La Vuelta 2025 ***SPOILERS***

[mididoctors]

According to L'Equipe the Vuelta may end on Saturday in order to avoid pro-palestine protests on Madrid. The organizers are still asking leave the race of their own accord to quell the protests. This is something the team refuses to do

They should take the hint .

 

[mididoctors]

Tear the band aid off . It's going to happen eventually

 

[mididoctors]

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 your right about the coverage ....break formation would have been a great watch as for mads . He kinda won it against the odds .... It was a remarkable team.effort too. The way he won it . it was not obvious how he would achieve it .

 

[mididoctors]

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."

Jonas makes a good point . People are being sidelined and when that happens they will look for other avenues. IPT riding round the block past your front door is low hanging fruit

 

[mididoctors]

IPT riders are bit vulnerable on the TT ...just saying

 

[Dogtrousers]

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

I was thinking more about the riders general wellbeing. The less they say publicly on sensitive issues, the less flack they will get, either online abuse or maybe from the sponsors who they are (or may be thought to be) representing.

After all, they are just bike racers. They live in a weird world where winning bike races is insanely important. It would be very easy for them to get themselves into hot water unwittingly. So best keep schtum.

However I do think Jonas has come up with a nicely balanced statement, so kudos for that.

 

[mjr]

IPT riding round the block past your front door is low hanging fruit

They've washed the bib shorts one time too many, eh?

And was it in whitewash?

 

[No Ta Doctor]

I was thinking more about the riders general wellbeing. The less they say publicly on sensitive issues, the less flack they will get, either online abuse or maybe from the sponsors who they are (or may be thought to be) representing.

After all, they are just bike racers. They live in a weird world where winning bike races is insanely important. It would be very easy for them to get themselves into hot water unwittingly. So best keep schtum.

However I do think Jonas has come up with a nicely balanced statement, so kudos for that.

Oh for sure, open your mouth and you're likely to catch a ton of flack. But at the same time, there's a genocide going on, so maybe it's not going to be all that bad to say something?

 

[M.R.M]

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.

Does the TT have a decent climb with technical descent, because that is the only way I could see Vingegaard taking serious time on Almeida? I'm not even sure if Almeida isn't a better TT rider than Vingegaard. I think Vingegaard's reputation in TT's is overrated due to that utterly incredible ride at the Tour where he destroyed Pogacar and the field. The parcours there was very much perfectly suited to his best abilities and I'm not sure if that wasn't a one off event.

 

[T4tomo]

Does the TT have a decent climb with technical descent, because that is the only way I could see Vingegaard taking serious time on Almeida? I'm not even sure if Almeida isn't a better TT rider than Vingegaard. I think Vingegaard's reputation in TT's is overrated due to that utterly incredible ride at the Tour where he destroyed Pogacar and the field. The parcours there was very much perfectly suited to his best abilities and I'm not sure if that wasn't a one off event.

pretty much pan flat 27km so no big GC shake ups at all.

 

[Adam4868]

Does the TT have a decent climb with technical descent, because that is the only way I could see Vingegaard taking serious time on Almeida? I'm not even sure if Almeida isn't a better TT rider than Vingegaard. I think Vingegaard's reputation in TT's is overrated due to that utterly incredible ride at the Tour where he destroyed Pogacar and the field. The parcours there was very much perfectly suited to his best abilities and I'm not sure if that wasn't a one off event.

I guess a lot depends on what the two stages before the TT are like.... especially Wednesdays stage.Then if Almeida can nick 15/30 seconds seconds on Vinny in the TT he can go to Bola del Mundo with a bit of confidence,yea I know I'm being optimistic !
Or Vinny has a top TT and ends the Vuelta there !
Reckon it's going to be tight for third spot as well between Pidders and Hindley,neither are really great TTers are they....for me I think Hindley will just about nick it in the mountains.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Jonas' last flat ITT in Caen (33km) didn't go so well, when he lost a minute and 3 secs to Pog.

But Almeida was there too. In what was supposedly a terrible day him, Vingegaard only lost 7 sec to Almeida.

Probably not very meaningful but worth thinking about.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Does the TT have a decent climb with technical descent, because that is the only way I could see Vingegaard taking serious time on Almeida? I'm not even sure if Almeida isn't a better TT rider than Vingegaard. I think Vingegaard's reputation in TT's is overrated due to that utterly incredible ride at the Tour where he destroyed Pogacar and the field. The parcours there was very much perfectly suited to his best abilities and I'm not sure if that wasn't a one off event.

Oh, I agree entirely. Jonas's TT reputation is a bit overblown. He's at his best when it's got a big climb ad it's in the third week. Only one of those is true this time, and we're still looking to see how his form goes in his second GT in a row, so the week 3 thing may not hold. That said, he has destroyed Pog twice in 3rd week climby TTs - in '22 he eased off on the final climb to gift the stage to WvA. That was where he nearly took a bit of cliff face like a velodrome banking... Pog obviously returned the favour in both '24 and this year.

I did look up Jonas V Almeida head to head in TTs earlier today, and while I think Jonas has the edge more recently it's not by much

 

[Milzy]

Oh, I agree entirely. Jonas's TT reputation is a bit overblown. He's at his best when it's got a big climb ad it's in the third week. Only one of those is true this time, and we're still looking to see how his form goes in his second GT in a row, so the week 3 thing may not hold. That said, he has destroyed Pog twice in 3rd week climby TTs - in '22 he eased off on the final climb to gift the stage to WvA. That was where he nearly took a bit of cliff face like a velodrome banking... Pog obviously returned the favour in both '24 and this year.

I did look up Jonas V Almeida head to head in TTs earlier today, and while I think Jonas has the edge more recently it's not by much

View attachment 786450

Even with the stats I think Almeida will come slightly ahead in the TT but it’s unlikely to be enough.

 

[mididoctors]

Jonas has a record of doing good pacing with a decent climb in the TT