Kuss for the overall. All three Grand Tours won by three different riders in the same team? It’s a team sport and a long season. Imagine having two GC current winners riding for you to complete the set. They owe him and they know they owe him. Kuss is a nice guy too.
They owe him and they know they owe him
Agreed. I hope they do let him win. 👍
I have a feeling that they will ride for Kuss. He proved on the Tourmalet that he is strong as a GC leader by marking moves and then making the last decisive attack. If it wasn't for the fan he may have caught Vingegaard.
I think that Jonas attacked yesterday for the stage too, rather than GC gains to get red, remember that Sepp and Promos. Have already won a stage each so this was an ideal opportunity to get one for Jonas.
It's clear that Sepp Kuss is liked in Jumbo Visma and I hope he is repaid for his work. I heard someone on GCN say that for the 7 grand tours that Jumbo Visma have won, only Sepp Kuss has been ever present
My take is that today is kind of a humiliation for Evenepoel - he is so irrelevant that JV just let him ride off.
Irrelevant to the GC yes - wasn't he 27 minutes down?
Same as they let Geraint Thomas ride off once he was out of the GC running.
I thought Remco had pulled out, imagine my surprise when I tune in to find hi 6mins up the road!!!
during the stage yesterday I'd assumed he abandoned, they had a graphic after he was dropped saying Gr. Evenepoel with a timer, then it disappeared, and I wasn't paying much attention, they Quickstep posted on twitter that he'd finished the stage 27 minutes down, again I didn't pay much attention, thought maybe he just did a Cav and finished and was out of the time limit, was shocked to see him start today, and then ride on the front from like 100km out
what was yesterday? mental? physical? it's quite the bounce back, and yes he was allowed in the break because he's now so far back, and he's better than everyone in the break, but he still dropped and put over a minute into Bardet up the last 4km of the Puerto de Belagua
Sean Kelly or Adam Blythe were suggesting that once he'd realised GC was gone yesterday he sat up to save legs for Stage hunting today or in future.
Sounds like quite a call to make whilst out on the road but makes some sort of sense. Did he perhaps expect to be defending red after the TT rather than having to chase a mountain specialist in the mountains?
it's not like there was a final climb implosion though, he was dropped on the Aubisque 100km out
very strange
Fair play to Remco. It takes a lot of strength of character to suffer a setback like he did yesterday then come back out fighting the next day. I've really warmed to him over the course of this race.
Remco's got his demons hasn't he?
I’ve really warmed to him over the course of this race.
+1
Hadn't really seen that much of him TBH (don't tend to watch one day racing much) and had just assumed he was another one of the current crop of amazingly good but 'cold' young riders. He comes across as more 'human' than most of those though.
Might just be a Belgian thing though? He's similar to WVA in that he's capable of stunning things on a bike and clearly has an immense desire to just race and try to win, but at the same time has a relatable fragility and humanity to him too. I don't get that from Vingegaard or Pog for example.
Hopefully JV will let him go again and he'll get another stage or two and the polka dot jersey come next weekend...
Pog has actually been very human, when he does blow up he’s normally the first to seek out the winner and congratulate them.
I’m not Pog’s biggest fan, but he does come across as a nice bloke.
True, but I just can't warm to him in the same way for whatever reason. Maybe my reaction to the apparent 'inevitability' of him destroying everyone else and that (when he doesn't have a rare bad day) it just doesn't look that difficult for him. Remco seems like he's pushing his limits a bit more often?
Funny how we have favourites and the opposite, based on mostly nothing. I e never spoken a single word to any of these people, just seen brief interviews post race as well as a few clips on Netflix, but I have my list of good guys and bad guys 😂
Funny how we have favourites and the opposite, based on mostly nothing
Yeah it's weird, but I just cannot stand Sepp Just and have no idea why, grinning ****. Well I guess it's a Jumbo thing. Quite like Roglic though, cannot stand Vingagoagoago.
I like Remco, he does seem like a straight forward type of person.
I have my list of good guys and bad guys 😂
Me too and it's entirely irrational. Remco was one of my bad guys but now he's swanning about being all relatable and likable so he's ruined that. Maybe he should go back on the list for highlighting the stupidity of my goodie/baddie list.
