Vuelta a Espana 2014

Who will win La Vuelta?

  • Cadel Evans

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Fabio Aru

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Joaquim Rodriguez

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (please state)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .

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Well, it's certainly snuck up on me, but the Vuelta a Espana kicks off Saturday night. This edition has kept the tradition of the race by including a large number of mountain stages (though not quite as many as usual). We also have three time trials (one a team time trial). The final stage into Santiago de Compostella is a short ITT (10km) so but then the race should be decided, however it would be sad to see the race leader have a mechanical or a crash, costing overall victory. I for one am against GT's finishing on a TT for that reason, but I can see the advantages of it. I very much look forward to stage 14 and the climb of La Camperona (also known as "Son of Angliru"). This climb hits 24% at one point. I know some on here don't like climbs like this, but I personally love them.

As far as favourites go, this would be a really open race in my opinion, except for 2 riders; Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana. These two will finish top 2 (barring catastrophe). Other than them, we have 4 experienced riders in Evans, Contador, Van den Broeck and Rodriguez. Of these, I can only realistically see Rodriguez making the podium, but he will have to ride well, as the young contingency of riders is nothing to laugh at. Talansky, Aru, Betancur, Kelderman, Pinot, Uran (not so young, but not that old either), and Yates are all riding. Most of those guys skipped Le Tour, so will be fresh and ready to challenge. Degenkolb and Bouhanni are far and away the quickest sprinters (on paper), but I can't see Sagan losing the green jersey. He is just too consistent.

Predictions:
Podium:

  1. Chris Froome
  2. Nairo Quintana
  3. Rigoberto Uran
Green Jersey: Peter Sagan
Polkadot Jersey: Jose Serpa
White Jersey: Chris Froome
 

Hellgood

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Assuming that it will be on Eurosport, hopefully I should be able to catch a bit of it :thumbsu:. I know for those without Fox that SBS are showing a few of the latter stages.

Interesting piece on the Vuelta and it's place in the overall scheme of things. I like the notion of it being the 'revenge race'.

http://inrng.com/2014/08/whats-the-point-of-the-vuelta/
 

alfy!

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Can't wait. Quintana for me, looks to be in top form in all aspects (even had an awesome flat TT earlier this week).

Interesting piece on the Vuelta and it's place in the overall scheme of things. I like the notion of it being the 'revenge race'.

http://inrng.com/2014/08/whats-the-point-of-the-vuelta/
I think they downplay the Vuelta and overall have a negative view towards the race in that article.
 

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This is likely to be Evans' last GT and I'm struggling to see him finishing in the top-10, which is a pity given what he's achieved in the past.

For some riders, this is a case of unfinished business - most notably Froome, and to a lesser extent Contador. Quintana didn't ride Le Tour, so he should be relatively fresh. It will be great to see how he goes against Froome, when it comes to the high mountains. My biggest concern for Quintana is how much time he will lose to Froome in the TTs, with the stage 1 TTT and stage 21 ITT both being very flat, giving Froome a significant advantage. At least the stage 10 TT has a 355m cat 3 climb, which should make it a bit more even.

It's hard to see Purito being a serious contender, given that he's already started 2 Grand Tours this year and had to recover from some nasty injuries after his fall in the Giro. Actually, I can't see any of the riders who finished the TdF being serious contenders, which probably rules out Pinot as well.

Such a pity that Contador will only be racing for stages, not having the fitness base to be a real contender, having broken his leg in the TdF. It would have been great to see a genuine battle between him, Froome & Quintana.

At the end of the day, this is likely to be the best GT of the year, having the hottest field of any of the GTs. Nibali is probably the only top rider missing - and his absence is more than excused, given his success in the TdF.
 

ben_1301

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Such a pity that Contador will only be racing for stages, not having the fitness base to be a real contender, having broken his leg in the TdF. It would have been great to see a genuine battle between him, Froome & Quintana.
I don't buy the just going for stage wins statement, That's not his style. There was reports he was on his bike long before we were told, I hope so anyway!
Where's the Horner option!! his Vuelta win last year was no fluke, the climbing figures were the most impressive of any of the grand tours, If he's "prepared" the same way this year It'll be fun to watch.
 

Hellgood

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I don't buy the just going for stage wins statement, That's not his style. There was reports he was on his bike long before we were told, I hope so anyway!

Definitely agree with that.

Will also be interesting to see how BMC uses Evans in conjunction with Sanchez. Pretty difficult to see one working in full support of the other, although they do apparently get along ok these days.
 
This is likely to be Evans' last GT and I'm struggling to see him finishing in the top-10, which is a pity given what he's achieved in the past.

