Pro-cycling thread

https://twitter.com/Packdeltoro/status/1168435634127720448

Who's this Carl Hagen fella who seems to be 6th on the GC? Never heard a mention of him all race and he's only 1:46 behind Quintana and ahead of some major names who've been at the sharp end.

Lotto-Soudal neo-pro. Gained a lot of time in the break that stayed away last week, but an impressive ride thus far.

He is 27 though, so has been riding at Continental level for a few years.

Ta Andy. Seemed surprising he could be in such a high placing just from one break but must have been not far behind on the mountains as well.

Carapaz confirmed as joining Ineos in a three year deal.

#retirmentfund

He's only 26!

The Quintana reveal video is cringeworthy. Probably belongs in the fail thread

https://twitter.com/theraceradio/status/1168511188805619712?s=21

29 when he's done and time to retire.

Ha! Fucking hell. Some social media manager just discovered they in fact don't have any compelling or creative marketing skills after all.

Carapaz confirmed as joining Ineos in a three year deal.

"It's my turn to win a Grand Tour!"
"No, it's mine!"
"NO, ITS MINE!"
"Daavveeee......"

They’ve successfully managed egos for the past 9 years, so I don’t see that being an issue.

This year has shown that they need more leaders, both the Giro and the Vuelta teams lacked a potential podium finisher, never mind a winner.

Anyone have start times for today?

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vuelta-a-espana-stage-10-time-trial-start-times/

Perfect, thank you

I love the Vuelta. I think they vary the parcours so that it is constantly interesting and always seems to offer close racing . But what on earth are they doing with the points competition? Today's 'intermediate' sprint is about 50m from the end of the stage and the points standings are almost the same as GC. It all seems a bit, well, pointless.

Was reading an ode to today's course earlier: https://petecossins.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-forgotten-climbs-of-french-basque.html

Ah, the Col du Buggery as my friend called it after we rode it. It’s horribly steep in places but the views are superb.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/04/helicopter-rooftop-marijuana-plants-vuelta-spain-catalonia-race

Rumours its valverde’s gaf are denied

Came here to post this, hilarious.

I find it surprising that the growers didn't realise the bike race would generate helicoper footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTmIzjkw

Could be me being naive but I couldn’t recognise those as what they were from the TV. Makes me think the Vuelta coverage was a convenient smoke screen (see also random stops at ports which are more often intelligence led, not random)