Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

[Kevin S]

There was me thinking it was too early to start this thread, but the post-Tour comedown and the announcement this morning of the teams participating in the 2015 Tour of Britain convinced me otherwise.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/tour-of-britain-2015-teams-revealed-184807

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

MTN-Qhubeka are in strong demand now! They have been selected for the Vuelta and the Tour of Britain, as well as the Tour of Utah which starts next week.

No surprise after what was an excellent Tour de France for them, but given that they are a Pro Conti level team, I don't know how well they will divide between those two races. Steve Cummings should be at the head of the ToB charge I expect.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Magnus Backstedt: "Geraint Thomas deserves Vuelta lead role."

[Ray de Galles]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

The Cycling threads have taken Football's end. Come on then!

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Teams for the 2015 Vuelta a Espaņa, 22 Aug - 13 Sep
Ag2r-La Mondiale
Astana
BMC
LottoNL - Jumbo
FDJ
Cannondale - Garmin
Giant-Alpecin
IAM
Team Katusha
Lampre-Merida
Lotto Soudal
Movistar
Etixx-Quick Step
Orica-GreenEDGE
Sky
Tinkoff-Saxo
Trek Factory Racing
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Cofidis
Colombia
Europcar
MTN-Qhubeka

Teams for 2015 Tour of Britain, 6 - 13 September
BMC Racing
Etixx Quick-Step
IAM
Lotto Soudal
Movistar
Cannondale – Garmin
LottoNL - Jumbo
Sky
Tinkoff – Saxo
Cult Energy Pro Cycling
MTN Qhubeka
Novo Nordisk
An Post Chain Reaction
JLT Condor
Madison Genesis
NFTO
ONE Pro Cycling
Raleigh GAC
WIGGINS
Great Britain [Development] Cycling Team

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Harry Truscott wrote: The Cycling threads have taken Football's end. Come on then!

Bugger. Admins please!

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Both races have new mascots for 2015. The Tour of Britain has ToBi:


The Vuelta has introduced Tei Tei for its 80th edition:

[hobbes]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Both races have new mascots for 2015. The Tour of Britain has ToBi

Hmm, I'm not sure I approve. What do you lot think? ToBi, or not ToBi? That is the question.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

I can't help thinking they've based him on Peter Kennaugh:


There's a good snappy stage-by-stage analysis of the Vuelta route on Podium Café. Though I'm not sure the author has read some of the vertical gains very accurately, tbh. What do we think? My first impression is that it is fairly Valverde-friendly.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Unless he's changed in some way, ToBi (or Toby) Tour isn't new, he's been present on the race for at least five years.

The crowd behind Tei Tei is more than some Vuelta stages will see spread across the entire route.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Ah, so it seems. Looks like he has a slightly different head than before.

The sponsor name is new, though, as it's now the Aviva Tour of Britain. (Last year it was the Friends Life ToB, and they are part of the Aviva group.)

Coupled with the uprating in race class to 2.HC last year, and fact that the two winners of the World Championships later that September (Kwiatkowski the road race, Wiggins the time trial) both rode the ToB rather than the Vuelta, it's another sign that this race is becoming a bigger deal.

However it means that the leader's jersey now resembles a Norwich shirt. (Except it's far more appealing than the horror that Carrow Road has actually unleashed for next season, with no "Aviva box" here.)

Stage seven, Saturday September 12, finishes in Ipswich, so the crowd might turn their backs on the presentation...

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Thanks Admins!

Here's a preview of the Tour of Britain route.

[Toro Toro]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Nice to see the course changing up, even if it keeps them out of the South West and off my commute route...

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

I think that jersey design will be a presentational one, the central Aviva logo will likely be replaced by that of the leader's team.

The different nature of the route brings the race near me for the first time in years, which I'm delighted about.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Toro Toro wrote: Nice to see the course changing up, even if it keeps them out of the South West and off my commute route...

Yeah, good to see them crossing into Scotland for a finish and a start. Hopefully now only a matter of a few editions before we get the Bealach na Ba summit finish it's crying out for.

