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Wiggins has just taken the lead from Chris Froome by 7 seconds could be a bit early as the domestiques for Sky dropped off the pace quite soon on the climb
Key question there then is how many of the GC contenders still had team mates when Brad had lost his lot? Having Froome is a pretty useful ally really.
Key question is how many of the GC contenders are waiting to do the damage on L'Angliru, and just decided to do enough today?
Yes, the lack of support could be a problem.
Wiggins had a good day today
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 55.54.45
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0.07
3 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0.36
4 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Geox-TMC 0.55
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek 0.58
6 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Pro Team Astana 1.23
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 1.25
8 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Leopard Trek 1.37
9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 2.16
10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team 2.24
Yup, very good position for Wiggins surely his to lose now.
Unfortunately no live coverage tomorrow, looks like being a good stage too 🙁
Wiggins looked pretty spent after the stage today. I just hope he has the energy to respond to all the attacks tomorrow.
I didn't watch today's so I've no idea what happened, but [i]cruising[/i] up a 20% incline is a bit different from cruising up a 24% incline and having watched Nibali winning on the Bola del Mundo last year, I'd definitely say that he clearly has the ability to pull it out on the big climbs. I'm not sure if I've seen Wiggo do such a climb. Happy to be proved wrong though.
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but niboli got dropped on the 20% climb so doesn't bear much for a steeper climb. Wiggins to lose tomorrow altho team orders on Froome could be interesting as he looked more comfortabler than Wiggins on the climb
Nibali was off the back with Rodriguez, finished around a minute and a half behind Wiggins and Froome.
As you say though, may well be a different picture tomorrow after today's efforts.
Nibali didn't look too clever today - appeared to crack and lost a chunk of time to Wiggins. I guess it could be part of a clever strategy for tomorrow, but it didn't look that way.
Maybe so, but I think he's going for L'Angliru in an all or nothing strategy. As I said I haven't seen anything today. How far off is he on the GC?
About 1:25 I think. I personally think Nibali was keeping something in reserve for tomorrow, but we shall see. As I said, Wiggins did look spent at the end today.
Where are you getting 20% for today's climb from? From what I saw the last climb was 12-13% max
angliru, my fave climb to watch in grand tours 🙂
At 1.25 it's possible that he's gambled and already lost not too sure if it'll be possible to take that away from Wiggo. As I said I'm not sure if I've seen Wiggo do such a climb. An interesting day tomorrow.
Where are you getting 20% for today's climb from?
From me it's just an arbitary figure in that 20% climbs are 10 a penny and not too much of a challenge, 25% however....
Interesting day !
With time bonuses for sprints and finishes, a well motivated and well organised team could still do something for Froome and/or Wiggins; but it looks like a big ask.
It was always going to be a make or break stage.
it was so steep i think 3 motorbike riders came off.
Wiggins blew big time at the end, wish we could of coverage of what happened tho
Watched it live on the ITV site, the cameras showed very little of Wiggins and Froome and concentrated almost solely on Cobo.
Disappointing, time bonuses are rank.
Hats off to Cobo - two stage wins in two days. To win a Grand Tour you must show your rivals who's boss and win the key stages of the race. The fat lady has yet to step up and if Wiggo can step up too he'll be in Red when the race arrives in Madrid.
From me it's just an arbitary figure in that 20% climbs are 10 a penny and not too much of a challenge, 25% however....
I posted a status on my facebook about how steep it looked to which someone replied 23% is nothing.. 45% is where it's at
That is mental!
[url= http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?qryMountainID=3597#profile ]Interesting, but 45%[/url]?
Interesting, but 45%?
Well.. yes exactly what I thought
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Think they have some exaggerated measuring devices 🙂
There's a hill near me that says 13%, I don't know which bit 'cos the bit I [i]tried[/i] to ride definitely wasn't 13%. I imagine 45% is the steepest point possibly going through a curve. Still looks interesting 1.300m over 8kms..... 😀
from wikipedia
After a mile you can admire the historic road sign indicating a height difference of 45% but refers only to stretch inside a tight hairpin that is located along the climb but gives an idea of ??the difficulty of the ascent.
The steepness of the hill was really lost on TV I think.
Unfortunately due to the camera bikes falling over, (combination of trying to ride at ultra slow speed up a 25% incline with zero space through the crowds) we didn't really get to see the critical moments when Bradley went pop.
Considering how much work Froome has done on front protecting Wiggins you have to question if they were backing the wrong horse....
I don't see much chance for the time to be recovered by Sky even though there is still a week to go. Hope I'm wrong.....