La Vuelta a España 2017

It's almost made me miss the watchfinder one.

Almost.

At least that had variety!

Watchfinder is still available on the ITV highlights.

Read that at half speed if you like, for familiarity.

Punchy finishes to both stages this weekend. Should make for good viewing.

Really hope Contador can nick a win.

Barguil kicked off the Vuelta.

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Where's Omar Fraile this Vuelta?

I think he got signed by TDD on the strength of his climbing in 2015, won the mountains jersey last year, and doesn't seem to have been in a break at all so far in this edition. Is he saving it for Asturias?

Wazza looking a bit emaciated Christian Bale here.

This is a bit harsh really, but I suppose it's how teams work.

You can understand Barguil being frustrated seeing as he was ahead of Kelderman in the GC.

But also if you have team orders you can't just decide they don't apply.

Seems a bit petulant of Barguil to want to do his own thing when he has had such a great year thanks to Sunweb, is leaving and could easily not have been picked for the Vuelta. Kelderman was only 2 seconds behind him.
I think Sunweb have been the outstanding team this year because they run such a tight ship and don't tolerate any deviation or selfishness.

@tommmmmmm I've been reading Lachy Morton's Vuelta diaries and he said there's a bug going through the team, and Fraile's one who has been sick for he past couple of days. They're down to five riders now, after some have left through illness and Kudus' crash yesterday.

According to other newspapers it was not only yesterday's move but he had received multiple warnings, and in talking with the DS Barguil he said he did not see it as his role/would not act as a domestique to help Kelderman. Sad really, it messes up the team spirit that did them so well in the TdF

(Frenchies on twitter mad as hell, incroyable!)

Leaving the team makes it an even easier decision.

Ah cheers for that. That's a shame for him in his home race and his home region. Fair play to him for still being in the race, hopefully he'll have something to offer after the rest day.

There's a Watchfinder shop in Canary Wharf, I discovered the other day. I presumed it was just a website or something but retail space in the Wharf is ££££ because everyone there except me is paid a fortune.

I still think they should have called it The Watchfinder General.

Froome is killing it right now

That was a wonderful stage. A real joy to see Froome climbing like that again. Contador would be in second were it not for the first few days. I think andy-p slipped something in his food.

What a finish.

I loved seeing Polanc pop round Alaphilippe and Majka and take them by surprise after they bullied him on the climb. Shame he couldn't take it, but Quick-Step are machines at stage winning.

Froome continually looks like he's got something in reserve, he seems to watch every attack go, and then manage to launch one or join one that few others can match.

Has he been out-climbed at all so far in the Vuelta?

Not so far. Seems he has his strategy for the year spot on unless he fades in the last week but I wouldn't bet on that.

I watched the end of today's stage live on eurosport, just watching the highlights on ITV4.

I know this has been said many times before, but the ES commentary is so shit. It's a total fucking embarrassment. Not a patch on Millar and Boulting.

Are Millar and Boulting just wittering away to themselves all day, without knowing if what they're saying will ever be heard if it doesn't make the cut? Or does someone somewhere get their commentary in full?

@ 99.3KM someone pulled over to the barriers for a piss where he was hit in the head by a bidon expertly hoofed from the middle of the peloton

Froome hasn't been this good in ages, amazing form.

Nice little bit of help from De la Cruz too there after the last Sky domestique dropped off.

We took a ride down the local hill to watch the peloton go by today, just outside Gran Alacant and north of Santa Pola, a decent sized crowd turned out. It looked like everyone was having a day off given the time it took the bunch to get to us from the start, even the breakaway group looked like they were freewheeling.

There's some crap video footage on snapchat if anyone is interested

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Heading to the vuelta next week (already vaguely in the area) trying to get some good snaps any thoughts/top tips on where to go? Will have a car. Tempted to try to go to a village half way along then try to catch some of the finish in Seville. Too ambitious?

http://www.lavuelta.com/la-vuelta/2017/us/stage-13.html