La Vuelta a España 2017

Amazing!

Why do pro riders generally not appear to wear baselayers?

Do you when it's above 30 degrees C?

Yeah. #marketing

Chaves' interview comments on Froome's win today and his own race show why he's such a likeable guy.

Basically said Froome's win shows what a great rider he is, he was really pleased with his own race compared to his previous effort on the same climb, thanks to his team. What a lovely man.

The poor guy has had a shit year. Pleased to see him going well.

I like the way Froome is racing. It's hard to say whether his form is better than the Tour because I don't think the field at the Vuelta is as strong, but suspect he's timed his form to peak at the right time.

Mainly a weaker field I think, but Froome looks so good. Great stage yesterday for him and one for the doubters.

This descent looks ridiculous...

One mad arse descent . Worse than the rio olympics crash course.

Descent didn't seem that bad. Think the danger factor was the moisture. good technical stuff

Nibali made so much ground then lost it again. Cheeky one by Roche, the camera didn't seem to catch him getting away but it clearly must've been a good move.

Quick-Step are boring now. We get it, you win all the time.

some excellently surreal kirby and kelly nonsense about plywood just now.

Moscon is well on the Zumo

Nice result for froome gaining time on others. Or should i say the others losing and him not gaining.

Moscon must be on the sauce.

Why?

Shit day for BMC.

Climbing with the best in the world in a GT in his second year as a pro after being previously touted as a classics specialist with no major professional results.

He wouldn't be a pro if he didn't have the engine. If you look at his results then he's always been capable of climbing well, this is just the first time he's done it at WT level.

This is always a question that comes up when a young rider does well. How are they meant to show progression? Should it be early in their career or later? If Moscon is doping, does that mean Lopez is, who is the same age? What about Oomen?

Found that a very hard stage to read, hadn't a clue really if Froome was hanging back or hanging on. Then he gets second and it's all back to normal.
Nibali is certainly a menace.

Shit day for Orica too.

TBH I think I've just tainted Moscon because of him being a bit of a cunt previously. I know racism and doping have no correlation.

It's a bit boring how strong Froome is. If he has 1:19 on second already, with the time trial it's looking very good for him. He's an awesome rider but it also means that stages that turn into GC stages are only about trading small numbers of seconds.

Hoping for a mad attack from one of his competitors, or that he has a bad day, because otherwise it's wrapped up already.

GT mountain stages (or just GTs as a whole) seem to have turned into a 'cling on till the last 800m then see if you can nick another 10/15/20 secs and a time bonus' with greater or lesser penalties to GC contenders depending on the TT distance.

really haven't gotten into the Vuelta at all because even the extreme terrain just doesn't seem to breed much of a shake up in the standings. All seems a bit strangled and lifeless and I have no idea what you'd need to do to open it up a bit.

It's still early days. Think of what Nibali did in the 2016 Giro. Not that he was up against Froome but you never know. Three week tours are hard because they are three weeks long. A bad day on the Angliru and you could lose five, ten minutes.
I expect Froome will win though.