La Vuelta 2015 Thread

[Azabache]

Thought we'd better create a bespoke thread for this as comments have been coming in for a little while now and have been going in the main Season thread.

[LuvSports!]

Cannot wait!
What a lineup! Everyone is there bar Berty. Insane field!

[Azabache]

Quintana-Valverde 1/2?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

It'll be either Aru or Nibali, depending on who Astana choose as their leader (hopefully Aru). 

Also fancy Majka to place well - and would be worth keeping an eye on Bardet. 

Don't think Froome/Quintana will fair so well towards the end of the tour - if I was Movistar I'd support Valverde for this one

[Hammersmith harrier]

Valverde will be more spent than Quintana, far easier on the legs being the leader than a super domestique. Expecting Froome and Quintana to podium.

[Azabache]

I suspect, though will probably be proved wrong, that Quintana has come out of the Tour in better shape than Froome. Though we may very well be into the early years of a remarkable career with Froome.

[Lowlandbrit]

Number of riders not exactly delighted by the TTT course:

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Don't think I'd fancy raring along at 60kph on that either tbf

[Lowlandbrit]

Not sure the Katusha team is going to be the most well-oiled machine: apparently Silin and Trofimov won't be starting after showing up to the airport drunk. Trofimov was himself a replacement for Caruso, who got banned after an old sample got retested.

[Fernando]

Nibali thrown out for being towed after crashing.

[Azabache]

Inconsistencies reign. This smacks of nastiness to me.
Or are there deeper reasons (going back to the Tour)?

[Lowlandbrit]

It's not even been a week, but it feels like there's been a month's worth of craziness already. I mean, Sagan actually won something!

[Hammersmith harrier]

Inconsistencies reign. This smacks of nastiness to me.
Or are there deeper reasons (going back to the Tour)?

It was a clear breaking of the rules and he was rightfully chucked out, it was far too blatant to ignore.

[Azabache]

Yes, agree, I've just seen the recording; it wasn't as if he'd been injured and was getting attention; or had caught up after some bad luck (which he'd had) and had merely got back into a group. This was blatant roaring off ahead of the group-up to 150M+ according to some observers! Couldn't be ignored.

By the way, ITV4 have a real catch in David Millar on the team-real on-the-nose comments. He calls this the "sticky bottle" excuse!

[Guest]

Huge crash yesterday, kris boeckmans is in an induced coma after suffering from concussion & severe facial fractures, broken ribs & bleeding in his lung. Hopefully he can recover.

Teejay Van Garderen & Dan Martin have also abandoned, along with Nacer Bouhanni

General classification after stage eight:
1. Esteban Chaves (Col/Orica) 31hrs 12mins 18secs 
2. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Giant) +10secs 
3. Nicolas Roche (Ire/Team Sky) +36secs 
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +49secs 
5. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa/Katusha) +56secs 
6. Nairo Quintana (Col/Movistar) +57secs 
7. Fabio Aru (Ita/Astana) Same time

[LuvSports!]

Looks like he is going to be ok!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/34105357

[Lowlandbrit]

So, Sagan's out of the race after his fall - but not before being fined for lashing out after it. For more, let's turn to the (somehow not a parody, proof that FU money is a thing) Twitter account of his boss:

Peter Sagan was hit out by moto of #Vuelta2015 in just 8km before his 2nd win. Coincidence or start of #ASO campaign against @tinkoff_saxo ?

[Azabache]

Did the moto try to escape by exiting through the central reservation?

[Lowlandbrit]

Unbelievable! @sergiompaulinho abandons @lavuelta after being hit by reckless TV motorbike! What shall we do now? (More info to follow)

Maybe Oleg's on to something after all?

[LuvSports!]

Froome lost seven minutes today after living up to his name as a youngster.... 'crasher'.

[LuvSports!]

And another tinkoff saxo rider had to withdraw from the race, hit by a motorbike

[Guest]

After Stage 11 Classification

1. ARU Fabio

43h 12' 19''

2. RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin

43h 12' 46'' + 00' 27''

3. DUMOULIN Tom

43h 12' 49'' + 00' 30''

4. MAJKA Rafal  

43h 13' 47'' + 01' 28''

5. CHAVES RUBIO Johan Esteban

43h 13' 48'' + 01' 29''

6. VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro

43h 14' 11'' + 01' 52'

7. MORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel

43h 14' 13'' + 01' 54''

8. NIEVE ITURRALDE Mikel

43h 14' 17'' + 01' 58''

9. QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander

43h 15' 26'' + 03' 07''

10. MEINTJES Louis

43h 16' 34'' + 04' 15''

[Azabache]

Can't work out if Quintana is suffering or holding back for later. He left it (too) late in the Tour also. I would have thought that yesterday's stage was made for him and fully expected him to do an Alpe d'Huez on the final climb.

[LuvSports!]

He's spent imo. ALl the tdf guys are. The schedule is too demanding. Too close together are the GT's.

[Lowlandbrit]

Last climb today is supposed to be a monster.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Wondering how purito will throw away this grand tour - thinking today is the day

[Azabache]

Memories of his blunder in the 2012 edition!

[Lowlandbrit]

This thing is set up beautifully for the ITT on Wednesday.

[Lowlandbrit]

Dumoulin crushes all in the time trial, race now comes down to him vs Aru. Lead is just 3 seconds.

[Azabache]

Crikey! Can't wait to see the ITV4 highlights later....

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Crushes is an understatement, he's annihilated them

[Azabache]

It's still "loseable"-some hary days still to come.

Was impressed by Quintana and Valverde doggedly improving.

[Lowlandbrit]

Aru has got rid of Dumoulin, but there's still about 40km to go. 6 seconds he needs...

[Lowlandbrit]

[Hammersmith harrier]

Was bound to happen eventually and i'd be surprised if anyone thought Dumoulin was going to hold on for victory, the Vuelta is becoming a bit pointless now when the big guns target the Giro and Tour every year.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Gutted for Dumoulin, a valiant effort

[Azabache]

And I guess a bit of the usual Spanish-Italian skulduggery almost guaranteed in the Vuelta at some point?

[LuvSports!]

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12006308_494382460731355_6510075474180770228_n.png?oh=0492311d7acf8c55ad4dacc4f1a8644e&oe=56A27F76

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