La Vuelta 2025 ***SPOILERS***

[mididoctors]

If they hadn’t ridden, he wouldn’t have won.
So, no, it wasn’t obvious, especially after less than 18kms of the stage.

It was a competitive finish . Some lack of kraft on how to win from a group from the others

 

[DeadCalm]

If they hadn’t ridden, he wouldn’t have won.
So, no, it wasn’t obvious, especially after less than 18kms of the stage.

Given Mads was a unanimous PTP pick, maybe it was obvious before the rollout for the stage.

It seemed inevitable to me as soon as Mads found himself in a break of predominantly climbers, that wasn't being chased down, accompanied by 4 teammates who were, of course, always going to ride for him. That was on the descent of the first climb with less than 18km ridden and which was when I called it.

When I talk about everyone riding to make it just so, I'm talking about Philipsen's ridiculous chasse patate rather than using his team to chase and the way the break allowed themselves to be towed along seemingly oblivious to their inevitable trouncing by Pedersen. Even Vine's attack played nicely into Trek's hands.

The interesting part of the stage would have been seeing just how Trek managed to get themselves into such a dominant position but, sadly, there was no coverage of that.

Fair play to Trek and Mads, though. They absolutely nailed that stage.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Which all adds up to it being an interesting stage, to me at least. In a Hannibal kind of way.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Given Mads was a unanimous PTP pick, maybe it was obvious before the rollout for the stage.

It seemed inevitable to me as soon as Mads found himself in a break of predominantly climbers, that wasn't being chased down, accompanied by 4 teammates who were, of course, always going to ride for him. That was on the descent of the first climb with less than 18km ridden and which was when I called it.

When I talk about everyone riding to make it just so, I'm talking about Philipsen's ridiculous chasse patate rather than using his team to chase and the way the break allowed themselves to be towed along seemingly oblivious to their inevitable trouncing by Pedersen. Even Vine's attack played nicely into Trek's hands.

The interesting part of the stage would have been seeing just how Trek managed to get themselves into such a dominant position but, sadly, there was no coverage of that.

Fair play to Trek and Mads, though. They absolutely nailed that stage.

I think Mads is one of those few special riders that make this sort of thing look easy - MVDP and Pog being the other notable examples.

While the break was dominated by climby types and only featured two categorised climbs, it was far from being a flat stage and there was ample opportunity for an ambush. Then, with a break of nearly 50 riders, nobody but Trek (and a light touch from Movistar) did any work. If a couple more riders had managed to make it away with Vine and Vervaeke then things would have been a lot harder.

From the small group chasing Vine he was made to do most of the work and then had to shut down a couple of attacks (Ineos were abysmal here - Bernal's attack was absolutely useless and poorly timed, so Sheffield got nothing out of it, and Sheffield closed down at attack by Dunbar instead of forcing Mads to do it). A few more wiggles in the road in the last 5km, or a couple more bits of road furniture and it could have been made much harder.

Then, at the end of the stage he had to outsprint Aular, who isn't at all slow. Yes you'd put your money on Mads, but Aular had been hiding in the small group while Mads worked, so it was by no means a definite.

I totally agree that it would have been good to see how Lidl-Trek managed to get so many riders into the break though.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The big question at the end (although it's was a rhetorical question when I watched it as I already knew the result) was "Has Pedersen done too much/ got anything left for the sprint".

 

[No Ta Doctor]

The big question at the end (although it's was a rhetorical question when I watched it as I already knew the result) was "Has Pedersen done too much/ got anything left for the sprint".

One day he'll do all this stuff and we'll find he's burnt all his matches, but yesterday, again, wasn't that day.

The IPT rider did him a bit of a favour at the end there though, was almost a leadout. On Danish TV Mads said he closed him gradually to avoid giving the others a chance to counter, then opened his sprint a bit earlier than he would have liked.

 

[MadMalx]

The big question at the end (although it's was a rhetorical question when I watched it as I already knew the result) was "Has Pedersen done too much/ got anything left for the sprint".