(I know, accessibility, transitions, etc... but still...)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Stage Two takes them right past the hotel Signora Rogin and I got married in.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

BMC go early on their Vuelta team:

Darwin Atapuma (COL), Marcus Burghardt (GER), Alessandro De Marchi (ITA), Jempy Drucker (LUX), Amaël Moinard (FRA), Joey Rosskopf (USA), Samuel Sánchez (ESP), Tejay van Garderen (USA), Peter Velits (SVK)

Tejay: "After looking at the route and considering what happened at the Tour, all things just seemed to point in the direction that the Vuelta was the path to take," he said. "The more I have thought about it, the more excited I am about doing it. It is a great new challenge.

"This is 100 per cent my decision. It would be nice to go out and try to win the USA Pro Challenge again. But after what happened at the Tour, I need to prove myself on a bigger scale."

Sounds like he and Samu are a sort-of-co-GC-pairing.

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

On 15th October 2012 my game of choice was Bovey Tracey v Welton Rovers in the second qualifying round of the FA Vase.

Plan for the day was train to Totnes, visit to County Cheeses, bus to Buckast for the Abbey, then bus on to Bovey via Ashburton (2 required guide pubs).

First part of the day was successfully achieved, Train, cheese and bus to Buckfast. At Buckfast, interest in the abbey was somewhat overshadowed by the Monastic Produce Shop.


This basically sold home brewed concoctions that would normally only be used to power world record attempts across the Arizona Salt flats. In the end, I went to the lower end of the scale, some 15% fortified wine and bottles of imported Konig Ludwig Weissbier.


With purchases made, I went and got the service bus from the stop in the monastery car park. The car park has a separate exit onto the main road for the buses and this is when the fun started. When we turned onto the main road, we were greeted with this.


The road lined with people on each side and a motorcycle policeman frantically flagging us down. What had happened was that we had inadvertently gate crashed the tour of Briatin. The police had closed off all the turnings onto the main road, but were unaware of this slip road. By now the gate had come across behind the bus, so it couldn’t reverse, so we were sat straddling half the road. At this point also, there was lots of shouting and a couple of cars with bikes on their roofs shot by; the race was just about to descend on us. There was no option but to leave the bus where it was and it became an unexpected chicane to the riders. The bus driver took it all in his stride. He turned off the engine, rolled up a fag, opened up the doors and watched the race sat on the front step having a smoke. Ceasing an opportunity, I joined him, swigging from my recently acquired bottle of Buckie. As you can see, this gave a cracking view.






Not so lucky were the spectators who had been in situ for four hours in their own vantage point, only to have their view completely blocked by a Stagecoach Scania.

Once all the riders had passed, we were allowed to continue, by now 45 mins late and me well into the Buckfast.
I arrived at the ground absolutely hammered, and headed to the seclusion of the far end, where the unexpected luxury of the local petanque club gave me somewhere to violently vomment, and bury the evidence.




That is what the Tour of Britain means to me.

[Toro Toro]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

I think this is my favourite ever OTF post.

[San Bernardhinault]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

I don't know if BB&F knows how much this stuff is appreciated.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Yeah, that's just superb. Seriously, BB&F!, get it all in a book.

For me it's a combination of things. Seeing a top race in this fantastic sport going around towns and places we know. The fact that anyone can go and see it, and the buzz around cycling it now generates. The improvements to the parcours, which now favour all rounders rather than winning it almost through luck/default.

And with the race at 2.HC level now, the coming together of some different cycling worlds - the elite British teams who we've seen in domestic action in the Tour Series and the Road Series etc, top Pro teams who have been competing in the biggest races across the world, and the development team of future talent. It's a brilliant mix.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

I have a vague memory of seeing a bus in the middle of the road on a Devon stage once, I assume that was the same incident BB&F describes.

[Ray de Galles]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

La Lanterne Rouge wrote: I don't know if BB&F knows how much this stuff is appreciated.

We generally try and make sure he does on the "matchgoing" threads in Football so I hope so.

One of the problems is that after reading them you are often slack-jawed and awestruck at their quality. To try and write the next post, even one just praising his, seems like the height of temerity and redundancy.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Not a surprise but good to have it confirmed: Movistar announce that both Quintana and Valverde will start the Vuelta.

The downside of course is not getting to see Nairo at the ToB:

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2015

Perhaps surprisingly, Froome has just confirmed he's riding the Vuelta. So, bar Contador, more or less a rerun of the Tour in prospect then.