I don’t really believe dirty bertie ever broke his leg. He lost loads of time on the cobbles, tried dropping Nibali in the vosges and got nowhere so looked like he was going to cry and then fell off a few stages later.
Personally I reckon he bottled it and wanted an excuse to bin it.
Interesting. He did say earlier that he’d only race the Vuelta if he thought he had a chance of winning. I’m a little surprised he’d do the vuelta if he’s not going to be competitive, better to rest and go into off season training fresh and injury free. Maybe he wants a crack at the worlds and thinks it’s good prep.
Should make for a better race though if Bertie’s there.
ah… the dopers tour. Interesting for the improbable feats of human endurance but I struggle to be too interested because of how improbable the improbable feats are. That said, Froome vs. Quintana will be a good battle
Yeah it should be interesting to see how Bertie goes….If he is capable of even finishing in the bunch on the tougher stages then I’ll be questioning whether his injuries from the Tour were as bad as reported.
It’s always a bit of a nuts race the Vuelta….not least because there’s usually a few obviously doped up riders around the business end of the race. JJ Cobo never really did much after beating Froome and Wiggo a few years back did he!
Just seen that Dan Craven is riding after having signed for Europcar. Hard to see him finishing the race imo.
It’s always been thought of that way because after they changed the event from Spring to Autumn all the riders have been hacking away doing events all year and may/may not need a “pick me up”.
I didn’t follow last years race, not a huge fan of the winner either but that’s another of my opinions.
The Vuelta is great fun. Riders with points to prove, with grudges to act on and with contracts to win. You get odd results and odd/stupid riding. I like it a lot.
Quintana for the win I reckon, not sure Froome or Bertie are fit yet.
My guess as to why there is more doping is that it’s usually the Spanish riders that are doping. Mosquera for instance was popped a few years back after finishing runner up…..he was a Spanish rider that rarely raced outside of Spain….given the way that the Spanish doping officials handled Bertie and Valverde etc it’s not unreasonable to suggest that they aren’t really that up for prosecuting their own riders!
I broke my tibial plateau (albeit apparently worse than AC’s as mine needed pinning back on, his was a partial fracture?). My opinion is I’m going to spend 3 weeks wincing whenever I see him riding. My toes are curling now just thinking about it.
Did you see Cancellara’s salt-encrusted jersey (and his tweet to the UCI that safety considerations should include hot weather)?
Agree – the heat makes it so much tougher than usual.
I am on Majorca at moment. Even at 6pm when i ride its 32degrees.
Huge respect to the Vuelta guys for riding hard in this heat .. I certainly can’t.
Good showing from Dan, shame he was pipped but looks like his fitness is good. ( big fan of Dan ) but did you see Bertie on the last climb, that last lump before the flat drag in ? Well he was in 3rd place for almost the entire climb, ok it may have not been a steep one, nor long, but he was there, right there.
Still can’t warm to the Orica Team, don’t know quite what it is about them but I really don’t like em’ much 😕
Anyone else watching BES getting a bit fed up with more commentary on the failings of motorbikes, spectators, commissaires etc than the race. It’s like having it commentated by my dad…
Awesome.
Froome sticking to plan and it working for once.
Valverde biting off more than he can chew. Ha!
Contador magestic as usual but showing some cracks.
Best Grand Tour of the year so far?
And great win for Hesjedal. Always liked his style.
it’s always the best one – recent years mostly because of the lingering smell of burnt EPO and the wild-west way they carried on, but this year is all the better for the TdF’s losses