I'm in!Originally Posted by Witton Park
I'm in!
Three of us so far but still time
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
Guaranteed Podium
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
I've mostly played catch up on the Vuelta - coming back from holiday last weekend and then a lot of catching up workwise meant I couldn't watch much live.
I saw the extended highlights on GCN+ for days 1-5 and 6 and 7 mostly live and just caught up with 8 & 9 extended highlights.
It's not ideal and hard to connect with what's going on, nut it looks like its shapping up to be a decent event.
7 x GC contenders all within 33 seconds, but 2-3 minutes behind race leader Kuss.
Kuss would not be considered a GC contender but I do wonder if the tea, will support him through week 2. JV certainly don't need to attack so a lot of the responsibility rests with UAE and Quickstep.
It will become clearer tomorrow. If Evanpoel can pull back the majority of that 2:22 on Kuss, but then if Kuss can hang on in there and have most of it intact.... we know he can climb and probably out-climb Evanpoel.
Looking forward to getting back in to the live coverage this week.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
VELOGAMES STANDINGS at the end of week 1.
voiture balai
Pierre Moliere (PeteS)
2003 points
Kompany`s Clarets
Richard Taylor
1911 points
Asthma Aids Ascenders
Haven`t a Clue (Llani)
1568 points
Llani is suffering from the loss of Dunbar and Jay Vine.
Pete has scored well having gone for both Vingegaard and Roglic. Theuns has also turned out to be a cracking pick for him.
A lot will come down to who gets to the end and picks up the big points for overall standings in the main jerseys.
In summary none of us are doing great
PeteS is our best atm and is only overall Rank: 15207 of 18885 so we are doing much worse so far than at the TdF.
Just to give an idea the leader at the moment has 3947 points from Groves, Evanpoel, Kuss, Soler, Ayuso, Landa.
They even have Barrenetxea who I've never heard of from Casa Royale with 209 pts.
Good luck for week 2 guys.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
There are only a limited number of ways to win a bike race.
The last ten minutes of todays Vuelta are a brilliant (and hilarious) example of one of those variations.
I enjoy watching the racing but i'm not fully conversant with all the tactics...
However i can't for the life of me understand the furore about Kuss, Roglic and the other guy.
Three team-mates, all at the top of the standings.... just let them battle it out and see who wins.... would have made for a fantastic last few days to the Vuelta.
I just don't see why having some genuine racing between team-mates generates "bad publicity" for their team.
Racing seemingly pushed out for the benefit of sponsors.
It is totally a team sport. It is never a case of individuals "battling it out".
Kuss has proved to now be the strongest rider despite his normal role of being "a bidon carrier", a domestique.
These three riders are paid £millions and those millions come from sponsors. Nobody pays to stand by the side of the road to watch a bike race. Sponsors matter. Why is there no Tour of Yorkshire this year?
And looking at the big picture - Kuss is an American and road racing is a European sport. Nobody will notice in the USA if "the other guy" wins but they will certainly notice if Kuss wins a Grand Tour from a field packed with Grand Tour winners.
A serious question that has occured to me, in Wales we have the 20mph speed limits coming in this weekend (our village has the restrictions signs up, despite the fact it was never a 30 so we have gone from 60 - 20 in one go).
So what happens to big bike races when they go through towns, they will all be going over 20, including the team cars, camera motor bikes, police bikes and cyclists?
Do they have a legal dispensation so the limit is not enforced or is it simply ignored?
I now consider myself a "boy racer" on my bike as I attemtp to break all the limits into villages 😎
I'm perhaps missing the point, but your final two paragraphs appear to back my point up....
Team decision taken with the sponsors in mind... its understandable, but a real shame.
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