Anyway, loved today's stage. Love it when someone who isn't the strongest is in a good position to win but they basically have to be a total arsehole to do it.
Love it when someone who isn’t the strongest is in a good position to win but they basically have to be a total arsehole to do it.
Especially when they are in my velogames team. Lantern Rouge are in danger of finishing in the top half at this rate!
Looking forward to Wednesdays stage finish. I can confirm in advance that all the superlatives they will use to describe the climb are true!
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Didn't Hugh Carthy win there? Have they not bothered to update the sign, or is it an old picture?
Was back in 2019 i think. I was certainly fitter then than i am now
Anyone else a bit suspicious of Evenepoals sudden resurgence yesterday?
The last time I saw a rider recover so miraculously it turned out to be due to some foal play.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/25/france.topstories3
I enjoyed Rui Costa's win today. No idea what the other two could do about it. Cheeky bugger.
Didn’t Hugh Carthy win there? Have they not bothered to update the sign, or is it an old picture?
He did. There are names on all 4 sides of that pillar I think. Sadly I don't think Hugh will repeat his feat this year. I'm rooting for Sepp just to underline how good he is when allowed to be.
There has definitely been 1 more Angliru summit finish since I rode it in 2019 as I remember watching it and feeling the pain of every pedal stroke (and also wondering how the hell the logistics of getting all the cars and service stuff up and back down would have worked).
Anyone else a bit suspicious of Evenepoals sudden resurgence yesterday?
He sat up on the off day "12 min might as well be 27" I think was the quote.
Cunning really, he's now free to go stage hunting as not a GC threat and after the KOM jersey.
Think ving the merciless lost a few fans yesterday and Rog gained a few. Queen stage on the Angliru today. #pray4Sepp. Hope he can hold on now the gap is down to only 30 seconds.
Did you not hear the reasoning why ?
The news about Nathan Van Hooydonck clearly hit Vingegaard really hard - he described him as his best friend afterwards. I can only imagine the rush of emotion when they were told he was OK at the bottom of the climb. The team would have reigned him in if it was that much of a risk.
I really do want GC Kuss to win though!
Surely what it means is that if Sepp has a bad day - which has been known - there is another JV waiting in the wings. Sepp didn’t lose any time on his external rivals. Seems like a lot of pearl clutching over a fairly logical strategy?
Anyone like to estimate when they will get to the base of Angliru. Would like to pop in and watch it live.
EDIT: Found it (from 4 oclock onwards it would seem)
https://www.lavuelta.es/en/stage-17
I had heard about NvH. Tragic news. I think everyone wants SK to win. He'a a very popular rider. The Domestique who gets their eventual hard-earned time in the spotlight, without the internal team wrestling, is a rare story indeed.
On the Evenepoel thing, I can't abide him, comes across as a pretty selfish character I think.
Competition wise, he's pretty much got no chance of beating JV with the team he's on and he's not in the same league as the likes of Ving, Pog & Rog in a GT. Classics, World's, minor stage races etc, yeah is on a par, but 21 days is a long time to lay it all down on a TT and then expect to be on top form the next day.
It was a very strange final yesterday. Vingo went but nearly everyone sat up and left him to it. Not sure what that was about. Nvh? Fear of today's stage? Not wanting to play with Jumbo?
Result is with Vingo on 30s you have to fancy him today, sorry Sepp.
Anyway, Evenepoel is in the break
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Jumbo might win the vuelta this year.
Guessing SK will be looking for a new team after today.
Read the room Jumbo! Stop attacking Sepp!
My dislike of Vingagoago grows.
Is the Jumbo team dynamic now the most interesting thing about his vuelta then?
Read the room Jumbo! Stop attacking Sepp!
Post race interviews, he seemed to be pretty accepting if it all saying they'd agreed they can all go for the win. There's no-one else anywhere close!
no gifts in pro cycling (WvA withstanding)
and I doubt Sepp would like the "You only won cos they let you" either.
For sure, but there is a big difference in totally gifting someone a win (as you sometimes see on a stage) and actually attacking a team mate, causing both riders to expend extra energy (or all 3 in this case).
I hope those 2 don’t need quite so much help from Sepp next year in the mountains.
Sepp gained time on all his non-JV rivals. How would things have been better if Jonas and Rogla had waited?
Sean Kelly is absolutely livid.