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Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

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    Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

    Froome -0:47 on Quintana at the first of three splits.

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      Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

      Already passed Chavez

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        Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

        (edit - late on that one!)

        Chaves needs to defend third against Contador. He only has 0:05 on him, but is over a minute down on the ITT so far.

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          Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

          Froome is -1:32 on Quintana at checkpoint number 2, and Contador is up to provisional third on GC with about a minute's lead over Chaves.

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            Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

            Heart in mouth there, I thought Quintana was going to do a carbon copy of his 2014 crash.

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              Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

              Sensational ITT from Froome! Wins the stage comfortably.

              How well can Quintana limit his losses today?

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                Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                Quintana has 1k to go with his time at +1:00.

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                  Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                  +2:16

                  Which means the GC is:

                  Quintana
                  Froome +1:21

                  with this to come tomorrow.

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                    Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                    Finished in 11th on the day which is a damn good tt. Just looks rubbish next to Froome's time

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                      Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                      That's achievable for Froome tomorrow, only he'll have to ride like he does in July, he's not going to get that much time via his usual pacing strategy. On balance you'd favour Nairo, but...

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                        Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                        ad hoc wrote: Finished in 11th on the day which is a damn good tt. Just looks rubbish next to Froome's time
                        Yeah, he's in the same ballpark as König and Contador which ordinarily means a damn good ride in GC terms. Certainly much better than he was 2-3 years ago.

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                          Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                          Bristol timings:

                          http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/news/15008.php#.V9M6DBnTXqA

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                            Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                            Am I missing something or is ITV only starting live coverage at 1400 and missing the time trial?

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                              Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                              Well, fuck you very much ITV. Clearly a Columbo repeat was so important we had to miss Steve Cummings doing the ITT of his life. He finished fourth, and got incredibly close to three of the best time triallists in the world, viz:

                              Stage 7a Time Trial Results:

                              1) Tony Martin (Etixx) 18'06"
                              2) Rohan Dennis (BMC) + 3"
                              3) Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) + 5"
                              4) Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) + 16"
                              5) Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) + 25"

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                                Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                Which means:

                                General Classification after Stage 7a:

                                1) Steve Cummings (Dimension Data)
                                2) Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) +38"
                                3) Rohan Dennis (BMC) +38"
                                4) Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) +1'02"
                                5) Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale) +1'21"

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                                  Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                  So, about 140km to go in the Vuelta, where Froome needs to make up at least 1:21 on Quintana.

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                                    Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                    Very worrying crash in La Vuelta for Jose Rojas of Movistar, he slipped and skidded under a barrier and clipped it on the way through. Apparently he's conscious and talking but he's not moving when we see him on TV. The ambulance took a while to get there as well. Hopefully it's nothing more serious than a broken ankle.

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                                      Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                      Don't know whether it's ITV or the organisers who provide the edit for the evening highlights programme, but it is going to start reflecting badly on the race if there isn't a big improvement next year. Poor production values, poor commentary, fails to tell the story of how the day's stage was won at the expense of showing uncontested sprints.

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                                        Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                        Quintana marked Froome throughout Saturday's Vuelta stage to wrap up the win, he even nabbed a couple of seconds on the line. Deserved victory, he was the best rider in the race. That means he now only needs to win the Tour to become the 7th rider in history to win the Triple Crown of all three Grand Tours. At one point I thought he'd do the Giro next year, but with this possibility of making history he'll go to the Tour, and armed with the knowledge that he's actually beaten Froome in a Grand Tour now. Don't think it'll make a great deal of difference next July mind, he won't have eleven summit finishes and a Sky B team to contend with.

                                        Froome pretty much lost the race when said B team collapsed on stage 15. We don't know how the race would have played out if they hadn't though, as Quintana would have had to attack in the final week. He's still never quite got to grips with this race, that's three second places now and no-one else has ever done that without winning the thing. Expect that'll be it for his season now, can't see any value in him going to the Worlds and there's nothing else for him to reasonably target.

                                        Chaves was excellent again, especially with his daring attack on Saturday. He can't time trial though which is going to be a problem in terms of winning Grand Tours, he's essentially a pure climber. What with him and the Yates twins then Orica are going to have a nice problem trying to work out who is going to lead the team in each Grand Tour, expect they will be poring over the routes when released to try and come up with a workable solution. This might only be a short term problem for them as the team doesn't have a confirmed sponsor after next season.

                                        Contador was his usual aggressive self but it's hard not to suspect that he's just past his best now, he just doesn't seem to quite have the legs at the absolute business end of the big climbs. Fresh environment might reinvigorate him at Trek next year but right now it's hard to see him winning another Grand Tour.

                                        Good to see Andrew Talansky get a result after a quiet couple of years.

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                                          Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                          Yes, I'd agree with all of that. Froome stopped short of saying the team weren't good enough (after 21 days of racing on your behalf, you can't really do that, can you?).

                                          This has definitely been my most successful season to date. I think I can be happy with how things have gone. Of course I can't help but have wanted more out of this Vuelta - but at the same time it's been a great race. As a team we've fought hard.

