diphthong

hay everyone...

this is the 2022 vuelta a espaņa thread. there are going to be spoilers in it. any fantasy cycling game discussion should go in the adjacent "fantasyland" thread.

this is shaping up to be a barnburner of a gc. some great riders and a really interesting course + a ttt.

diphthong

sure there will be a few late additions/subtractions but some of the riders listed:

roglic, hindley, buchmann, hugh carthy, michael woods, alaphilippe, carapaz, merlier, pedersen, sivakov, tgh, higuita, sam bennett,
almeida, remco, mas, s yatesie, miggylo, quintana, ayuso, the green bullet (in his last vuelta), seppuku, kelderman, arensman, masnada,
dvb, de gendt, froomie, o'connor and landa. wowza! this is going to be a blast.

MinnMan

Wondering what UAE are going to do with Almeida and McNulty. I think they are co-leading? After the TdF, it does seem that McNulty has earned the chance to ride for himself, but from the teams point of view, it probably would be better if he rode as a domestique for Almeida.

I'd like to ask the same question about Kuss and Roglic, except that I already know the answe. Roglic has won the last 3 Vueltas, so obviously he's JV's man again, but will Kuss ever get to ride for himself in a GT?

diphthong

between vingegaard, roglic and being signed for the next few years, sepp will likely only be the protected rider if either of the other two go down...
a la tgh winning the giro a few years ago when whatever protected ineos rider (gthom? yatesie?) went down.

almeida seems to be the steadier rider between he and brandon. like them both tho.

surak

Was Dumoulin ever in the running for selection on TJV's squad? I'm wondering if his exclusion had any influence on his decision to announce his immediate retirement.

slcbob

I get the sense Kuss does not have GC ambitions or realistic hopes. He needs the occasional jour sans and is not a force in the TTs.

McNulty TBD.

MinnMan

Yeah, that's probably right about Kuss. The people who do super-domestique work through most of their career (or are lead-out specialists) are an unusual breed. Such great riders but little thirst for the limelight.

diphthong

quick-step for la vuelta...unsure about either alaphilippe or remco going for the overall gc but that could be fluid depending on results. see both of them stage hunting-esp in the first two weeks.
have cavagna down for a stage win but probably not the stage you think. mas(que)nada will probably sneak into the top ten of the gc again somehow. my prediction for quick-step victories
(decent chance for the ttt) is four. absolutely would not be surprised if if were five or six. less than two, methinx, would be a bit of a letdown. bora, ag2r, ineos, uae, bahrain,
trek and jv are all bringing solid squads. iwgm, ipt, bike exchange, ef and movistar look pretty decent and it looks like astana is even going to muster their best (on paper) effort of the year. can't wait.

slcbob

Every band needs a bass player.

MinnMan

Tramadol, huh? So is he in or out?

I don't get it really and I'll regret bringing it up, but if somebody like Quintana was sneaking something extra into his Wheaties, was he hoping simply to not get tested on those days? Tramadol is an opiate, so it's easy for the testers to detect and not a good choice if you are trying to get a stealth advantage.

diphthong

looks like quintana (for now) is in. should he find himself in (or all too close to) the red jersey in week two or three, expecting more news to descend that dq's him from la vuelta.

MinnMan

That would make everybody look bad. Especially the UCI. They should either DQ him now or accept that he could win the Vuelta.

diphthong

agreed but when has pro cycling done the right thing? i’d rate quintana’s chances at winning this 2022 version of the vuelta in the 12-15% range. his assembled team bites so he’d need his great form (expected) + solid team backing (def not expected).

slcbob

Tramadol is not a doping violation. He is not suspended going forward. Just loses the past result.

It is medically prohibited for rider safety. In essence, a rules violation. Like a late DQ from a tape review for a way too long second or third sticky bottle after a warning. Just sticky on the inside.

Nairo says "it wasn't me." Arkea says boilerplate nothing. And onward we go.

USAZorro

Out... and wondering if this will be the event that triggers the demise of the team. Hoping not, but I've seen this play before.

slcbob

This is a weird one. Nairo pulls himself to appear and appeal at CAS.

slcbob

Office pool:
-- After which stage does the first snivel about a spoiler get posted? **
-- Does it appear in this thread, fantasyland, or another thread?

I'm going with 4 and here.

** as measured by the planned neutral start time of the stage, so anything before the stage 3 rollout is considered to have happened with stage 2.

Shadco 

It being the Vuelta ima gonna go stage 10

.

diphthong

right?! we'll see how well the semi-normal people pay attention to the thread title and the first post.
we lunatics rolling thru the fantasy threads are already pretty detached from reality. i do love the yearly conversations around this time of year at work
when several people invariably ask me if i'm doing fantasy (american) football. the looks on the faces when telling them i'd love to but i've got my
plate full with fantasy cycling...priceless.

stage five/here.

MinnMan

Chris Horner has an interesting take on Tramadol and its effects on racing outcomes, back when UCI hadn't banned it. Says riders took it for pain - i.e., after injuries in previous stages - and that it helps an injured rider stay in the race, but isn't much help in boosting their performance,

Spoilers? How can there be spoilers when only five of us are going to read this thread through the whole 3 weeks. Maybe six.

diphthong

counted seven different posters in this thread so far-so there!


it's never the locals/regulars of which there are precisely thirteen, it's those that once upon a time
contributed/visited frequently but no longer do as often because of work, family, lifestyle choices, et al.
but, to their credit, they get inspired to visit when they've got that first spare hour in 3.73 months...and we
mess up/spoil their world...because they were just about to press play on whatever stage/race directly after ripping
through all the pithy commentary and meaty analysis in the "professional cycling" forum. ironical. pro cycling is like
a shark, it is constantly swimming forwards. if there's a little blood in the water (i.e. your average giro stage filled with
road furniture, confusing/confused directions/directional guides, multiple rail crossings, 90 degree bends within 3 km of the finish line, horbs weather), so much the better.

and then there's the uninitiated and unaware who've somehow come to the end of the internet and gotten deposited here.
"those poor, unfortunate souls..."

diphthong

this will likely be our last chance to see both nibbles and valverde in a gt. this is the green bullet's 32nd gt. wow.

slcbob

Lousy morning. I was going to watch the TTT as I have my morning cuppa, but the coverage doesn't start until 1145 eastern. So then I was going to look and see what Horner had to say about Tramadol, but MinnMan spoiled it in post #20 without so much as a "how do you do, Snowflake?"

Fingers crossed for the lads to stay upright today and all the carnage to occur on the bike.

Now I need to go look at Velogames; there might still be time for me to make 6 or 8 small adjustments to my roster.

diphthong

was hoping the ttt would have a different winner but whatevs. at least the ole warhorse got a well deserved red jersey.

MinnMan

Yeah, nice for the warhorse. But the results affirm the obvious - TTT just gives additional advantages to GC riders from rich teams.