Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Just flicked over from the Grand Prix to the Tour of Britain to see the peloton rolling up a climb in the big ring and most of the images coming from the helicopter. Double tick there.

Personally I've found Froome's style of racing more enjoyable this year but as an individual he leaves me cold.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Gone absolutely coconuts at the Vuelta by the way, Contador attacked right at the start and is away in a group with Quintana. Froome is about 2:30 back and most of his team even further behind.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Just turned on and with less than 30km to go it's going to be a great end to the stage. Can Froome and Chavas salvage anything from today?

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Gap's still about 2:30, if they can maintain that to the finish then Quintana has a margin that is defendable in the time trial.

Griepel's won the first Tour of Britain stage, took a comfortable win from Caleb Ewan. There was a crash on the last corner which took out Cav, Groenewegen and Viviani - the latter saw his frame smashed by the impact. Lots of splits in the peloton coming down the straight but imagine everyone will get the same time.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

+3:37 on GC. Quintana the favourite now.

Good to see a Greipel winning face again in the ToB.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Not content with foisting Glenn Hoddle on us for two hours earlier, we got to see the final climb twice in tonight's Tour of Britain highlights. ITV eh? God love them.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Big break of 15 riders has gone clear at the start of the ToB stage, most of the main teams represented apart from Movistar. I hope they're not going to build an enormous advantage and kill the race at this early stage - they're already 5 minutes up.

[Etienne]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Can I get a rough estimate of when the Bath stage might finish? With a one year old we can't hang around too much. I know Le Tour finishes are about 4-5pm, is that right for ToB?

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Quite a wide spread for the scheduled finish in Bath, fastest schedule 1504, average 1531, slowest 1558. FWIW yesterday they finished almost bang on the organisers average schedule.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

longeared wrote: Big break of 15 riders has gone clear at the start of the ToB stage, most of the main teams represented apart from Movistar. I hope they're not going to build an enormous advantage and kill the race at this early stage - they're already 5 minutes up.

Gap coming down now.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Listening to Hugh Porter and Brian Smith makes me want to tear my ears off, but the former has just compounded their banality by saying the Cumberland Pencil Museum is in Cockermouth.

(It's actually in Keswick, though currently closed according to their website)

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

"Have you ever raced up this climb Brian? I've rode it but not raced it"
"No I've not raced it Hugh"

[Etienne]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

thanks longeared.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Yeah, thanks, longearead. Saved me a wasted journey to the pencil museum there.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

"The Struggle" really living up to its name. Rohan Dennis with a great attack.

[Mumpo]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Are the going up The Struggle? Cool. I've descended it, after taking the slightly easier ascent up the Kirkstone Pass (missus)

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

There's a second group escaped which includes Tom Dumoulin, the other teams shouldn't really be working with him given that he can climb and time trial.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

More riders join at the front; this should stick now.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

And then Cummings and Vermote attack off the front, breaking that group apart again. Well, maybe this one will stick!

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Cummings is the strongest rider here, he just needs to work with Vermote and then go deep on the final climb. They used this finish in 2013 and it created some modest time gaps.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

They're going well; chase group not showing the required urgency and the gap is growing.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Vermote takes it, Cummings simply didn't have the legs on the final ascent. Dan Martin about to take 3rd at a minute or so.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Vermote's second ToB stage win, after Brighton 2014. Very good stage, that.

[longeared]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

Agree, that was a good stage. Peloton at about 4 minutes so the eventual winner will likely come from today's escapees. Tom Dumoulin, then.

[Kevin S]

Vuelta a Espaņa & Tour of Britain 2016

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=149941

TdF 2015, time trial not far off the length of this one. Cummings is very good on shorter ITTs and might just have enough time in hand.

Dennis too, of course.