Vuelta 2011

[Rockstar Inc]

Full route to be revealed on January 12

The 2011 Vuelta a España is set to begin with a team time trial in Benidorm. The announcement was made on Monday by Gema Amor, the director general of the Costa Blanca Tourism Board.

more: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2011-vu ... time-trial

[Rockstar Inc]

Vuelta a Espana 2011 route unveiled in Benidorm


http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vuelta- ... n-benidorm

the 66th edition of the Vuelta avoids the Catalunya region and the Pyrenees but includes six mountain finishes, two of which have never been climbed before. These are to Estacion de Montaña Manzaneda in Galicia on stage 11 and La Farrapona in the Asturias region on stage 14.

[iBanesto]

No comments here?

Parcours is imho ok, not great, not bad.

Positive:
- Early mountains, Sierra Nevada + Jaen
- Basque country. Beautiful.
- TT before the last mountains. Always like it better that way.
- Ponferrada. Untypical Vuelta stage, typical TdF stage (2011: Lourdes, St-Flour). Big mountains in the center, we'll see what happens.

Negative:
- Basque country. The stages (plus Noja) are difficult, but could end up without any GC shift or excitement.
- Lack of "real" mountain stages. By that I mean: several climbs, no big flat stretches between them. Lagos de Somiedo is the only one of these and it's placed the day before the Angliru, dumb.
- UCI calendar. One less week between Tour and Vuelta this year. Tour-Vuelta double more difficult, stages in the south even hotter,...

Generally the parcours favors climbers, so I hope many good climbers consider the Giro-Vuelta double this year like Sastre, Rodriguez, Ricco,...

[auxilium torino]

this are the teams:

Omega Pharma-Lotto (Bel)
Quickstep Cycling Team (Bel)
Saxo Bank Sungard (Den)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa)
Movistar Team (Spa)
Ag2R La Mondiale (Fra)
Sky Procycling (Gbr)
Lampre - ISD (Ita)
Liquigas-Cannondale (Ita)
Pro Team Astana (Kaz)
Team Leopard - Trek (Lux)
Rabobank Cycling Team (Ned)
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned)
Katusha Team (Rus)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
HTC-Highroad (USA)
Team Garmin-Cervelo (USA)
Team Radioshack (USA)

Geox-TMC
Skil-Shimano
Andalucia Caja Granada
Cofidis

reserve:Caja Rural

[Pirkio]

no androni?

[iBanesto]

Omega Pharma-Lotto (Bel) Bakelandts!
Quickstep Cycling Team (Bel) Dunno...
Saxo Bank Sungard (Den) Contador³ or the Anker
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa) Anton!
Movistar Team (Spa) Lots of people...
Ag2R La Mondiale (Fra) Gadret!
Sky Procycling (Gbr) Dunno...
Lampre - ISD (Ita) Cunego!
Liquigas-Cannondale (Ita) Nibali!
Pro Team Astana (Kaz) Kreuziger!
Team Leopard - Trek (Lux) It's not the Tour so who cares...
Rabobank Cycling Team (Ned) LLS!
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned) Mosquera
Katusha Team (Rus) Rodriguez!
BMC Racing Team (USA) Evans!
HTC-Highroad (USA) Siutsou!
Team Garmin-Cervelo (USA) Lots of people...
Team Radioshack (USA) Lots of people...

Geox-TMC Menchov!
Skil-Shimano Geniez!
Andalucia Caja Granada Seriously?
Cofidis Moncoutie!

reserve:Caja Rural

[auxilium torino]

Omega Pharma-Lotto (Bel) Bakelandts!
Quickstep Cycling Team (Bel) Dunno...
Saxo Bank Sungard (Den) Contador³ or the Anker
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa) Anton!
Movistar Team (Spa) Lots of people...
Ag2R La Mondiale (Fra) Gadret!
Sky Procycling (Gbr) Dunno...
Lampre - ISD (Ita) Cunego!
Liquigas-Cannondale (Ita) Nibali!No, Basso
Pro Team Astana (Kaz) Kreuziger!
Team Leopard - Trek (Lux) It's not the Tour so who cares...
Rabobank Cycling Team (Ned) LLS!
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned) Mosquera
Katusha Team (Rus) Rodriguez!
BMC Racing Team (USA) Evans!
HTC-Highroad (USA) Siutsou!
Team Garmin-Cervelo (USA) Lots of people...
Team Radioshack (USA) Lots of people...