Yes, in the latter stages he had done most (?) of the work in the break and chasing down. Watching without knowing the result, I didn't think it was anything like a cert when he opened up an early sprint.

 

[Dogtrousers]

So, what do we have left?

A couple of medium mountains - a lumpy one with an 8km 5.2% cat2 finish and a more mountainous cat 1 finish at 8.8km 9.7%, a 27km flat ITT, a sprint stage, a HC mountain top finish (Navacerrada) and a procession/sprint.

All the gaps at the top are pretty small, except for the 1' 50" between Almeida and Pidcock.

Pidders is defending only 32" over Hindley and 52" over Gall.

Hard to see where Almeida can find 48" on Jonas.

Træen is holding on to top 10 and has 2' 19" on Jorgensen in 11th and 5min on Tejada in 12th. Vulnerable to his legs falling off on stage 20.

PS: is Pedersen (237pts) safe from Vingegaard (139)? Practically, yes - but I'm not sure of the maths. If Jonas were to pick up 3 mountainous wins and Mads nothing at all I don't know if that would be enough and can't be arsed to work it out.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Vingegaard on the protests:

"People are doing it for a reason. It's terrible what's happening, and I just think that those who are doing it want a voice, so I think maybe it's the media that should give them a voice in some way. Maybe that's why they're doing it here. Of course it's a shame that it has to happen here. I think we all think that. I think maybe they're desperate to find a voice."

 

[Dogtrousers]

It's hard for the athletes to comment on this stuff without sounding like a spoiled brat (leave my bike racing alone, it's important!), hopelessly out of touch (keep sports and politics separate) or getting directly involved the politics.

Jonas has made a decent fist of it above, but I still think he might be better off just reading out prepared statements.

 

[Adam4868]

It's hard for the athletes to comment on this stuff without sounding like a spoiled brat (leave my bike racing alone, it's important!), hopelessly out of touch (keep sports and politics separate) or getting directly involved the politics.

Jonas has made a decent fist of it above, but I still think he might be better off just reading out prepared statements.

Although I'm quite fond of a rider who isn't scared to open his mouth....I can't really be arsed with the pre scripted interviews.

 

[Adam4868]

So, what do we have left?

A couple of medium mountains - a lumpy one with an 8km 5.2% cat2 finish and a more mountainous cat 1 finish at 8.8km 9.7%, a 27km flat ITT, a sprint stage, a HC mountain top finish (Navacerrada) and a procession/sprint.

All the gaps at the top are pretty small, except for the 1' 50" between Almeida and Pidcock.

Pidders is defending only 32" over Hindley and 52" over Gall.

Hard to see where Almeida can find 48" on Jonas.

Træen is holding on to top 10 and has 2' 19" on Jorgensen in 11th and 5min on Tejada in 12th. Vulnerable to his legs falling off on stage 20.

PS: is Pedersen (237pts) safe from Vingegaard (139)? Practically, yes - but I'm not sure of the maths. If Jonas were to pick up 3 mountainous wins and Mads nothing at all I don't know if that would be enough and can't be arsed to work it out.

I'm hoping Almeida can take a bit of time on Vinny in the ITT and it all comes down to Stage 20....Bola del Mundo and a GC showdown, not only for the red but for 3rd place as well.
Not asking for much am I ?

 

[No Ta Doctor]

I'm hoping Almeida can take a bit of time on Vinny in the ITT and it all comes down to Stage 20....Bola del Mundo and a GC showdown, not only for the red but for 3rd place as well.
Not asking for much am I ?

Personally, I'm hoping Jonas obliterates him in the TT (catches him and waves bye-bye as he passes for absolute preference), but that's a very long shot.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

It's hard for the athletes to comment on this stuff without sounding like a spoiled brat (leave my bike racing alone, it's important!), hopelessly out of touch (keep sports and politics separate) or getting directly involved the politics.

Jonas has made a decent fist of it above, but I still think he might be better off just reading out prepared statements.

The problem with the prepared statements is that they say absolutely nothing, which is complicity in itself.

 

[Milzy]

Spoiler alert, they’ve all just had a long massage & oil is every where like a P.Diddy party.