. cyclingfans all the way. whew.

Happy with German Eurosport not plugging away about Canyon and Focus as usual.

http://www.covadonga.de

The winding, irregular gradient, long Covadonga climb to the finish is AMAZING parcours.

Really great to watch riders approach it in their own way (except Valverde's wheelsucking way).

Interesting to hear Phil Liggett talk about the low gear some of the riders were having fitted to their bikes prior to the stage. 34 chainring, 32 sprocket. That's more like a touring ratio. Mind you, a constant near 20% gradient for 2 miles at the end of a mountain stage........you'd need it, especially if you were a big lad. Some of those Spanish climbs seem to go on forever (I speak from experience). We've nothing like that in this country.

I was trying to be generous to Valverde and think, well, he can't drop Contador and Contador keeps attacking so sitting on his wheel makes sense. Then the one time he did come to the front he starts flicking his elbow for Contador to come through. Such a graceless arsehole.

Agreed. He is the pits.

Sort of grudgingly respect him, despite being an utter turd. At least he tried to attack yesterday- gave us the pleasure of watching him capitulate.

Betancur Update:
Third from last yesterday. 100th today.

Keep it up son.

At least he's still sticking at it.

His team must be chuffed for him...possibly.

Curious thing about the Betancur case was the team saying they didn't know where he was - but he must have been filling in his ADAMS whereabouts info or he would have been sanctioned. Do the teams not have access to this?

Wait, he is actually in the race?

What is it with TV/press motorbikes and the Vuelta? They sit just a couple of metres in front of lead riders as if they are pacing them. Seen lots of riders get help, whether intentional or not.

fight fight fight fight fight