2023 Vuelta a España

[Vader]

Has Groves got the green jersey sewn up ?

No.

Tonight's stage is rated as "Hilly", which I think means 20 pts for the intermediate sprint, and 30 pts on the line.
Tomorrow's stage is rated as "Flat", which means 20 & 50.

By my maths, that's a total of 120pts on offer. Groves currently leads Evenepoul by 53 pts. Mathematically, Kron (93 pts behind) is still also in the hunt.

You wouldn't expect Remco to take many points tomorrow night, in which case Groves wins... but he could clean house tonight, in which case he'll be only 3 points behind. If that happens, then tomorrow night could be more interesting than we were previously expecting!

Groves' involvement in the crash last night, resulting in him getting 0 pts for the stage finish, has definitely opened things up for Remco - though Remco has made it clear that he is NOT targeting the green jersey. At least he walked away (literally) unscathed.

 

[largebus]

Groves would have to crash out to lose it at this stage, even if Remco said he was actually targeting it.

 

[largebus]

Well that's it for Sepp then. Pretty sorry state that they could gift him the race but it's an indictment on how weak the other teams are.

 

[eth-dog]

Well that's it for Sepp then. Pretty sorry state that they could gift him the race but it's an indictment on how weak the other teams are.

How is it any different to him doing the same domestique duties for them? He was wearing the leaders jersey. He was the team leader. That's it.

 

[eth-dog]

I suspect Almeida might need to go after not helping Ayuso up the Angliru. Incredibly selfish move not to help your team leader after he asks you for help.

 

[Dees]

I see similarities to Vingegaard and Froome. Junior results were terrible, 67th at l'Avenir the year Pogacar won and a whole bunch of good names in the top 10 of that race. He really did nothing of note until 2020/21. Then all of a sudden is unbeatable. As far as Kuss winning here with the other 2 waiting, I see no problem with it. Kuss waited for Roglic in the last week of the Giro, he backed up at the Tour and not as strong but was there when it mattered for Jonas. They both owe him.

I think this is a bit harsh on Vingegaard. He crashed in the month before Avenir so it wasn't reflective of his best. His improvement was also linear each year and coincided with him taking up cycling full-time, and as early as 2019 itzulia was showing he was at a high level:

Rnk	Rider	Team	UCI	Pnt		Time
1	YATES Adam	Mitchelton-Scott	50	50	12″	2:59:46
2	MARTIN Dan	UAE Team Emirates	20	30	11″	0:01
3	FUGLSANG Jakob	Astana Pro Team	8	18	4″	,,
4	IZAGIRRE Ion	Astana Pro Team		13	2″	,,
5	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE Team Emirates		10	3″	0:07
6	MOLLEMA Bauke	Trek - Segafredo		7		1:24
7	LANDA Mikel	Movistar Team		4		,,
8	CARTHY Hugh	EF Education First		3		,,
9	GAUDU David	Groupama - FDJ		2		,,
10	HAMILTON Lucas	Mitchelton-Scott		1		,,
11	MAS Enric	Deceuninck - Quick Step				,,
12	VINGEGAARD Jonas	Team Jumbo-Visma				,

Froome on the other hand randomly went from a nobody to a superstar deep into his fourth year in the pro peloton.