2020 Vuelta a España

[GooooMarquette]

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.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Do we need a thread for every bike race?  Good lord.

[GooooMarquette]

Do we need a thread for every bike race?  Good lord.

Yes.

And what?

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Do we need a thread for every bike race?  Good lord.

You do realize that reading them is optional right?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

You do realize that reading them is optional right?

No shít. 

[lawdog77]

You do realize that reading them is optional right?

You know I don't speak Spanish.

[GooooMarquette]

You know I don't speak Spanish.

Que?

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

You know I don't speak Spanish.

Only during blow-outs in game-day chat.

[lawdog77]

Que?

[GooooMarquette]

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

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

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.

[Jockey]

Goo, please explain the concept of the word "joke" before you post a joke on  Scoop. 

[GooooMarquette]

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?

[Not A Serious Person]

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).

[shoothoops]

Hablo Español. 👍✌️

Here is a pretty cool photo from the start of La Vuelta from Charly López:

[GooooMarquette]

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.

[Not A Serious Person]

Primoz was human today

[GooooMarquette]

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.

[Not A Serious Person]

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.

[GooooMarquette]

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.

[Not A Serious Person]

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.

[GooooMarquette]

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

[mu_hilltopper]

For what it's worth .. French people have a different word for everything.

[Chili]

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.

[GooooMarquette]

For what it's worth .. French people have a different word for everything.

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