For some riders, this is a case of unfinished business - most notably Froome, and to a lesser extent Contador. Quintana didn't ride Le Tour, so he should be relatively fresh. It will be great to see how he goes against Froome, when it comes to the high mountains. My biggest concern for Quintana is how much time he will lose to Froome in the TTs, with the stage 1 TTT and stage 21 ITT both being very flat, giving Froome a significant advantage. At least the stage 10 TT has a 355m cat 3 climb, which should make it a bit more even.

It's hard to see Purito being a serious contender, given that he's already started 2 Grand Tours this year and had to recover from some nasty injuries after his fall in the Giro. Actually, I can't see any of the riders who finished the TdF being serious contenders, which probably rules out Pinot as well.

Such a pity that Contador will only be racing for stages, not having the fitness base to be a real contender, having broken his leg in the TdF. It would have been great to see a genuine battle between him, Froome & Quintana.

At the end of the day, this is likely to be the best GT of the year, having the hottest field of any of the GTs. Nibali is probably the only top rider missing - and his absence is more than excused, given his success in the TdF.
Also very short though, so significant time won't be gained/lost
 
I don't buy the just going for stage wins statement, That's not his style. There was reports he was on his bike long before we were told, I hope so anyway!
Where's the Horner option!! his Vuelta win last year was no fluke, the climbing figures were the most impressive of any of the grand tours, If he's "prepared" the same way this year It'll be fun to watch.
I had a look at that Lampre team and its actually really hard to pick the "leader", hence why I didn't have any Lampre options in the poll.
 

Fitzey

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Hey guys, I don't really know much about cycling but want to get into watching it. anyway, I'm doing the fantasy for the first time (have done it before but with ultimate dream teams) and I want feedback on my team.

Feel free to dig it apart but please point me in the right direction of who I should be looking at.

image.jpg
 

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Hellgood

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Hellgood

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I really have no idea, seems very strange. Disappointing for fans though.

Yeah, though I suspect he may have struggled a bit in the Vuelta given his form this year has been down due to illness.

Here's the startlist and times for tonight (unfortunately Spanish time, but assume add on 7hrs for WA and 9hrs for eastern staters). Probably too late for me to stick around for unfortunately.

19:04 MTN-Qhubeka
19:08 Cofidis
19:12 Team Europar
19:16 Team Giant-Shimano
19:20 AG2R La Mondiale
19:24 Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
19:28 IAM Cycling
19:32 Orica-GreenEdge
19:36 Cannondale Pro Cycling
19:40 FDJ.fr
19:44 Lampre-Merida
19:48 BMC Racing Team
19:52 Trek Factory Racing
19:56 Belkin Pro Cycling Team
20:00 Garmin-Sharp
20:04 Lotto-Belisol
20:08 Astana Pro Team
20:12 Team Katusha
20:16 Team Sky
20:20 Omega Pharma-Quick Step
20:24 Tinkoff-Saxo
20:28 Movistar Team
 

alfy!

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Yeah, though I suspect he may have struggled a bit in the Vuelta given his form this year has been down due to illness.

He mentioned he was in better form currently than last season, but that could have been the usual pre-GT banter.

TTT is too late for me tonight, will watch a full replay tomorrow morning.

Hoping OGE can take out the win!
 

alfy!

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A bit of a predictable and disappointingly boring stage last night, with the fastest sprinter winning a straight forward sprint.

Really Bouhanni should have no troubles for multiple victories if he's in place for a sprint on the flat stages.
 

Hellgood

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A bit of a predictable and disappointingly boring stage last night, with the fastest sprinter winning a straight forward sprint.

Really Bouhanni should have no troubles for multiple victories if he's in place for a sprint on the flat stages.

I think the organisers initial intentions were to have the wind play havoc on the peloton in the run in to the finishing town. Commentators were saying there was stuff all though so it didn't go to plan apparently. Tonight's stage starts off an aircraft carrier.

Bouhanni out to prove a point to his soon to be former team after missing out on the TDF, do you think he could touch Kittel in a sprint at the moment? Has definitely been in winning form all year, but people point to the fact the competition generally hasn't been as strong in the races he's been dominating.
 
I think the organisers initial intentions were to have the wind play havoc on the peloton in the run in to the finishing town. Commentators were saying there was stuff all though so it didn't go to plan apparently. Tonight's stage starts off an aircraft carrier.

Bouhanni out to prove a point to his soon to be former team after missing out on the TDF, do you think he could touch Kittel in a sprint at the moment? Has definitely been in winning form all year, but people point to the fact the competition generally hasn't been as strong in the races he's been dominating.
I'd say Kittel would win, but only on the strength of their respective teams. Giant Shimano have a much better ability of getting their man into the right spot as opposed to FdJ.
 

chargers 09

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Missed most of the TDF as I was overseas, really looking forwards to watching some of the Vuelta, I'll be staying up tonight to watch.
 
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