UKH

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 – Sun, 11 Sept 2022

Highlights on Quest (Freeview).

Can I put an outside bet on Carlos Rodriguez to win please.

Should be a great race though. 

Have ITV4 got coverage this year ?

It looks like that's a no. They lost the rights apparently.

No preview from The Cycling Podcast ? or have I just been blocked ..... again

"Nairo Quintana (Arkéa–Samsic) has announced he won't start the Vuelta a España tomorrow, instead opting to focus on defending himself at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The UCI retroactively disqualified him from the Tour de France yesterday (Wednesday), after cycling's governing body announced two dried blood samples provided by the Colombian on July 8 and 13 revealed the presence of banned painkiller tramadol."

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/nairo-quintana-withdraws-from-vuelta-a-e...

Aargh. Just started watching highlights. Yet again hate the Quest commentary - just shows up how professional Ned and David are on C4. Especially Sean - how does this guy ever get the job? Terrible. 

Agree, Ned and David are very good.

Exciting racing so far. 

Well it was looking like every Jumbo Visma team member would end up with a souvenir red jersey.

I guess it will be Roglic only from now on unless he crashes.

Quite large time gaps already compared to the Tour this year?

I will not hear a word against King Kelly. Not a word.  

Yes well ...

Or occasionally well yes

That would be an ecumenical matter...

That was wild and wet today! 

Didn't even see Vine cross the line, I think he was lost in the rain. He rode away from GC group on a cat 1 climb!!!!

Somebody went down and stayed down   hope everyone is ok.

I only caught the last 35k.

Gutted for Padun, but Vine is really classy - lord knows what sort of numbers he’s putting out (well you can guess from seeing the other Zwift guys he beats put out 6w/kg).

Remco looks like he’s managed to finally grasp the talent he has (and understand his weaknesses) and put together something special. I’m hoping he has a good race.

Wednesday was good. Very hot to start. We rode up to watch. 

If you look carefully on the highlights you can see me waving a Yorkshire flag at the top of the alto del vivero, much to Ma and Pa Yates chagrin, as they were on the kom line with their Lancashire flag 

The crowd went really crazy every time a basque rider went past, and the fella who did a wheelie over the top each time got a good cheer.

GTE

Yes, Remco was looking very impressive.

https://www.lavuelta.es/en/rankings/stage-6

Interesting looking GC standings, lots of unexpected (for me) time gaps and unexpected (for me) names.

The Vuelta always seems far less predictable than the Tour - breakaways and mountain attacks don't get controlled in the same way.

Very dominant from remco today.

My outside bet on Carlos Rodriguez is looking pretty decent as he’s solidly in 4th for now.

Evenepoel - that was a hell of a timetrial result.

For anybody missing commentary by David Millar, Pete Kennaugh and Ned Boulting they have a good podcast called "NEVER STRAYS FAR".

Incredible TT ride from Remco. What I noticed is that is very muscular compared to most other riders. Upper body and legs. He is only 171cm tall so he's pretty stocky for a cyclist. Fascinated to see how he performs later in the race on more of the high stuff as he gets out of his comfort zone

WVA will be watching with interest. Can't wait to see those two up against each other in a GT and in the Worlds

Enjoying this on catchup, whenever you think you know the shape of a Grand Tour, something always changes. Coverage is settling into a familiar pattern of intro, interviews, preview, few mins early, then the last 30k. Followed by outfit of the day from the studio anchors

Not sure whether there is any unpaved stuff, but Bernal certainly took him apart on that at altitude in the Giro a while ago.

21 riders out with COVID including Yates and Bennett.

9 riders out for other reasons plus Alaphillipe out with a crash.

A lot of teams heavily depleted.

Roglic took back a minute on the final climb today… and a super category climb to finish tomorrow- 20km at 8%, up to 2500m- things are getting interesting! 

A great stage for Carapaz and Roglic. Possibly also a sufficiently good stage for Evenepoel. Brilliant to watch and from what you say, tomorrow looks tasty...

Another dramatic stage, I didn't think Roglic was going to drop Evenepoel.

There's still a few mountain stages left for Roglic to chip away at Evenepoel's lead.

https://www.lavuelta.es/en/overall-route 

Bloody hell. Roglic looked shocked.

Just watched the highlights - I’d heard Rog crashed and I was just baffled how he did it until I saw it.

He must be trying to keep a podium with that much skin lost now, not go for red.

It went from a great stage to terrible (grand tour?) in an instant for Roglic.

My brother reckons Evenepoel faked the mechanical to get the same time as Enrique Mas as Evenepoel had been dropped by Roglic. Don't think I believe that.

It does raise the question as to why a mechanical is covered by the 3km rule anyway if the team cars are still there. 

It’s intended as a safety rule (from 2011/12).

It stops the GC teams causing havoc in the sprints as they try to keep their leader out of trouble.

And if remco had punctured without the 3km rule what are the odds he would have rode on on a bike that was difficult to control at full throttle to try to conserve time.

Rog is a non-starter this morning.

Bummer.

The 3km rule for crashes, for sure, great idea, but an individual mechanical ?

Bugger! These guys usually bounce up after what would be an almost catastrophic crash for normal people so the shocked look he had yesterday did not bode well. I think he knew it was over.

I was really cheering on Roglic in those last few km, it was a great attack to chip away at the GC.

He was making a real go of it, wasn't he ? I can't see anyone else now putting Remco under enough pressure.

Yes. Gutted. any news on what caused the crash? Daniel Friebe on The Cycling Podcast had a theory that his wheel may have slipped on a big chunk of plasticine that was on the road. Has anyone else been suggesting that? Seems hard to account for otherwise- and would fit the increasing bizarreness of Roglic’s accidents, after the French hay bale….

And any thoughts on Remco’s puncture? Didn’t look obviously flat in the video, but obviously hard to tell. How much time was he looking at losing at that point if he had missed Roglic’s move?

All in all- how deflating. Was shaping up for a dramatic finale, with Roglic looking stronger and stronger. Can Mas put similar pressure on  Remco? 

I don't see Maas either having the fire power nor the aura to put Evanepoel under significant pressure. 

Poor Primoz. I think it's done now!

In a falling off competition between Roglic and Thomas,  it would be a pretty well matched tussle. 

That all looks like it smarts. They all be off on stretchers on that other game, and the DS's and swannies would be fighting each other.

Got to feel sorry for Jay Vine - he'd done all he needed to do, just get home in reasonable shape and he'd have a nice jersey to take home.  

What's going on with the highlights show on Quest? Its been a shambles the last couple of nights.

Same for me, a mess.

I’ve watching the live feeds so haven’t been seeing the highlights, what’s wrong with it?

Heavily truncated.

Glad it's not just me, I thought I was going mad, looks like you only get the last 22 mins of the most recent stage weirdly?

https://www.teamjumbovisma.com/longread/news/one-crash-too-many-for-primoz-...
 

“My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable. Not everyone saw it correctly. The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider's behaviour. I don't have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it."

Uncharacteristically strong words from Roglic. Bahrain Victorious have defended Fred Wright, as would be expected, and Wright has issued a diplomatically worded response. Is there anything in what Roglic says? Or would Team JV have been better not to put a microphone in front of Roglic when he’s clearly having a rough time? 
 

The loss of Roglic as he was lighting up the GC was a real loss. No idea what caused the crash.

Just watched final stage highlights. Bloody brilliant circuit.

Yes. Would be great to see him and Evanopoel facing off again at the Giro next year, perhaps with Thomas or Bernal in the mix too (assuming the Tour will be Pogacar v Vingegaard pt II…)