diphthong

yeah...2023 la vuelta is now in session. fantasy nonsense can stick/adhere to it's own disturbing thread (worse than a train wreck) and keep their tawdry biz outta here.
bring the love. chance the returning champeen is wearing the red jersey in madrid? putting it at 22-25%. some most excellent rosters and riders. should be an absolute
hoot. end of the second week/beginning of the third week will be the undoing of many.

diphthong

going with jay vine or kämna to win the angliru stage...let's go with jay vine.

slcbob

These predictions are pure fantasy. There's another thread for that.

GrainBrain

Who's going into red on the first stage? Some lucky domestique? Tratnik maybe? He missed out on my VG team.

Eric F 

Remco, upon hearing that Vingegaard was going to ride the Vuelta...

"Damnit"

...and Sepp Kuss, too....

"****!!!"

Sam Gaze finished 2nd to Tom Pidcock in the XCO MTB World Championships - and won the XCC race. Gaze will be riding the Vuelta for the Alpacin team. He's a powerful dude with great form right now. I would love to see him steal a stage win.

diphthong

yay! finally la vuelta time! crazy, weird mix of riders as expected. teams jv and uae coming hard. was hoping to see tgh and sivakov in the proceedings but team xfers are what they are. hopefully next edition.

USAZorro

I am enjoying (too much, perhaps) the irony that TJV's inclusion of JV was actually a liability in the TTT.

GrainBrain

Oh Roman Bardet hello!

diphthong

liking this finish. going with remco for all the stage two tapas.

GrainBrain

Oof I dunno, is there anything more brutal in cycling then wet Spanish roads? 30k to go and I've already watched a camera moto almost lose it, molano then rogla fall, then piccolo go down ... before the final circuit

USAZorro

I have to wonder if the delay in releasing results today was due to reviewing whether or not Piccolo drafted excessively while riding back into the breakaway. Thankfully, the race organizers are better at following instructions than Bobke - who seemed a bit stuck on wanting to consider time gaps at the finish.

OBoile

I'm a bit surprised that Roglic only got 4th. That final sprint out of a group is generally the thing he excels at.

Eric F 

IMO, he got caught too far back when things ramped up. That said, I expected more from him in that situation. The strength of Jonas' response was impressive.

I predict a similar scenario to the Tour where the punchier rider (Tadej/Remco) will be attempting to squeeze out every advantage he can on stages like this, knowing that the big mountains are going to favor Jonas.

OBoile

In that case, a bad tactical move considering what was coming. This is his best chance to steal time and/or deny the bonus seconds to other GC guys.
LR podcast (just listened to) said the same thing but that they were still surprised that he didn't get past JA for 3rd.

Eric F 

I watched the finish again. Primoz was in a bad spot (outside, behind 2 UAE riders) when Remco launched on a much better line from the inside of the turn. Jonas was already on Remco's wheel at that moment, and was able to react instantly. Primoz may have been looking for a late attack of his own, but got beaten to the punch by Remco.

surak

Roglic crashed on Stage 2, so he could still be feeling the effects. Or he could be coming in undercooked like he seemingly did the Giro this year, with a plan to come good in the third week.

OBoile

Looking at the results again, even more surprising is Thomas losing > half a minute. Any idea what happened there? It wasn't like it was a particularly select group at the top.

diphthong

in life and horrible predictions, timing is everything.

diphthong

**horrible prediction-stage four** looking for the kron dubble-dip.

USAZorro

I hear you. As I watch, I am struck by how visceral my dislike for Alpecin Deceunick (sp?) is. It all started six or so weeks back with Phillipsen. I have massive respect for MVDP, but their team vibe strikes me as "classic frat boy", which has always left me cold. This feeling clouds judgment a bit (see my fantasy team), as Groves likely is the lone sprinter in the field who could legitimately make a contest out of a sprint finish with the current best of the pro peloton.

diphthong

liking the stage 5 profile. twere cavagna here, i’d horrible predict him ftw. unsure if ganna will get the green light this early on but gonna go ganna for stage 5 anyway. that’s why they’re horrible predictions™️.

USAZorro

I've got two names: Daniel Navarro Garcia, Rui Costa.

I might get lucky. It's been a while (2009) since I predicted Heinrich Haussler would win that stage in Le Tour.

diphthong

anytime i can encourage reckless prognosticating behavior, i'll take it. anyone else wanna take a flier? it's la vuelta. it's not like these
predictions are going on your permanent record. oh. maybe they are.

slcbob

I'll throw a dart. Stage 6: Storer from the break.

Eric F 

Interesting. I like the Alpecin story of building a team from a regional to Continental to World Tour, and delivering results at the highest level, by multiple riders. The team has the current road, CX, MTB (XCC), and gravel World Champions.