                                          I think we learnt a lesson on stage 15 and we weren't prepared at the beginning of the stage. Inevitably that cost us the race - but I think we can still be happy with what we've achieved here. Second place overall, winning the team time trial, winning on Pena Cabarga was a special day for me, and also the time trial. So I think all in all I'm certainly going into the off-season looking forward to spending some time with the family, and happy with how things have gone.

                                          The fans are one of the reasons why I love coming to the Vuelta, the people make the race really special. The passion of the fans, and the way they cheer for all the riders, not just the Spanish riders, makes it really special and enjoyable. At the same time it's one of the hardest races on our calendar, but enjoyable at the same time.

                                          I definitely think (the double) is possible. I've finished second here and I won the Tour. So I came close, and I'll have to be back again in the future to try again. Maybe that could be my objective for next year.


                                          It will be interesting to see if Sky play their cards differently next year. Both the Giro and, arguably, the ToB squadra had more of their A team riders in them. The Tour squad was very climber heavy this time, and perhaps that won't be necessary in 2017, which could also free some up for the Vuelta. But managing the ego of riders like König and Landa will be a challenge.

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                                            Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                            The ToB worked well as a race once again this year, which was an improvement on 2015.

                                            Admittedly it was clear that the winner would come from the stage 2 break, but both Haytor and Bristol loomed decisive a few days later so we couldn't call whether it would be Vermote, Cummings, Dennis or Dumoulin for certain even though we knew it would be one of those four and Cummings was probably the favourite.

                                            Those few days in between also saw a ride for the ages from Stannard, with a British 1-2-3 on stage 3 as the peloton couldn't catch the breal.

                                            There was a good quality sprint in Builth Wells where both Vermote and Dumoulin had a go at nabbing some bonification.

                                            And of course the mad finish on stage 5 where the break held off the sprinters on the line.

                                            Then we had the main course, and Haytor did its job wonderfully. Yellow jersey cracked, the two strong contenders Dennis and Dumoulin attacked, and Cummings, who looked to benefit most, rode it strongly and kept close enough to the attackers to make the ITT interesting.

                                            And then the ITT itself wasn't broadcast. Arses.

                                            I'll admit I've not seen the weekend road races yet. Not surprised though to see that Dennis won the Bristol road race; it was basically a criterium and Australians are usually well-versed in that form of racing. A very nice way to nick second but he obviously couldn't gap Cummings by enough, thanks to Cummings' superb time trial.

                                            Apparently the organisers looked at the route in the upcoming World Championships, and the point of the Bristol double day was to try to replicate it, though obviously with fewer laps in each case. That's a canny move, as 2014 suggested that the ToB could even be better preparation for the Worlds than the Vuelta is. The fact that some of the top time triallists (T-Mart, Dennis, Dumo, Phinney) and top sprinters (Cav (natch), Greipel, Viviani ... Ewan and Groenewegen are knocking on that door too) chose to come here for the week speaks volumes I think. The World Tour teams - with the exception of Trek-Segafredo if I'm honest - all sent very strong squads, too, with riders who were generally well-suited to the type of riding on offer.

                                            Also, the whole thing was over 30 hours long. That's about the same as Catalunya, the Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse. It's longer than Paris-Nice, Pais Vasco and Tour de Pologne.

                                            I suspect the World Tour beckons soon. Which will place more importance on the Tour de Yorkshire for the second, third and lower tier British teams: this race is outgrowing them. Though some of them, of course, are growing with it, like ONE.

                                            But there are still lessons to take forward:

                                            • Decisive climbs and time trials are essential. British climbs are very different from those in grand tours, as they are shorter, but often sharper with varying gradient. The Dutch and Belgian riders seem to enjoy this sort of race too. Can we find some more hilltop finishes, other than Haytor?

                                            • Better quality broadcasting would be useful. We need to see the time trial live.

                                            • It is still not clear what the other jerseys in the race are for. I don't see the idea behind having points and sprints, and would suggest just keeping a points one, and introducing either young rider, or highest placed Brit on GC.

                                            • Keep the World Championships in mind - this will keep the best riders interested.

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                                              Vuelta a España & Tour of Britain 2016

                                              Yeah, definitely a better ToB than last year. The Bristol criterium looked to have a good route and they used the same finishing climb as in 2014 when Kwia won there - which worked out alright for him in the end when he was world champion shortly after.

                                              The race is considerably better than it used to be, gets a stronger field and bigger crowds every year. It's just frustrating though as it's a good event that could be really good with a bit more effort and creative thought for all the reasons detailed above.

                                              I don't see it going to World Tour any time soon though and arguably it doesn't need to, it'd become more controlled, I imagine they'd have to take bigger team sizes and there'd be fewer British teams. The Tour de Yorkshire does become a bit of a problem though, that is an event that could go World Tour with ASO involvement. Leaving my own geographic bias aside, ideally you want the national tour to be the country's biggest stage race.

                                              Look closely and you can see some low level sniping between the two races, the only mention of the TdY I saw all week was when Groenewegen won his stage, the interviewer couldn't get past the words "Tour de Yorkshire" quick enough. Then the TdY retaliated the following day by tweeting congratulations to Groenewegen on his victory without acknowledging what he'd won.

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