Volta a Catalunya [23rd to 29th March] **Spoilers**

[Berk on a Bike]

Live broadcast was SNAFU.

 

[400bhp]

The organisers arent doing too well with this one

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Give British Eurosport their due, they didn't make Carlton Kirby extemporise for an hour nor did they put on that crappy WATTS programme.

 

[jifdave]

Now that is an unusual sight in a major race: a breakaway succeeds and upsets the apple-cart. The stage was won by Paterski of CCC , but of the two others in the breakaway, I would suggest that this now looks very good for Pierre Rolland of Europcar as far as a tilt at the overall goes...

froome said on twitter that they were given time checks of 6 mins when it was actually out at 13 mins.... i know the spanish have been known to get the camera guys to moto pace their riders but for the french?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Rolland limits his losses on a tough stage, but does lose a little bit to most of the other major contenders. Great attack for the win by Pozzovivo.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Tomorrow should be interesting (assuming they can get the string and tin cans working)

 

[jifdave]

froome very much off the boil at the moment.

but then again the lead group may well be a whose who of the giro.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Woo... well, that changes everything. Not Van Garderen's win - which was impressive considering the crash that he had yesterday - but with De Clercq now 20 seconds in the lead overall rather than Rolland (who conceded today, although not as much as Froome who was practically in the autobus) and everyone else - Porte, Contador, Uran poised behind.

 

[Apollonius]

What a great ride for Vasil Kyrienka today. He did it all! Towed the team for much of the day, launched an attack at the right time and still had some left to pace Porte up to and past Contador. Then finished 9th. Froome is obviously not well, but Contador keeps getting beaten on his best turf.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

What a great ride for Vasil Kyrienka today. He did it all! Towed the team for much of the day, launched an attack at the right time and still had some left to pace Porte up to and past Contador. Then finished 9th.

He's a cybernetic organism: living tissue over a metal endoskeleton...

 

[Strathlubnaig]

Are there race radios on this race ?

 

[400bhp]

Porte is looking strong. Perhaps the strongest of any GT riders at the moment, certainly up there with Quintana. I really hope he holds it together for the Giro.

 

[The Couch]

Rolland normally isn't in any form at this moment of the year ...
wouldn't exclude ...that De Clercq might be the hardest to drop far enough (and with Vandenbroeck, De Gendt and Vervaeke he has some men to assist him when he would have to make up some time after a climb)

Rolland not in form ....check
De Clercq the hardest to drop.... check
To be honest, I didn't expect it, since he already lost time in that descent (2 days ago), but yesterday he did deliver
(although with De Gendt and Vervaeke, he has already lost 2 of the 3 "usual suspect"-helpers for in the mountains, so not sure he'll be able to hold it

Still... a little bit of hindsight gloating is always nice for the ego

 

[tug benson]

Valverde now blowing the race up

 

[Flying_Monkey]

And takes it, ahead of Uran Uran...

More importantly, this means Porte is now in the overall lead, but it's a very slender one, with people queued up behind for him to slip up.