Geox-TMC Menchov!
Skil-Shimano Geniez!
Andalucia Caja Granada Seriously?
Cofidis Moncoutie!

reserve:Caja Rural

[Luna]

Omega Pharma-Lotto (Bel) Bakelandts!
Quickstep Cycling Team (Bel) Dunno...
Saxo Bank Sungard (Den) Contador³ or the Anker
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa) Anton!
Movistar Team (Spa) Lots of people... Plaza!
Ag2R La Mondiale (Fra) Gadret!
Sky Procycling (Gbr) Dunno...
Lampre - ISD (Ita) Cunego!
Liquigas-Cannondale (Ita) Nibali!No, Basso
Pro Team Astana (Kaz) Kreuziger!
Team Leopard - Trek (Lux) It's not the Tour so who cares...
Rabobank Cycling Team (Ned) LLS!
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned) Mosquera
Katusha Team (Rus) Rodriguez!
BMC Racing Team (USA) Evans!
HTC-Highroad (USA) Siutsou!
Team Garmin-Cervelo (USA) Lots of people...
Team Radioshack (USA) Lots of people...

Geox-TMC Menchov!
Skil-Shimano Geniez!
Andalucia Caja Granada Seriously?
Cofidis Moncoutie!

reserve:Caja Rural

[auxilium torino]

i don't believe that Basso ride the Vuelta, but Nibali this year is a Zombie

[Pirkio]

maybe basso and nibali togeder.. for true.. liquigas can't win tour.. liquigas have to win 1 of 3 big races so let's go for the vuelta

[NoPikouze]

48. DAN Chris Anker SORENSEN Saxo Bank-Sungard + 3'06"
53. NED Steven KRUIJSWIJK Rabobank m.t.
57. COL Fabio Andres DUARTE AREVALO Geox - TMC m.t.
87. SUE Thomas LÖVKVIST Sky Pro Cycling m.t.
90. KAZ Andrey KASHECHKIN Pro Team Astana m.t.
91. CRO Robert KISERLOVSKI Pro Team Astana m.t.
97. RUS Denis MENCHOV Geox - TMC m.t.
98. RUS Vladimir KARPETS Katusha Team m.t.
118. SVK Peter SAGAN Liquigas - Cannondale + 7'28"
158. ALL Andreas KLODEN Team RadioShack + 12'19"
164. ITA Matteo CARRARA Vacansoleil - DCM m.t.
177. ALL Tony MARTIN HTC-Highroad + 12'50"
197. FRA Alexandre GENIEZ Skil - Shimano + 23'16"

Ouch.

[Rockstar Inc]

Wiggo!!!!

[NoPikouze]

Bauke!!

[Team Lidwinia]

Wout!!

[Radunion]

Seems as Sky was riding for the wrong rider the last few days. I was critical about the profile with no "major challenge" in the 3. week. But now we can expect some interesting racing.

[Team Lidwinia]

I'm not sure if they wil stop riding for wiggins, even now. problem is that they will have to decide who's king now. I don't think they're unhappy to have a rest day now. Time to think... By the way, apart from Wiggins and Froome, Sky disappoint me. Where are Lövkvist, Cioni and Zandio all the time?

[NoPikouze]

When there is no TT left, and your mountain helper who is stronger than your leader has the same ranking as him, yes it's a bit silly to kill the mountain rider for the TT guy...
Anyway, Mollema

This vuelta is a "bit" suspicious though...

[iBanesto]

Quote of the day from good old Koos Moerenhout:

Man met balonkuiten wint op de Angliru.

Fat legged man wins on the Angliru. So much for your "suspicious".

[Radunion]

After checking the remaining stages I reconsider my previous post. There is a neat little mountain top finish on Wednesday. The hill is less then 600 m, but 545 m ascend on 6.1 km with a short flat section in the middle. Cobo should be stronger there again, but certainly a chance for the 2 Brits - and 20 sec for the stage winner.

And Mollema is still forth. Cannot remember a Dutch rider in the top 5 of a grand tour. Good to see some Dutch climbers again.

[iBanesto]

Pena Cabarga. Already done in the Vuelta last year, check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayWeiX2lkA4

And the Dutch still have Gesink.

[Rockstar Inc]

the next echolon will come....at least i'll pray for it

[iBanesto]

Dear Franco, better not check the weather forecast for northern Spain...

[Rockstar Inc]

grrr stop being realistic...don't destroy my faith in Mr. Froometastic

[Radunion]

In yesterdays stage Matteo Montaguti was not very popular in the front group as he was not contributing to the group and just sprinting for the mountain points. This sounds somehow familiar to me.

[Rockstar Inc]

it wasn't just Montaguti who was sucking wheels ask about sijmens or especially the stage winner...my new hero...my new pippo p.....