2011-08-20 - Vuelta a Espana: dates / route

Not happy about having Cobo up there; the Saunier Duval rider who got away with it.

I wouldn't worry about Cobo, the dope testers should see to him.

But Froome looked pretty fucked after pulling on the earlier bit of the climb, whereas Cobo looked fluid and relatively effortless all the way to the top (not for the first time).

It was too easy eh.. Everybody suffered like dogs and he looked like he was on a club run..

430 watts (ave?) for 40 minutes up that route.........?

Saunier Duval morphed into several other teams after the doping scandals of Ricco and Piepoli at the 2008 Tour, but essentially kept the same infrastructure and many of it's riders, and simply indulged in a bit of crafty re-branding.

Cobo's only results of any worth were won under the umbrella of this team infrastructure, which is organized by Joxean “Matxin” Fernández (a manager who has 'looked after' Piepoli, Iban Mayo, Ricco, etc in the past)and Mauro Gianetti (a rider who nearly died of doping in the 1998 Tour of Romandie.

Cobo left this team set up to join Caisse d’Epagne (now Movistar) for the 2010 season, but in this new team he couldn't even finish a stage race, never mind being even remotely competitive. He wasn't ill or injured - he just couldn't compete.

Geox picked Cobo up for this season. Geox is that same core team of Saunier Duval, run by Fernández and Gianetti.

The start of this season Cobo was fairing so badly that he quit training in April, put on weight and decided to become an electrician.

Fernández persuaded him to have another go, and strangely enough the results started to appear.

It's funny how riders like Cobo and Menchov can hardly turn a pedal in anger outside the confines of Spain, but here we are on the climb of the Angliru and Cob and Menchov (both Geox) come first and third respectively.

It fucking stinks.