Today was the first day of the Vuelta a España, the last grand tour of 2020. Very unusual to have overlap with the Giro, but of course Covid forced shuffling of the schedule.
For those who wondered why Chris Froome was not included on his team's Tour de France roster...he finished 72nd on the first stage today, over 11 minutes behind the leader (Primoz Roglic). Clearly, he is still working himself back to form after his injury.
Do we need a thread for every bike race? Good lord.
Quote from: ZiggysFryBoy on October 20, 2020, 09:22:02 PM
Do we need a thread for every bike race? Good lord.
Yes.
And what?
Quote from: ZiggysFryBoy on October 20, 2020, 09:22:02 PM
Do we need a thread for every bike race? Good lord.
You do realize that reading them is optional right?
Quote from: Fluffy Blue Monster on October 21, 2020, 07:39:46 AM
You do realize that reading them is optional right?
You know I don't speak Spanish.
Quote from: lawdog77 on October 21, 2020, 01:27:36 PM
You know I don't speak Spanish.
Only during blow-outs in game-day chat.
Quote from: GooooMarquette on October 21, 2020, 02:04:36 PM
Que?
(https://media.giphy.com/media/SYOUNgT5BXGnK/source.gif)
What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks one language? American
I mean, 99% of Americans can function in their day to day lives without speaking another language. I can go 1,000 miles in any direction from my house, and people are speaking the same language.
Goo, please explain the concept of the word "joke" before you post a joke on Scoop. ;)
Quote from: Jockey on October 21, 2020, 04:22:56 PM
Goo, please explain the concept of the word "joke" before you post a joke on Scoop. ;)
Perhaps we should adopt a new font color. We already have teal for sarcasm; how about lime green for jokes?
18 stages instead of 21. Short hilly and tons of mountain top finishes. Only 4 flat stages(sprint finishes).
I like this set-up better than the normal set-up. Grand tours should be two weeks (three for the Tour de France is ok).
Hablo Español. 👍✌️
Here is a pretty cool photo from the start of La Vuelta from Charly López:
Quote from: Heisenberg v2.0 on October 24, 2020, 08:22:24 AM
18 stages instead of 21. Short hilly and tons of mountain top finishes. Only 4 flat stages(sprint finishes).
I like this set-up better than the normal set-up. Grand tours should be two weeks (three for the Tour de France is ok).
Agree with much of this. I don't mind the occasional sprint finish, but even then I want the riders to go over at least one or two categorized climbs to get to the end. The hills and mountains are where you get most of the surprises, head to head battles, and time gaps.
Primoz was human today
Quote from: Heisenberg v2.0 on October 25, 2020, 11:48:50 AM
Primoz was human today
As he was on Stage 20 of the Tour. Gotta be frustrating to be clearly the best guy for almost 3 weeks, only to have a single (relatively) bad day knock him off the top of the podium.
Quote from: GooooMarquette on October 25, 2020, 12:28:17 PM
As he was on Stage 20 of the Tour. Gotta be frustrating to be clearly the best guy for almost 3 weeks, only to have a single (relatively) bad day knock him off the top of the podium.
Did he really have that bad a day in stage 20? It looked more like Podegcar having an out of body day in the TT.
Quote from: Heisenberg v2.0 on October 25, 2020, 10:39:28 PM
Did he really have that bad a day in stage 20? It looked more like Podegcar having an out of body day in the TT.
In my opinion, yes. While you are right that Podegcar had a phenomenal day, I still think Roglic underperformed the expectations of most everyone.
In stage 20, he was largely expected to win or come very close. Instead, he not only got beat by Podegcar, he also finished behind well behind Demoulin, Porte, and VanAert. Given how dominant he had been the entire Tour, I think falling to a not very close 5th was evidence of a bad day.
The Vuelta coverage has done a good job of mentioning how good an athlete some professional cyclists are:
* Micheal Woods won a Vuelta stage a few days ago. He was a 3:57 miler.
* Primoz Roglic, currently second, was a world champion in ski jumping.
