Much like the previous 4 GTs.
La Vuelta 2026 ***Spoilers***
- Thread starter wakemalcolm
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Much like the previous 4 GTs.
M.R.M
Well-Known Member
Judging by PTP a worthy replacement... 😜😂
TomDW
Senior Member
My thoughts too. I guess you just have to focus on the other podium places. It's really tight timing in places 2-10 and could make for interesting battles ahead.
What happened to J.Almeida, is he out of GC completely ?
mididoctors
Veteran
Insane
mididoctors
Veteran
Stage 5 Falset. Costa Daurada > Roquetes. Terres de l'Ebre 173.3 km
Mads not stepping into this race . It's all Brennan
Mads not stepping into this race . It's all Brennan
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
Well no, completely unlike the Tour, where precisely bugger all happened in the podium spots, because Pog was acting as domestique for Del Toro for half the race and kept it all shut down, and before that Vingegaard was towing all the podium hopefuls around because he was the only one trying to chase Pog.
And not like the Tour before that either, which was shaped all the way to the end by the battle between Pog and Vingegaard
And not really like the Giro either, where Vingegaard only took pink after two weeks, and where he still only had a minute and a half on Arensman and two on Gall at the stage before
Nicely avoiding the fact that the favourites won quite easily.
Yes, this Vuelta is an extreme example but those other GTs were never in doubt.
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
My post was about what was going on behind the leader. In this case, actual racing broke out. That's not really been the case in most of the other races you named. That's all. It wasn't a dig at any race leader.
DeadCalm
Well-Known Member
- Location
- The Land of Smiles
I doubt he'll be a serious GC contender. In the U23s he always managed to have at least one bad day. His temperament seems a little bit suspect on properly hard mountain days.
Ah, fine. I am in agreement.
In the last couple of years the real race has been to get on the podium.
misforturob
Senior Member
Cian Uijtdebroeks is out
OP
OP
wakemalcolm
Legendary Member
- Location
- Ratho
You'd have to question if he was ever really in.
You could argue that he's having a worse run than Almeida of late.
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Not really surprising. He was dead last yesterday 26 mins down.
Poor Mr Weetabix, things aren't turning out as hoped
OP
OP
wakemalcolm
Legendary Member
- Location
- Ratho
Not really surprising. He was dead last yesterday 26 mins down.
Poor Mr Weetabix, things aren't turning out as hoped
Weetabix? I thought he was the gluten free version 😉.
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
While it's been the real race it's mostly been just who can hang onto the coattails longest when the UAE or Visma train gets going (sorry that's a pretty bad mixed metaphor I think). That's essentially how G got his podium in '22. He even did a joke attack one stage when the other two were going at each other hammer and tongs, just for the lolz. And if you take the Tour this year, the closest we came to an attack for the podium was when Lipowitz managed to drop teammate Remco on the Tourmalet stage. The final Alpe stage featured a small amount of action, but only once Pog had made sure of Del Toro's podium
Yesterday Decathlon stepped up and decided to race, and aside from Gall foolishly and briefly trying to follow Pog at 50km out they rode it as if Pog didn't exist. It set a tone for the race, and others followed suit. Everyone who had legs gave it a go. I hope that's what we see for the rest of the race.
