La Vuelta 2026 ***Spoilers***

[Dogtrousers]

Anyway, back to the race. Today may look like a hockey stick but the majority of that climb at the end isn't particularly challenging, it's mainly 5% average and I don't think it has any hard steep bits. Of course if they charge up there at a ludicrous speed then it could become challenging.

Mind you, I'd find it challenging.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Because they detest Visma. They've been UAE's GC rivals for 7 years and UAE feel there have been quite a few occassions of underhand tactics from Visma, so wouldn't want them to benefit from the publicity.

Nonsense. It's his actions that mark him out as a decent guy.
He doesn't go around telling people he's nice at all, he doesn't deeds that show him to be that way.

Interested in how you square these two opinions. I mean, I can believe he'd deliberately scupper Wout - widely regarded as one of the nicest blokes in the peloton - with no real benefit to himself, but I wouldn't go round saying what a fantastic guy he was after, and I wouldn't think giving his glasses to Wout's kid after the race was a lovely touch if I thought that.

Imagine if LA had given his glasses to Simeoni's kid after that stage 😱
“First off, I did not chase Simeoni down, I was simply following his wheel. That is the truth of the matter."

 

[mididoctors]

As stated above (and assuming it is true) he has raced less days than Vingegaard this year.
#perceptions

Has he ? That is surprising

 

[mididoctors]

Pog is a ok average person imo ...bit trapped by the bubble of success he's in since age 19 .

Bring associated with a genocidal petro state is his biggest problem but that's grow up around him rather than he chose it after long deliberation

 

[mididoctors]

Young cyclist is not going to turn down a contract ..

 

[misforturob]

Interested in how you square these two opinions. I mean, I can believe he'd deliberately scupper Wout - widely regarded as one of the nicest blokes in the peloton - with no real benefit to himself, but I wouldn't go round saying what a fantastic guy he was after, and I wouldn't think giving his glasses to Wout's kid after the race was a lovely touch if I thought that.

Imagine if LA had given his glasses to Simeoni's kid after that stage 😱
“First off, I did not chase Simeoni down, I was simply following his wheel. That is the truth of the matter."

Amazing number of posts on "why Pog chased down Wout" when no-one on here really knows do they? It's all just supposition

 

[wakemalcolm]

Has he ? That is surprising

51(Vingegaard) plays 39(Pog), so that'll change by the end of the Vuelta. Pog started his season with classics whilst Jonas did a couple of stage races.

 

[mididoctors]

Amazing number of posts on "why Pog chased down Wout" when no-one on here really knows do they? It's all just supposition

I find this visma feud thing unlikely or over played

 

[wakemalcolm]

I find this visma feud thing unlikely or over played

Agree, there's more beef in Paul McCartney's fridge than there is across the entire peloton these days, and that's no bad thing IMHO.

 

[mididoctors]

Anyway, back to the race. Today may look like a hockey stick but the majority of that climb at the end isn't particularly challenging, it's mainly 5% average and I don't think it has any hard steep bits. Of course if they charge up there at a ludicrous speed then it could become challenging.

Mind you, I'd find it challenging.

UAE are going to postal it

 

[Dogtrousers]

Amazing number of posts on "why Pog chased down Wout" when no-one on here really knows do they? It's all just supposition

Isn't that the point?

I wondered what he was doing at the time. It seemed odd to me that the GC leader should be chasing down and neutralising a solo attack on a sprint stage. But I'm clueless and lots of things seem odd to me. But no one has come up with an explanation*, so it's still odd.

* Edit: Obviously lots of people have come up with potential explanations. But no one has come up with an explanation that this is actually normal racing practice and there is nothing to see here.

 

[mididoctors]

Agree, there's more beef in Paul McCartney's fridge than there is across the entire peloton these days, and that's no bad thing IMHO.

I kinda wish the drama stuff was more real sometimes

 

[mididoctors]

Ineos might do well

 

[matticus]

Hayter seems determined to risk undoing his hard work by sitting in his usual spot at the back of the bunch. Why is he so scared to hold a position? It feels like a major flaw in a pro cyclist and weird for someone from a track background

Does his track background include riding with 100 others thru road furniture?

Easy for us to criticise when a rider is less skilled in one area than the others - much harder to fix that. Why not tell Pederson Mads to be better on HC climbs while you're at it?

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Anyway, back to the race. Today may look like a hockey stick but the majority of that climb at the end isn't particularly challenging, it's mainly 5% average and I don't think it has any hard steep bits. Of course if they charge up there at a ludicrous speed then it could become challenging.

Mind you, I'd find it challenging.

It's the Cat 1 in front of it that provides the launch ramp for a rider that likes to go long.... The summit of that is only 17km from the finish, so well within the 80km or so solo range, and there's a section over 7% where he'll be able to drop all the riders that don't think they can beat him and won't risk going into the red (everyone in the peloton). So UAE drill it up the first 15km of it, he goes at about 21km out and everyone waves bye-bye and gets back to the real business of sorting out the bottom two steps of the podium