* Cameron Wurf, is a professional triathlete. He would have been in Kono competing for an Iron Man Championship. It was canceled. So, he is "moonlighting" as a domestique for Ineos, and his great riding and pacing has been noted in keeping Richard Carapaz in the lead.
Quote from: Heisenberg v2.0 on October 30, 2020, 08:02:21 AM
The Vuelta coverage has done a good job of mentioning how good an athlete some professional cyclists are:
* Micheal Woods won a Vuelta stage a few days ago. He was a 3:57 miler.
* Primoz Roglic, currently second, was a world champion in ski jumping.
* Cameron Wurf, is a professional triathlete. He would have been in Kono competing for an Iron Man Championship. It was canceled. So, he is "moonlighting" as a domestique for Ineos, and his great riding and pacing has been noted in keeping Richard Carapaz in the lead.
Yep. I find Wurf's story particularly incredible. Started the year as a professional triathlete; ending it as a 37-year old doing a very solid job in a Grand Tour. In addition to his triathlon and road cycling skills, he won the U23 World Championship in rowing, and was a member of Australia's 2004 Olympic Rowing team. All told, his career has gone as follows (all at a world-class level):
Rowing -> Road Cycling -> Triathlon -> Road Cycling
For what it's worth .. French people have a different word for everything.
Quote from: Fluffy Blue Monster on October 21, 2020, 04:10:29 PM
I mean, 99% of Americans can function in their day to day lives without speaking another language. I can go 1,000 miles in any direction from my house, and people are speaking the same language.
I can go 2 houses and everyone on my block speaks Spanish. Then I go about 2 blocks and everyone speaks Polish. What a country.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on October 30, 2020, 06:01:07 PM
For what it's worth .. French people have a different word for everything.
Tout
Quote from: Chili on October 31, 2020, 08:49:31 AM
I can go 2 houses and everyone on my block speaks Spanish. Then I go about 2 blocks and everyone speaks Polish. What a country.
That's a cool thing.
Major props to the Vuelta organizers. They finished the 18-stage race with zero riders testing positive for Covid.
Riders commented on how secure the team bubbles were, particularly in comparison with the Giro d'Italia. And the organizers did a great job of keeping spectators away the course. In all, only two staff members tested positive during the race. No riders or race officials were infected.
And congratulations to Primoz Roglic for his second straight Vuelta title. He was clearly the strongest rider, although Richard Carapaz and Hugh Carthy were great as well.
For American cycling fans, Sepp Kuss was awesome in both the Tour and the Vuelta. He could make some serious noise in coming years.
Agreed on all above.
The Vuelta has been the most innovative and forward thinking of all the Grand Tours. That was evident in this year's edition.
Also, I'm becoming a big fan of the time trial that encourages a bike change. Like watching a NASCAR pit stop ... interesting without putting rider safety at risk.
Finally, love next year's Tour de France route (released last week). Team trial is back , as is Mount Ventoux!
(Side note, the greatest "sports day" of my life was 2016 riding my bike up the Ventoux three hours before the tour. You have no idea how insanely hard that ride is. Also saw Froome fall off his bike and run up the mountain. That day was unlike anything I've witnessed in any sporting event.)
Quote from: Heisenberg v2.0 on November 09, 2020, 02:07:59 AM
Agreed on all above.
The Vuelta has been the most innovative and forward thinking of all the Grand Tours. That was evident in this year's edition.
Also, I'm becoming a big fan of the time trial that encourages a bike change. Like watching a NASCAR pit stop ... interesting without putting rider safety at risk.
Finally, love next year's Tour de France route (released last week). Team trial is back , as is Mount Ventoux!
(Side note, the greatest "sports day" of my life was 2016 riding my bike up the Ventoux three hours before the tour. You have no idea how insanely hard that ride is. Also saw Froome fall off his bike and run up the mountain. That day was unlike anything I've witnessed in any sporting event.)
Very envious of your ride up Ventoux.
If ever there was a 'bucket list' of iconic climbs, it would definitely include Ventoux, Galibier, the Stelvio in Italy and a few others. And shorter but just as iconic - the Alpe d'Huez. I would add the Angliru in Spain, but they would have to bury me at the top.