ultraman6970

Hi...

Great stage today, never imagine that they were to catch him.

Well this is my dilemma, there races have time bonuses for 1st, second and 3rd place?? Asking because rodriguez got time over contador eventhought technically they arrived with the same time to the finish line.

Thanks.

canam73

Yes, the Vuelta does have time bonuses. They will probably be important for Rodriguez as he does not TT as well as the other leaders.

ultraman6970

Yeah... I was impressed, probably contador was like... WTF???? All of them need time from froome before the TT, was a good stage. Valverde is smoking this year.

IMO this thing will be decided in the Vuelta del mundo stage. The 4 guys are too even, contador still looks rusty but he is getting better, still have his caractheristic mule kick attack but he cant keep it, and how rodriguez and valverde are riding they wont give contador a chance to go, neither frooome.

Darn Tour with no time bonuses the guys just race to get seconds between them and they dont go for stages no more.

diphthong

love the time bonuses. makes for more exciting finishes in the mountains imho...especially with the already aggressive riders we have contesting the vuelta gc.

chasm54

I agree about the time bonuses, it makes for more aggressive racing.

These four riders are slugging it out, it's highly entertaining. Froome was over-confident today, he did too much work too early in the belief he could shake them. And Contador must be absolutely sickened having been caught on the line.

Both Froome and Contador must be confident of putting time into Purito and Valverde in the TT. So they'd be happy to just stay in touch with those two in the mountains. However, they are each frightened of the other so are forced to race, because for Froome to lose a minute to Contador, or vice versa, might be decisive. It makes for a really interesting and unpredictable GT.

Incidentally, I must go and ride in Andorra. Looks spectacular, doesn't it?

Flaneur

The openness of the racing is probably caused by uncertainty about Contador's fitness, race stamina and the upper limits of his explosivity and power, if he is riding clean. Can he still time trial with the elite? Can he sustain a mountain attack? Will he last three weeks, without an off day?

When the hierarchy is undecided, the racing is always interesting, if not always spectacular. If Contador weakens, as he might, Froome's major concern will be getting worked over by the Spaniards, to ensure a local winner (see Millar, Robert). If Valverde and Rodriguez stop attacking one another and turn on Froome, his team will be under extreme pressure........

Time bonuses like these wouldn't have worried the Contador of 5 years ago- and they won't help Valverde or Rodriguez now, if Contador can find that form again and sustain it to the finish.

Homebrew01

I wonder how long Sky will last if they keep wasting energy setting these high paces 20-30 km from the end.
And their stage 7 leadout was a big energy waster too. Pulling the entire pack for 3-4 km with only a couple of guys ? Of course they would get swarmed at the end, even if Swift could sprint (hint: lower gear)

chasm54

Yes, I agree with all this. They're tactically a bit naive, and Swift is certainly clueless in the sprint.

If I were Sky I'd be letting someone else do the work on the climbs. After all, both Valverde and Rodriguez need to put time into Froome and Contador in the mountains, so I can't see why Sky feel the need to tow them up the hills. Froome could afford to sit on their wheels, minimise his losses and wait for the TT.

ultraman6970

Actually IMO thats what happened just today. We did not see sky, even frooome lost more time today. Darn contador making dumb mistakes again, looks like he attacked at the wrong place, anybody noticed? I been in that climb and the stuff is pretty steep in some places, when i saw him attakicng I thought if was going to have the legs after the flat because the climb continues going up; then I saw rodriguez kicking like a mule.

Valverde took time to them aswel, well valverde and rodriguez need as much as time they can for the TT. Not the questions are, contador can TT as before? Is rodriguez TT better???

bikerjp

I think the Vuelta is more exciting than the TdF this year. I bet if the Tour had time bonuses we would have seen Wiggins attack more or maybe attack and get dropped. Who knows. Anyone know if the TdF has used bonuses and if so why they stopped?

ultraman6970

Well today's TT put everything in stand by again, this thing will be decided in the "bola del mundo,"

Contador is in the best position, he has to just wait and wait, everybody needs time but contador.

Kind of Blued

I totally agree with Indurain here. https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/indu...-far-in-vuelta

We know Contador is "riding himself into shape" after the hiatus, but he's wasting energy and showing his hand for no good reason. If he rode smarter, marked wheels, and attacked for time bonuses, he'd be in the leader's jersey right now, with a lot more gas in the tank.

ultraman6970

The main problem with contador is that he just screw up too much sometimes, when they arrived to barcelona a couple of stages ago. I know that road and is pretty steep but when I saw him at the attack I was like... "WTF is he doing? is too early!!!", looks like he miscalculated the climb big time, when he was racing with LA he screwed up a couple of times aswel. So far the only thing he has to do is wait for the other 3 because they need time from him because at the bola del mundo pretty much in that one an attack has to be at the right time and with 1 second contador have to just wait and keep his time fresh for the bola del mundo because he will need them.

Froome and Valverde will get blind trying to get time back before the Bola del Mundo stage, if valverde doesnt do anything he is pretty much dead for a podium position.